Intro
In this article we’ll play a gamble with broken ebay computer hardware and try to repair Gigabyte MC62-G40 CEB workstation motherboard. This motherboard was purchased in “parts for repair” condition with depicted damage near Aspeed BMC controller. Looking at damage I felt confident enough in possibility of repair the SMT IC and restoring connections.
In case of success this will be a base of new workstation build for xDevs computer, using AMD Threadripper Pro CPU. As megapixels and storage requirements grow, it’s time to retire my trusty EVGA X299 DARK build for something newer and more powerful. At the same time idea was not to spend lot of money on this, hence the gamble with $200 faulty motherboard in a first place as a project.
This motherboard packed with I/O and expansion capabilities and officially listed on Gigabyte website.
It’s main feature list :
- WRX80 socket for single AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5000/3000 WX-Series Processors (up to 64 cores)
- 8-Channel UDIMM/RDIMM/LRDIMM DDR4, 8 x DIMMs
- 2 × 10Gb/s LAN ports via Intel® X550-AT2
- 1 × 1Gb/s LAN port via Intel® I210-AT
- BMC with 1 Gb/s dedicated LAN port
- 3 x SlimSAS connectors with PCIe Gen4 ×4 or SATA interface
- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
- 2 x M.2 slots with PCIe Gen4 ×4 or SATA interface
- 1 x M.2 slot for Wi-Fi add-in cards
- 7 x PCIe Gen4 ×16 and x8 expansion slots
Manuals and binaries
I like to achieve the documentation and files for the products I own to avoid loosing important information when the manufacturer “obsolete” their product or “streamline” their website, deleting “old stuff”.
MC62-G40 QVL list, version 1.2
MC62-G40 Datasheet, version 1.1
MC62-G40 server manual for BMC AST2500, version 1.0
MC62-G40 server manual for management console,
MC62-G40 server manual for redfish
Gigabyte MC62-G40 AMI BIOS update SOP
Gigabyte MC62-G40 server BIOS W771-Z00_R12
Gigabyte MC62-G40 system BIOS W771-Z00_R10
Gigabyte MC62-G40 Firmware for BMC, AST2600 v13.06.18
Gigabyte MC62-G40 R06 motherboard BIOS
MC62-G40 Server utility, BMC restore defaults
MC62-G40 Server utility, IPMI tool
MC62-G40 Server utility, GSM Agent
MC62-G40 Server utility, GSM Plug-in
Motherboard as received
Gigabyte MC62-G40 came in blank brown box. No flashy RGB, AI and overclocking features, since typical workstations built with these are all about business and profits, not about being “trendy” or fancy.
Board came with SlimSAS to SATA adapter cables, which was quite welcome surprise. I’m hoping to have lot of disks connected to this board :).
Size of this motherboard conforms to CEB standard which is large, but not too crazy. It would fit into most of workstation or tower cases without much issues. Power supply connections are standard ATX with two additional 8-pin MiniFit Jr. for CPU power. These CPUs take a lot of juice, so two power inputs make sense here.
This board was sent to Gigabyte for repair by previous owner but was rejected and returned as “unrepairable” due to broken pads. Sad for them, but good for me. Hopefully there are no other hidden issues. I’ll inspect whole board for any more physical damage. Rear I/O is a bit scarce on ports but we got all the important bits here such as :
- Analog VGA output for BMC graphics
- Type C USB3 port
- Type A USB3 port
- LAN ports, including twin 10 GbE from Intel X550-AT2.
- Basic stereo audio jacks and mic/line in. I’ll have to use my Creative Soundblaster :)
Big gamble item is CPU socket. If pins are damaged or bent, there would be nothing else we could do in terms of repair as replacing huge 4094-contact sWRX8 socket without extensive experience, parts and tools is out of the question.
Under the sticker I found plastic protective cover carrier, which is great!
Socket itself also has own plastic cover to protect fragile pin array.
Couple pins have slight bend, clearly observable by different light reflection angle/color. This was easy fix with steady hand and fine tweezers under a stereo microscope.
Overall very happy that no mayhem happening in the socket department.
Now we can have more hope that this board is fixable.
Lot of differential trace routing for PCIe Gen4 lanes have backdrills for layer change vias, which is now pretty common for high-speed PCB design. Metal “stubs” cause reflection at multi-GHz transmission lines and reduce signal integrity margins which can be a problem for fast data transfers. Newer faster designs with PCI-Express Gen5 are even harder to do without going to expensive materials and limited lengths.
On this PCB backdrills are implemented from both top and bottom sides. Sadly there are no layer identification markers on PCB, so I don’t know how many layers this 1.6mm board has. From my past experience I’d expect there are at least 10 or 12 signal/power plane layers.
Back of the board is bit busy with components as well, so be careful placing it on hard surfaces. Small SMT parts are easy to crack or damage.
Repair
Socket pins under microscope prior to bending them back into alignment with the others:
Another angle below. This was easy fix with just gentle push towards right direction. Each of these pins soldered to BGA pad on motherboard and tips are bent into gold-plated hooks to slide on CPU pads and make good contact under pressure.
WRX80 socket require specific torque to make sure CPU stays flat in the socket and maintains good contact for each and every pin across very large area. Now to the damaged chip near BMC area:
Bit closer look. Poor chip is a Texas Instruments SN74LVC1G07DCKR logic gate, but it’s still here so I’ll just move it carefully back where it supposed to be.
Another damaged part is 0402 passive part, looks like a resistor. One side of it is cracked off, making no electrical contact to motherboard. Measuring it’s element edge with DMM show 0.3 Ω so perhaps its just 0 Ω jumper? I’ll short these two pads and hope that’s it.
Third damaged area nearby reveals two ripped off passives.
I tried to find any good photos of this area online but best I could get from potato-resolution images online is two probably 0402 resistors that were supposed to be there? Anyhow, here’s the original chip doctored back into place and jumpwired to restore electrical connections:
And shorted resistor pads where 0.3 remnant was, prior to installing two 10 kΩ guesstimate 0402 resistors on missing pads? I saw another “4N3” marked 6-pin SMD IC nearby and it had two 10 kΩ resistors and one 0 Ω connected to it. So I’ll just do similar with 2 × 10 kΩ in damaged area near U277.
I’ll install two 10 kΩ resistors here and let it ready to go:
Standby power checks
Now that physical damages are patched up, I went to connect my EVGA NEX 1500W ATX power supply and see what would happen. Ideally BMC should operate even without the CPU or rest of hardware since it’s running it’s own management microprocessor and dedicated memory chip that we can see near the ASPEED ASIC. After PSU connection Chroma AC source show combined power draw ~16 W and BMC green LED started blinking. Connected RJ45 LAN cable to BMC dedicated port and got activity with good link. Scanning network revealed new machine on 192.168.1.13 address and going there with HTTPS browser revealed working BMC GUI. Great progress, I’d say.
Last time this board was running and powered off in March 2024 and later shutdown in April 2024. That was last time it was operational. This motherboard had 5975WX processor, with eight 32GB UDIMM PC4-3200 sticks, pair of RTX 3090s, pair of M.2 980 Pro SSDs and four of SATA 400GB drives.
First power up attempt
At this point I’ve ordered cheapest available used unlocked AMD Threadripper Pro 3945WX processor from epay for 250 CAD. This CPU is 12-core 280W from year 2020 and natively supported by our Gigabyte motherboard. If system works as intended with this processor, I’ll replace this processor later with something more powerful from newer 5000WX series.
All these processors are yesterday’s technology and long obsolete now, with current Threadripper 9000WX series that AMD released in summer 2025. Highest end model 9995WX packs 96 Zen 5 cores with maximum frequency 5.4 GHz and thermal power budget up to 350 Watt. It’s launch price is eye watering 11700 USD a piece.
Conclusion
Hopes are high.
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Modified: Nov. 17, 2025, 3:34 a.m.