Corrupt BIOS?

[krose]

Computer at acquaintance's business was shutting down randomly, it sat in a corner running 24/7/365 for three years so I figured it was clogged with dirt and overheating. I cleaned it up and it booted up to Windows 2000, but the keyboard didn't work, the PS/2 connector wasn't plugged in right so I used the power button to do a hard shut down. I plugged the keyboard in correctly and now it won't boot, not even the POST screen. I cleared the CMOS with the battery out, tried another CPU, memory and PSU. No love. Took it out of the case and tried it with nothing but the monitor and still no POST. It's a Tyan S2865 Tomcat K8E. It's an older board, but all the components look fine. Should I order a new BIOS chip? Or is the board just dead?

Edit: forgot to add that when power is unplugged and reconnected, the board tries to start up without even pressing the power button. This is out of the case on a foam mat that the board was packed with, so it can't be a short.

 

[jdjbuffalo]

It's almost certainly the motherboard. The BIOS may be corrupt but I would just go the route of replacing the whole motherboard.

 

[tcsenter]

TYAN Tomcat K8E S2865 (used)

TYAN Tomcat K8E S2865 (probably used)

 

[o1die]

3b tech has several asrock socket 939 boards. I've used the dual sata II, and it worked pretty well. They have a couple with nvidia chipsets.

 

[jaggerwild]

Do a two day CMOS clear, nothing to loss.....................

 

[krose]

I tried to run the array on an old DFI NF4 Ultra-D. It sees the array OK, but when booting Windows gives the BSOD with a "0x0000007b unaccessible boot device" error. It may have something to do with the RAID rom in the BIOS, so a new motherboard may or may not work. Fortunately the array was imaged with Acronis to an external drive and I was able to recover the data partition so all is not lost. But I would like to be able to get this PC running again if possible. Guess I'll try a new Tyan mobo and see what happens.

 

[starfireone]

Motherboard is history unless you see something obvious like a black, burnt and melted cap on the board. Skip the bios chip go for a new board.

 

[o1die]

Be sure to clean the power supply fans; I usually replace the power supply when installing a new board. The tyan board may be hard to find or expensive now. That's why I suggested the asrock boards.