Bad CS MK III?

[Acill]

Could be caps but I doubt it on an A3000. I havent seen one yet that NEEDED new caps, but have done plenty of them because I was asked to do it anyway. My 3000 acted strange too when I had it and used a Mediator with it. I would have to let it warm up the same way.

[Acill]

Matt, I could replace that 030 if you had another and wanted to risk it, but I would see if you can get another CPU card on loan from someone.

You are in the US? I may be willing to send you an 040 card to test and see how things run. I really suspect that BGA soldered POS socket Phase5 came up with for these cards. They are a major failure point. Replacing them is a pain too, but can be done. I did it once, and dont know if I would want to ever again. It takes soldering one pin at a time and building up a new socket row by row.