Broken IC on old Pentium 2 motherboard

[spilihps]

 Thanks for your input,

Yeah then we probably saw overvoltage on that rail too.. it points more and more towards the PSU..

Guess the card is scrap then

[spilihps]

Oh, and also, are you guys aware if  there are any PCI / ISA "blank cards" that one could use for hooking up a logic analyzer to a motherboard? That would be a cool project to see if the graphiccard "boots" at all. because its not every time that i get the beep, sometimes it just seem to freeze.

[GromBeestje]

Something like this perhaps? https://github.com/monotech/ISA-Prototype-Card

[spilihps]

Something like this perhaps? https://github.com/monotech/ISA-Prototype-Card

Yep exactly!

[Rasz]

You cant snoop on AGP bus by sniffing ISA/PCI ones.
That video you send me


I would start with cmos reset. Does it detect hard drives at all when plugged? does hdd autodetect work in the bios? have you plugged and configured fdd? does it blink/run its motor looking for floppy? Southbridge is probably ok (its used to access BIOS), but Super I/O (SMSC chip) might be fried (rs232 buffer chips use 12V), or some random linear regulator also died somewhere. Wouldnt hurt reflashing bios.
Edit: wait, keyboard and cmos/rtc are in Super IO, so that must also work :/

ATI RAGE is indeed not worth fixing, they are worthless.

[spilihps]

Thanks for your response,

CMOS reset is done. It recognize both HDD and cdrom, on both channels(swapped them around), it also identifies FDD, no problem. I've tried booting from floppy, HDD, cdrom separately. It does exact same thing.
One thing that sticks out is that when booting from floppy,  precisely when it stops in the video the FDD light turns on and stays on for ever.

Bios configuration works as normal,  I can set rtc, and so on.

Edit: I do have post card on the way, could this help with this, or is this error "after"?

[Rasz]

This is past the post codes.
Disable everything not nailed down in the BIOS, unplug everything but cpu/ram/graphics/keyboard and see what happens. Might be half fried super I/O hanging on floppy detect. The very next thing after your hag should be clear screen followed by a table of all installed/configured elements, then list of PCI/PNP resources, some windows management nonsense update and finally HDD boot.

Does pressing numlock still control keyboard led after the hang?

[spilihps]

So I tried to disable all IDE and floppy, same thing.
Numlock works after it hangs, however after 5 toggles it seem to be disabled. The screen cursor blinks though.

I did notice however, the LED for HDD activity lights up (very dim) directly when power on.

[Rasz]

Everything, I mean every single choice that has none/disabled option, under all tabs.

[spilihps]

I think I got em all, yes!

Results in this screen, blinking cursor, numlock responds, and Ctrl+alt+del works

[Per Hansson]

Edit: I do have post card on the way, could this help with this, or is this error "after"?

This is past the post codes.

Actually you will have POST codes up until the BIOS passes over control to the bootloader.
In these screenshots you are at or around step 42:
http://www.bioscentral.com/postcodes/awardbios.htm
So yes, it could prove useful...

[spilihps]

Edit: I do have post card on the way, could this help with this, or is this error "after"?

This is past the post codes.

Actually you will have POST codes up until the BIOS passes over control to the bootloader.
In these screenshots you are at or around step 42:
http://www.bioscentral.com/postcodes/awardbios.htm
So yes, it could prove useful...

Thanks!

So maybe setting a password would show us if we get to 4F?

[spilihps]

It does not reach password 

[Per Hansson]

By deduction then it might be that you are stuck at 43: Detect & Init. serial & parallel ports
Or you are stuck at 42 Initialize hard drive
A hanging floppy lights usually means the cable is plugged in reversed.
But it can also be caused by more serious issues like BIOS not supporting the size of HDD and thus hanging.
In your case with what the board has been through it would be interesting to reflash the BIOS.
But I don't assume you have found a copy anywhere?

EDIT: Have you tried the board with no external stuff attached?
I.e. no floppy, HDD, mouse, keyboard and whatever add-in card you might have except the required stuff like RAM, CPU & Video card?
Because I found this based on the BIOS string posted earlier in the thread, a patched BIOS with support for up to 64GB HDDs.
This implies that the example I gave applies for you: i.e. it might be hanging because of overflow bug when detecting the size of the HDD:
http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php?start=90&count=50

[spilihps]

Yeah and now everything is unplugged and serial / paralellports is disabled in bios.

A reflash would be interesting, but that would need to happen in a programmer I guess since the board won't boot. I do have a Willem programmer that is absolutely shit 

I might have another slot 1 board with a bios like this one, will have to check that out.

Thinking of it, one very interesting thing with this is that the IC blew up pretty much exactly at this point in the boot, it might have changed to the next screen though or the blacked out one in between.

Edit: idk if that board is capable of flashing itself?

[spilihps]

EDIT: Have you tried the board with no external stuff attached?
I.e. no floppy, HDD, mouse, keyboard and whatever add-in card you might have except the required stuff like RAM, CPU & Video card?
Because I found this based on the BIOS string posted earlier in the thread, a patched BIOS with support for up to 64GB HDDs.
This implies that the example I gave applies for you: i.e. it might be hanging because of overflow bug when detecting the size of the HDD:
http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php?start=90&count=50

Thanks for all your help!

Sorry, i did not see your edit before.

Yes, i dont have anything then ram cpu and video attached. Even tried to disable halt on keyboard error, and tried to boot witout keyboard.
Also, the harddrive is well within the limits though.

[Rasz]

Edit: I do have post card on the way, could this help with this, or is this error "after"?

This is past the post codes.

Actually you will have POST codes up until the BIOS passes over control to the bootloader.
In these screenshots you are at or around step 42:
http://www.bioscentral.com/postcodes/awardbios.htm
So yes, it could prove useful...

You are correct, how did I miss that
Looks like it might be either Super IO or CPU (math coprocessor init)?

[spilihps]

I have a p2 CPU on the way, should be here soon, will drop that in.

[spilihps]

Finally the post cards have arrived!

I bought two different, since they are from china after all!

One is 4 digit and one is two digit.

The 4 digit stops at 5251 and the two digit stops at 52.

Guess the 4 digit is previous code or something?

52 is "Initialize option ROM's; Initialize and ROM's present at locations C800h to EFFFFh"

option ROM being?

[Per Hansson]

Yes, the 4 digit post card shows both the current and previous post code.
Option ROM is external device, but it can be built into the mainboard also.
For example: network card PXE boot, SCSI or SATA or IDE RAID device.
Did you receive a new CPU to test with yet?

[spilihps]

Yes, the 4 digit post card shows both the current and previous post code.
Option ROM is external device, but it can be built into the mainboard also.
For example: network card PXE boot, SCSI or SATA or IDE RAID device.
Did you receive a new CPU to test with yet?

Thanks, actually i did recieve another one SL2S6 (SL2WZ is the one original with the board) however i may have recieved a broken one. Board wont boot at all with it. Also code "00" now trying it with the POST-card.
Not having any luck with this. Maybe some compatibility issues?

[PKTKS]

Finally the post cards have arrived!
I bought two different, since they are from china after all!
One is 4 digit and one is two digit.
The 4 digit stops at 5251 and the two digit stops at 52.
Guess the 4 digit is previous code or something?
52 is "Initialize option ROM's; Initialize and ROM's present at locations C800h to EFFFFh"
option ROM being?

 *** IF **
- This is an Award BIOS
- And the POST paused at 52 (Option ROM)
- and the board has Ethernet integrated  (onboard)

My first  guess at that range (C800h ~ )  would be Ethernet ROM BIOS

several other problems may be plausible for that stuck WITHOUT onboard
Ethernet chipset - including corrupted  BIOS itself

A BIOS REFLASH would be my next step in that case
Paul

[spilihps]

Finally the post cards have arrived!
I bought two different, since they are from china after all!
One is 4 digit and one is two digit.
The 4 digit stops at 5251 and the two digit stops at 52.
Guess the 4 digit is previous code or something?
52 is "Initialize option ROM's; Initialize and ROM's present at locations C800h to EFFFFh"
option ROM being?

 *** IF **
- This is an Award BIOS
- And the POST paused at 52 (Option ROM)
- and the board has Ethernet integrated  (onboard)

My first  guess at that range (C800h ~ )  would be Ethernet ROM BIOS

several other problems may be plausible for that stuck WITHOUT onboard
Ethernet chipset - including corrupted  BIOS itself

A BIOS REFLASH would be my next step in that case
Paul

Thanks, interesting,

The board does not have onboard ethernet. 

Reflash through a external programmer then? If i could get hold of a image then that would be possible, but that is a long shot in this case i think.

[james_s]

I remember re-flashing BIOS chips back in the day with my Willem programmer and a firmware hub adapter I built, I think it was my first successful self etched PCB. Anyway finding a bios image might not be that hard if it's a reasonably common board. You might be able to find one from the manufacture using wayback or if you post the model of the board someone who has one could dump their own. It's even possible that a bios from a similar board will work.

[spilihps]

Yeah, i actually had a Willem programmer for some Z80 experiements. But it was very unreliable so i discarded it.
But iam thinking of getting a new one for my 68000 projects pretty soon, so that would not be a problem.

The board does not seem to have a real manufacturer marking on it for some reason. Thinking of it.. I seem to remeber when i recieved this PC as a gift in about 1998 i think...
The box for the motherboard may have said "Mainboard Mentor" on it. But not much to go on..