I'll go have a look and see what I can find on the net...

Try something else. 99% of the cases that a board originally seamed dead, and afterwards it started working ok, was doing so because of the cmos clear jumper. If it's in the wrong position, some boards don't work at all.

Unfortunately, I don't think this revision 1.7 mobo has a clear CMOS jumper. There's a jumper marked INT/EXT for Internal/External battery. I've set it to internal, because it uses a button/coin battery. Next to this jumper, there's an external battery jumper. It has 4 pins, but one pin is actually missing.

You can reset the BIOS by simply removing the battery for a couple hours 😉

Worked for me anyway 😉

Markk wrote:

Try something else. 99% of the cases that a board originally seamed dead, and afterwards it started working ok, was doing so because of the cmos clear jumper. If it's in the wrong position, some boards don't work at all.

I had it in the CLEAR_CMOS position once and the board fried a horrible death! (poor poor A7V333 🙁 )

OK thanks, I'll give that a try. I'll remove the battery now, and then try to get the mobo working again first thing in the morning...

This sounds like the exact same problem that I've been running into with my 486s. What solved it for a few boards was when I switched to parity ram thanks to the suggestion of a few Vogoners, even if the board didn't ask for parity (I'm not sure if that exactly method will with with the GX4 but trying something like that might help). Of course the other two problems that I ran into was dirt and faulty PSUs, which you probably already ruled out, but I figured I'd mention it anyway. Hope this helps.

nenemis's tip sounds like a good lead 😉

But I did suddenly come up with something!
RG100, does your board happen to have it's cache modules removed by any chance?
I remember reading that many 486 boards had the default setting in BIOS for 256kb cache, and if there isn't any on the board, it won't post.

Also check the jumpers to make sure it's cache is jumpered the correct amount

Thanks a lot for all the ideas. I think the RAM and PSU are OK. However, there is something odd about the cache. It's configured for 256Kb. 4 chips are 20ns, and 4 chips are 15ns. The tag chip is 20ns. I removed all 9 of these chips. I replaced them with 9 same brand "256" 20ns chips. Unfortunately, I get no POST. I'll remove the coin/button battery, and try again in the morning...

20ns and 15ns shouldn't matter as long as your set the FSB on the motherboard low enough for the 20ns cache chips 😉

I hope for you the board isn't a dud. Have you made sure all the jumpers are correct? Theres no visible damage on the board like missing/damaged resistors or scratches?

Perhaps it would be better to wait till tomorrow, things tend to be more visible at daylight 😉

It almost sounds like someone was trying to expand the cache. Have you tried the original configuration with only bank 0 filled?

Yes I did try what looks like the original 128Kb cache configuration, but unfortunately that didn't work. And I've put a new coin/button battery back in to the mobo this morning and unfortunately it won't POST. Pity.

You're not using that CPU that was put in the wrong orientation on that other board I presume?
Would be a good idea to try a couple other CPU's anyway. You could even try without a CPU to hear if it gives any error beeps 😉

The CPUs are fine. I've tried several. I tried removing the CPU, but I hear no beeps. When I switch on power, the speaker always emits a quiet "click", but it doesn't beep.

I "think" that click is normal. Could it be a bad BIOS chip perhaps?

hi

i suspect that any speaker clicks and keyboard lights
just indicate that power is flowing through the board.
regarding that capacitor then i suspect it's for the
3v option on the x4 and may not be needed for 5v
cpu operation.

i have the 5v only board which is fully working
and named VL/I-486SV2G REV. 1.4 which I have
had since about '96.

I've uploaded a hi-res image for you which may not
be useful but may give you some thoughts to
consider what may be wrong.

[IMG=http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/5818/vli486sv2g.th.jpg][/IMG]

good luck.

Thanks a lot for the image. I double-checked your jumper settings. They look 100% correct, and of course they are! 😀 I tried those settings last night for my SL enhanced (but not write back) DX2-66. Currently, the board is set to not SL enhanced (and not write back) SX-25.

I don't think my board is capable of setting the CPU voltage. I can't see any voltage jumpers. Therefore, it must be a 5V only mobo.

retro games 100 wrote:

Thanks a lot for the image. I double-checked your jumper settings. They look 100% correct, and of course they are! :happy: I […]
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Thanks a lot for the image. I double-checked your jumper settings. They look 100% correct, and of course they are! 😀 I tried those settings last night for my SL enhanced (but not write back) DX2-66. Currently, the board is set to not SL enhanced (and not write back) SX-25.

I don't think my board is capable of setting the CPU voltage. I can't see any voltage jumpers. Therefore, it must be a 5V only mobo.

Have you looked here?

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/A/AS … 6SV2G-VL-I.html

At the bottom it shows different jumper settings for 3.3 and 5v. There are also numerous jumpers that have be set to tell the motherboard what type and speed CPU you have. Maybe your jumpers are not set to match your CPU.

Yep, I've seen that webpage. The jumper settings on it do not match my board revision. For example, JP12 and JP15 are labelled on my board, but have no user configurable jumper setting. I notice this a lot on retro mobos. It's because manufacturers use the same PCB for different revisions.

hi

i notice that that revision has quite a bit
of redesign in the cpu power regulator
circuit, otherwise they seem pretty much
the same.

for your interest i have uploaded another
photo of my known working RAM:

It's no doubt generic FPM ram but I can't
remember much except i put one in a
brother laser printer ages ago.

that ram reminds me that LG was surely once
known as goldstar who probably made the
worst CDROM drives ever.

btw, i think CIL were the vendor.

bye