Thanks for the tips, gerwin. I'll check it out.

Electronic components is not my forte, what does the voltage step down chips look like?

Those three things at the bottom right of the photo, with the heatsinks attached. On my Asus P2B they came without heatsink and their backside was supposed to be soldered flat to the main PCB, but one of them had come loose. These components can get very hot.

They look fine to me.

Would incompatible RAM make it not turn on at all?

I can feel the CPU getting hot, but my ISA/PCI diagnostics card show no error codes at all.

With the bad Asus P2B I described, the CPU fan would not even come up. Yours is running.

Selecting a unsupported multiplier for the CPU can get you in that situation: Fan running, no boot, no beep. IIRC

A mainboard with no RAM usually beeps and shows the power on LED.

What can I say... I gave some examples of what I found as a cause of a dead board. But I figure there are many possible causes. I don't suppose you are familiar with looking op de VRM datasheet and probing its power-good pin and such with a multimeter, as well as measuring other voltage points. These are not the kinda things I can easily teach here and now.

While I do know how to rudimentarily use a multimeter, I unfortunately have no idea where to start when it comes to probing old motherboards. (And I don't expect you to teach me on a forum 😁 )

I've tried several different CPUs, and am "fairly" sure I've set them up correctly.

Thanks for your time, gerwin. 😀

lazibayer wrote:

c0keb0ttle wrote:

Unfortunately, finding the manual seems to be more difficult... But at least I know the board is supposed to support my CPU.

I found a EXE version of the manual but I am unable to open it under 64bit OS.

Opened in my 98 PC and it seems to be a legit manual.

Only problem is it's in some sort of compressing program for e-mails and I cannot extract it to PDFs, can only print it and I don't have a parallel printer installed on that PC.

Hmm...

c0keb0ttle wrote:

Thanks for your time, gerwin. 😀

No problem 😀

cj_reha wrote:

Opened in my 98 PC and it seems to be a legit manual. Only problem is it's in some sort of compressing program for e-mails and I cannot extract it to PDFs, can only print it and I don't have a parallel printer installed on that PC.

Strange way to share documentation... I printed it to PDF distiller, and cropped the empty bottom half of the page. Now you know all that the board was supposed to do, but does not. 😵

Edit: The layout in the manual is again a little different from the photo.

Thanks again gerwin!

That manual must be for a different revision of R2 for some of the jumpers they mention does not even exist on my board, and I have jumpers they don't even mention... 🙁

The dip switches for the CPU settings seem "similar", except that the settings I used for Intel 133 MHz are for the 120 MHz in this manual. I'll fiddle a bit with it and see what happens.

It looks like the RESET led on the post card is OFF. RESET is an inverted signal (i.e. active LOW), which means that something is holding it. It maybe the CPU itself, chipset or that strange ALi chip, or the video card. Will it run without videocard? And it has to at least start posting without memory, i would try that as well. Other than that, there are not many chips that can pull reset down, try touching all the ICs to see if any one of them gets extremely hot (short circuit inside), that would give you the clue of what's dead there. Not sure how it would help though, but would at least give you an idea of whether or not the board is worth messing with. If the chipset is dead, it's a donor.

PS. googled that ALi chip, looks like it is a MIO, maybe he's dead. I would think this board might work without this guy, you'll probably be left without IDE, Floppy, COM and LPT ports, but you could use multicard for that. Or not. Anyway, it's worth checking if it gets extremely hot first, maybe it's not guilty.

Thanks for the tip! It sounds like more bother than it's worth frankly. 😀

According to the docs, the reset led on my diagnostics card is only supposed to light up when reset is pressed, not all the time. So that's OK. And I've tried the mobo with graphics card and different RAM sticks, without success.

Hello!

This is my first post here, so welcome All 😀 I know it's "just in time", but it's better then never...

To the point... I have exactly same mainboard and P133. I mean really exact board! Well.. Mine works. And I see you have some jumpers configured diffrent than on mine board. Especially the red ones near CPU. I've attached the photo. Hope it will help you or maybe someone else:

And the last thing. There is no manual for it on internet 🙁 There are only manuals for very similar mainboards, but unfortunately jumper layout is always diffrent (and they are much diffrent 😒 ).

Cheers!

Hello 😀

I've spent a full day trying to get the exact motherboard working but I have just given up. I have a Pentium 75mhz and a 166mhz MMX. No post, no beeps. CPU gets hot but that's the only response I get from the board. I've found multiple manuals, none of them exactly match with what I see on mine.

For 166mhz MMX, I couldn't figure out how to provide 2.8V, so I set it as 3.52v (VRE). Didn't work.
DS1: On // DS2: On // DS3: On // DS4: Off // DS5: On // DS6: Off

For 75mhz, I set it as both 3.38v (STD/VR) and 3.52v (VRE)
DS1: Off // DS2: Off // DS3: On // DS4: On // DS5: Off // DS6: Off - Computer says "No"

MB Image (image was too big in the message so I converted it into an external link instead)
https://i.postimg.cc/VLnMSNDX/20181228-142736.jpg

Time of death, 14:30 😵

If anyone has any idea, please let me know 😀 I'm open for experiments.

rootifera wrote on 2018-12-28, 14:47:

Hello :) […]
Show full quote

Hello 😀

I've spent a full day trying to get the exact motherboard working but I have just given up. I have a Pentium 75mhz and a 166mhz MMX. No post, no beeps. CPU gets hot but that's the only response I get from the board. I've found multiple manuals, none of them exactly match with what I see on mine.

For 166mhz MMX, I couldn't figure out how to provide 2.8V, so I set it as 3.52v (VRE). Didn't work.
DS1: On // DS2: On // DS3: On // DS4: Off // DS5: On // DS6: Off

For 75mhz, I set it as both 3.38v (STD/VR) and 3.52v (VRE)
DS1: Off // DS2: Off // DS3: On // DS4: On // DS5: Off // DS6: Off - Computer says "No"

MB Image (image was too big in the message so I converted it into an external link instead)
https://i.postimg.cc/VLnMSNDX/20181228-142736.jpg

Time of death, 14:30 😵

If anyone has any idea, please let me know 😀 I'm open for experiments.

In the picture you don't have a battery installed. I'm not expert but I've seen that cause the symptoms you describe.

Sorry for the thread revival but i'm looking into the AB-PR5 as it's one I owned, I have the original manual but it looks slightly different to yours.