DSO81204B, Has anyone tried upgrading the motherboard? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: sprit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 05:52:07 am
content: Hello everyone, wish you have a nice day.I have an old Agilent DSO81204B, it has been with me for a few years now. It is a scope that I really like, it helps me a lot in researching and learning more about RF. But one fine day it didn't start anymore, after checking some mosfets were dead causing the cpu to be shorted. I I tried replacing all the mosfets and driver ic, checked again but still no luck, sent it to local repair shop but no success. The model I currently have is an Intel motherboard model, part number Intel D915GUX/CM/GHA. I have searched all over local and Chinese second hand markets and marketplaces but could not find this part number.I tried replacing it with another 945 chipset motherboard but it seems the ADD2 video card doesn't like it, the screen displays but is very dark. Has anyone had success replacing the motherboard on this DSO80k? Can you give me some advice? Which model should I choose. I am thinking of cutting the back panel to fit the new MB.Any advice is appreciated. Thanks so much.Sincerely,Feng

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 04:10:04 pm
content: its a matter of finding the right model, because intel had tons of variants, mostly on the i/o shield, plugs placements ...i think you can go up to the 945 series... you could search on ebay and you could be able to see all connectors, and slots placementsas for the other mentioned problems it could be IRQ allocations ... because the add2 card will need it's own interrupts and adressingalas the orginal mobo still sell for $ this one in usahttps://www.ebay.com/itm/256943891589?but for location(s) china grab lot of them to make some margin reselling them ...in the infinium series you had or have the interface card between the scope and motherboard, be sure you have all the needed drivers

author: sprit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2025, 02:08:46 pm
content: Hi coromonadalix, have a nice day.I just checked the link you sent, it is not the 915gux code I am looking for. I also tried replacing it with the motherboard from the tds5054 (running the 945 chipset) and flashed the latest bios to it but its ADD2 card refused to work properly (dark image, stripes or random noise). I don't know if this motherboard doesn't support it or if I configured the irq wrong. It seems Agilent has tricked users with a "proprietary" interface that is rare on these dso80k models.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2025, 02:27:52 pm
content: on some of theses boards, you had some video config for the internal video card or the integrated tft interface, aka the white hirose connector on themfor the add2 card as written you could have some drivers issues or conflicts, normally it's an pci card, so any available pci slot should do the jobas any pc based scope TEK Tds 5k 6k 7k or Infiniums, Lecroy or else, you need to check all pc based hardware (in windows device manager) if you have any error / exclamation marksthe pc side must be exempt of any errors ... and drivers must be installed, some models absolutely need drivers, even if you don't see any hardware errors, it was said int the tds7k series "big thread"because the OS can not see the hardware without them, they simply act transparent, if i may sayi'm no guru of the 5k series, but i do think from an 915 to 945 chipset should work, unless you have some bios hardware signature needed to work ??some here did swap from 915 to 945 ??unless there are more problems, other than the mobo ? the backlight driver / card / module ?

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2025, 06:25:16 pm
content: there was some talk there :https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/software-setup-for-agilent-16903a-logic-analyzer/50/some service note about discontinued motherboard and a substitutehttps://hpwiki.org/_media/service_notes:dso81204b-05.pdfhttps://hpwiki.org/_media/service_notes:dso81204b-07.pdf

author: sprit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 11:22:38 am
content: hi coromonadalixThanks for your feedback.About the ADD2 card, today I tried to replace it with another intel 945 mainboard, in the description of that mainboard it said it supported the ADD2 card but when I inserted the card it showed up as in the picture. The screen had stripes at the corner, I thought it might be a broken screen but when I looked closely I saw that the screen had been reduced to a smaller resolution (smaller image) and the screen was very dark. I don't know why, maybe Agilent adjusted something in their bios so that the screen would display normally?Putting that aside, when I reinstalled Windows, in the Device Manager section when I installed the driver for the PCI board it kept reporting an error, unable to install this driver. My computer only has one PCI slot that this board is attached to. Today I tried to reinstall the driver but it was still unsuccessful, which led to the Infiniium application not being able to start. I disabled driver signing but it still doesn't work. I can guess that the board is not broken because the gpib card recognition is still correct and works fine, only this infiniium driver doesn't work. I tried to change to windows 10 32bit but the application doesn't even start.Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks everyone.Sincerely,Feng

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 11:48:41 am
content: you don't put win 10 in theses, xp w2k or w7 at some point nothing else, windows versions don't always manage the hw resources the same waysXP seems the one Keysight talk the most for theses scopes, you can snatch many iso's on the web, find an XP SP3 iso with an serial ..well you do see the bios, but in some instance it is sometimes the color depth 16 24 bits etc ... look like an windows size at higher settings this screen by default could be 640 x 480 or 800 x 600, in some it can go as high than 1024 x 768 if i recallbut this bios setting in some board could not be available (depends of the mobo type too) , sometimes the makers like TEK or other do cripple the bios / remove some optionsthe scope once the right os boots should place itself correctly once the right drivers are there too, in some cases in the control panel, some adapters have an applet who configure the screen resolution ?seems the brightness is low, or very low ?? i dont know if you have a knob, or you have backlight issuesfocus on the pc side 1st as i wrote, get the right os for it, and install the needed drivers, check if you have hardware errors ...register for free at keysight if not done already, there are resources for themhttps://www.keysight.com/ca/en/lib/software-detail/instrument-firmware-software/infiniium-8000-series-80000-series-5485x-series-and-5483x-series-oscilloscope-software-566904.html

author: sprit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 01:43:54 pm
content: Thanks coromodalixI tried installing all versions, from the oldest 4.7 to 5.7.1 but still no success. I am currently using Windows XP for testing.The above driver still won't work. I'll attach it all below, hope it helps.Sincerely,Feng

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 02:16:46 pm
content: add2 card related threadsdo post your add2 card photos both sides

author: sprit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2025, 06:42:09 am
content: HiHere is the picture of the add2 card.AndHope it can help

author: sprit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2025, 06:43:23 am
content: My bad. Here.

author: sprit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 06:09:18 am
content: hi everyone. i was wondering if anyone has been able to upgrade the motherboard on this DSO80K model? i have seen some old posts regarding the old HP5845, where they were able to upgrade the mobo to the H110 generation and run windows 10 on it after using some tricks. the dso series is quite old plus the original mobo (intel D915GUX) is now impossible to find. i am looking for a newer mobo replacement method but without success. the PCI to ACQ board card refuses to work on the new mobo (cannot install driver or gives error code 12). anyone have any ideas? thanks a lot.Here is image of PCI card connect to ACQ board.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 10:58:24 am
content: code 12 is ressource relatedhttps://www.thewindowsclub.com/this-device-cannot-find-enough-free-resources-that-it-can-use-code-12

author: sprit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2025, 02:17:32 pm
content: Hopefully this is just some bug related to a bad bios setting or something. If Agilent tried to stuff something into the bios I think it's a disaster, finding the exact same motherboard as the original is impossible now. There is a guy in Finland who sells motherboards but the shipping cost is too high for me.I tried some tricks to get the software to run but the driver not recognizing it correctly made all my efforts useless. I'm not sure if this dso80k series is the same as the 548xx series, because there is already someone who has successfully replaced the mobo, and it can even run on Windows 10.ChatGPT failed to give any useful advice. HaizzzzI'll buy some other mobo models and try again. If it doesn't work, at least I have a retro PC collection haha.

author: F1GWR
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2025, 09:36:48 am
content: First check the four green SMD fuses F1..4.Did you check the ADD2 LVDS video interface signals on the J2 connector with an oscilloscope?Warning! the mating female connector has no key and can be set both ways. Empty positions must face toward the front of the scope!If OK then unmount the LCD and thoroughly check the multi-color cable connector insertion into the rear PCB.