- Aug 9, 2000
- 11,911
- 0
- 76
This is my first experience building with one of these boards. Began with the following components:
[*]Supercase with 300 watt power supply
[*]256MB Infineon 168 pin SDRAM(single module)
[*]WD 40 GB 7200 RPM hard drive
[*]I/O Magic 56X CD-ROM drive
[*]Radeon 32MB DDR AGP video card
[*]Generic 1.44MB floppy drive
[*]Generic PS/2 keyboard
[*]Microsoft Wheel Mouse
The first thing I notice after the initial powerup is no video output to monitor. Even without any video to visually show me what's going on I can tell it isn't POST'ing because the drives are not responding. Since the first thing to do here is achieve video output to monitor I remove the AGP card and insert the most basic PCI video card I have available, an old Trident card which has at least 256K of RAM, possibly 1 meg.
Power up again and now I have video.
AMD Athlon(tm) Processor, 1000 Mhz
Checking NVRAM..
262144KB OK
DEL: Setup F8: Boot Menu F12: Network boot ESC:Skip memory test
Drives are detected at this point and then...
CMOS Settings Wrong
CMOS Memory Size Wrong
Press F1 to Run SETUP
Press F2 to load default values and continue
Okay, I this point I hit F1 and I am taken into the BIOS. Once the BIOS categories display on screen I am stuck there, no responses from the keyboard. I am forced to reset the machine and POST once again to the same spot as previously mentioned above. I decide to try F2, the screen blacks out for just a moment and then the hard drive kicks in and I see the Win2K Server splash screen for just a moment before I encounter a STOP ERROR: Inaccessible_Boot_Device. This does not come as a shock and I am not concerned at this point because it was my intention to format the drive anyway.
So I think about the messages:
CMOS Settings Wrong
CMOS Memory Size Wrong
I cannot change the CMOS settings since I cannot move around in the BIOS. I decide to pull the 256MB Infineon and replace with a 128MB Infineon...no change. I pull the 128MB Infineon and insert a 64MB PC100 Kingston module...no change. I disconnect the wheel mouse, no change. I disconnect the CD-ROM drive, no change. I disconnect the hard drive, no change. During this time I am also clearing the CMOS by shorting pins 1-2 on the board because the board has been non-responsive from time to time. Also, the floppy drive does not work either so I cannot boot up with a boot disk. As you can probably imagine I am a bit frustrated right now.
Now here is where I am really puzzled. I can turn on the machine with no drives at all connected to the board, no RAM populating any slots, and no video card in a slot. When doing this I would expect to hear some kind of "beep codes" to alert me that things are amiss but I get nothing...no beeps...ever.
I have also tried three different CMOS batteries. I have noticed that after each CMOS reset by shorting pins 1-2 on jumper 4 I see a new message during POST: CMOS battery low.
I have read some of the other threads here and I see many persons say that it is necessary to have a "stout" power supply to run this particular board. I did check the output rating of my power supply for the +3.3v and it is rated at 14A and the concensus here is it should be at 28A or above. I do not want to go out and spend extra bucks for another power supply, especially since I am not certain that I have a power supply issue.
I need opinions and advice from users who have experience with this board. I know many persons here think this board is crap, I know this because I have read your comments in the other threads. I respectfully request that you persons who do not like this board to please refrain from posting your negative opinions in this thread, thank you.
Let the games begin...
[*]Supercase with 300 watt power supply
[*]256MB Infineon 168 pin SDRAM(single module)
[*]WD 40 GB 7200 RPM hard drive
[*]I/O Magic 56X CD-ROM drive
[*]Radeon 32MB DDR AGP video card
[*]Generic 1.44MB floppy drive
[*]Generic PS/2 keyboard
[*]Microsoft Wheel Mouse
The first thing I notice after the initial powerup is no video output to monitor. Even without any video to visually show me what's going on I can tell it isn't POST'ing because the drives are not responding. Since the first thing to do here is achieve video output to monitor I remove the AGP card and insert the most basic PCI video card I have available, an old Trident card which has at least 256K of RAM, possibly 1 meg.
Power up again and now I have video.
AMD Athlon(tm) Processor, 1000 Mhz
Checking NVRAM..
262144KB OK
DEL: Setup F8: Boot Menu F12: Network boot ESC:Skip memory test
Drives are detected at this point and then...
CMOS Settings Wrong
CMOS Memory Size Wrong
Press F1 to Run SETUP
Press F2 to load default values and continue
Okay, I this point I hit F1 and I am taken into the BIOS. Once the BIOS categories display on screen I am stuck there, no responses from the keyboard. I am forced to reset the machine and POST once again to the same spot as previously mentioned above. I decide to try F2, the screen blacks out for just a moment and then the hard drive kicks in and I see the Win2K Server splash screen for just a moment before I encounter a STOP ERROR: Inaccessible_Boot_Device. This does not come as a shock and I am not concerned at this point because it was my intention to format the drive anyway.
So I think about the messages:
CMOS Settings Wrong
CMOS Memory Size Wrong
I cannot change the CMOS settings since I cannot move around in the BIOS. I decide to pull the 256MB Infineon and replace with a 128MB Infineon...no change. I pull the 128MB Infineon and insert a 64MB PC100 Kingston module...no change. I disconnect the wheel mouse, no change. I disconnect the CD-ROM drive, no change. I disconnect the hard drive, no change. During this time I am also clearing the CMOS by shorting pins 1-2 on the board because the board has been non-responsive from time to time. Also, the floppy drive does not work either so I cannot boot up with a boot disk. As you can probably imagine I am a bit frustrated right now.
Now here is where I am really puzzled. I can turn on the machine with no drives at all connected to the board, no RAM populating any slots, and no video card in a slot. When doing this I would expect to hear some kind of "beep codes" to alert me that things are amiss but I get nothing...no beeps...ever.
I have also tried three different CMOS batteries. I have noticed that after each CMOS reset by shorting pins 1-2 on jumper 4 I see a new message during POST: CMOS battery low.
I have read some of the other threads here and I see many persons say that it is necessary to have a "stout" power supply to run this particular board. I did check the output rating of my power supply for the +3.3v and it is rated at 14A and the concensus here is it should be at 28A or above. I do not want to go out and spend extra bucks for another power supply, especially since I am not certain that I have a power supply issue.
I need opinions and advice from users who have experience with this board. I know many persons here think this board is crap, I know this because I have read your comments in the other threads. I respectfully request that you persons who do not like this board to please refrain from posting your negative opinions in this thread, thank you.
Let the games begin...