Yes and No.

The Epia EX board will not fit easily into the casing of the BM5. The original EX has sockets which are not present in the BM5. Like digital audio out.

It will partly work. You will have to flash the B&O Bios in the EX, But you need the B&O servicetool to copy the serialnumber in the BIOS. Otherwise you will not get any updates. The Epia flashtool isn't capable to flash the serialnumber.

The reason I think many B&O boards fail, is that they run the processor on 2.0Ghz, instead of the normal 1,5Ghz. That's causing more heat, and there is't an active cooler on it.

OK, thanks for the info.

Do you know if the B&O board is still available and how much it is?

riverstyx wrote:

I checked the price of the motherboard a few years ago (out of curiosity) and if I recall correctly it was in the region of 400 to 500 GBP.

As Beobuddy mentioned, there are additional sockets on the stock Epia EX board although you should be able to desolder these (or perhaps even snip their legs off) to make the board fit.

As long as the bios chip on the original board is still working you may be able to simply swap it out to the new motherboard and avoid the need for the service tool.

I did remove the bios chip from my BM5 a while ago to take a backup copy of it (using an EPROM programmer) and it is my intention at some stage to have a play with the linux flash tools to see if I could flash a stock EX motherboard accordingly without resorting to removal of the chip, but it's one of those tasks on my todo list that is unlikely to happen until a motherboard failure in my BM5 forces it higher up the list!

Martin.

Martin, you should post the Bios-Copy possibility into our Beosound 5 future proof thread, too. 😁

 

Hi, I order a standard mainboard and changed it. Didn't boot normally at first. Then I made a system recovery and now it is working fine.

BUT, I can not get any software updates (stuck on very old version, like 4. something). I guess it is because the serial has not been updated to the new mainboard.

Is there any way to force the software update?

I moved the bios chip from the original main board to the new non B&O one. It seems to work fine so far. Software updated and B&O logo present when booting.

I have no idea if this will cause any other problems down the road, anyone with experience from similar operations?

Hi,

which board did you get as I have a dead motherboard and this might be a good option to get my BM5 up and running again

Hi,

which board did you get as I have a dead motherboard and this might be a good option to get my BM5 up and running again

Hi,

I bought a EPIA-EX 15000G (like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-EPIA-EX-EX15000G-MINI-ITX-LOT-/231438416575?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35e2cdfabf).

I had to pull of the coaxial S/PDIF connector by cutting of the leads/legs (the board will not fit else).

Next I gently pull up the optical S/PDIF connector and cut of the three pins in the back as high up as possible (a connector from the ML bord should be filter on these three pins).

Then I removed the original board according to the service manual.

After that I moved the Bios chip from the original board to the new one (it can be pulled up with a small screw drive or simliar, two of the corners have space to get in below the chip). 

Finally I moved the memory card from the original main board to the new one and mounted all back.

It have been work fine this evening, time will tell how long t will last.

Thanks,

Just ordered a new board, lets hope it can get my BM5 back to life.

Thanks

Toby