Have you tried it with less than 4 sticks of RAM?

Are you 100% sure that the board don't miss any components, traces, etc?

In my experience, going back to the beginning is best in these circumstances.

Take everything out of the case, inspect visually.
Check all jumper settings
Try running just the board + some memory + cpu + heatsink&fan + video card, on a cardboard box. You can power on by temporarily connecting the two power switch pins.
Try different a power supply if you have one
Check JP16 (CMOS clear jumper). Clear the settings.

Are there any beeps from the speaker? Do you have a POST card?

Murugan wrote:

Have you tried it with less than 4 sticks of RAM?

No, will try that.

Are there any beeps from the speaker? Do you have a POST card?

No and no.

Try with 2 sticks and try each combination. I have a socket 7 board that if VERY picky. But it could be a wide range of issues.

I would also check if any major chips (north/south bridges) on the board gets too hot when powered on.

Your PSU only has 130W available on 3.3v+5v.
That's usually enough for a Socket 7 but P-Pro were power hogs and it might not be adequate.
I wrote more on that recently
Re: Building a socket 7 pc from scratch
See the PDF in the link.
An era correct 200w PSU would have about 21a on +5v and about 14a on 3.3v. => Around 151w combined.
An era correct 160w would have around 136w on 5v+3.3v.
Your PSU is approximately equivalent to an era 155w and that's an era server board.
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And yes, check your chips.
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Maybe also try it with FPM RAM instead of EDO.

Get a pci bios diagnostic card and give us the 4 digit code and we will tell you exactly what is going on.

JidaiGeki wrote:

Maybe also try it with FPM RAM instead of EDO.

The manual says EDO is okay but who knows if that's correct.
Asus can be picky about RAM anyway.
Good idea.

Maybe an easy to answer question: does it have dallas rtc module? If it has one and the battery is empty it might block the mobo from booting...

Nvm1 wrote:

Maybe an easy to answer question: does it have dallas rtc module? If it has one and the battery is empty it might block the mobo from booting...

No, it's a coin battery, and I've tried three different ones, including the one I knew to be working.

The manual says EDO is okay but who knows if that's correct.
Asus can be picky about RAM anyway.
Good idea.

Yes, I'll try that.

Your PSU only has 130W available on 3.3v+5v. That's usually enough for a Socket 7 but P-Pro were power hogs and it might not be […]
Show full quote

Your PSU only has 130W available on 3.3v+5v.
That's usually enough for a Socket 7 but P-Pro were power hogs and it might not be adequate.
I wrote more on that recently
viewtopic.php?p=666819#p666819
See the PDF in the link.
An era correct 200w PSU would have about 21a on +5v and about 14a on 3.3v. => Around 151w combined.
An era correct 160w would have around 136w on 5v+3.3v.
Your PSU is approximately equivalent to an era 155w and that's an era server board.
And yes, check your chips.

Seems like the most plausible explanation to me at the moment. I'm getting an ATX Socket 7 board soon that I want to pair with a Pentium-166. If that doesn't work, too, then I'll get another PSU. I basically only wanted to play with Soc8 until I got that Soc7 mobo. But considering I want to stick a bunch of hardware in this machine (three sound cards, a Voodoo, and a NIC) guess I'll have to eventually find another PSU anyhow.

I got myself the ATX board I wanted from the start — the Intel Advanced/ML (TC430HX) with Pentium 166. Despite the shit ton of hardware I've put into it (Matrox Millenium, Voodoo 1, 3COM NIC, AWE32, GuS PnP Pro, MusicQuest) the PSU seems to be enough. So I guess the board was dead after all. Besides, my Slot 1 build has even less 5v power (20A vs 21A) and that build has Pentium 3, Voodoo 5 and three soundcards (AWE64, Diamond Monster Sound MX300, SoundBlaster Live!) — I don't think that system eats less power than a regular Pentium 166 (or even a Pentium Pro with just one videocard and no additional hardware).

I do plan to get both system new (never used) power supplies just to protect the hardware, but so far I feel like the 5v issue is somewhat overblown unless you go into ~1GHz territory.

so far I feel like the 5v issue is somewhat overblown.

Of course it is. I've seen many AT PII class systems working perfectly fine with 200/230w PSUs.

Same ATX350-PA PSU? - 2 boards don't work with it?

PCBONEZ wrote:

Same ATX350-PA PSU? - 2 boards don't work with it?

No, it's like this:

1) FSP Group ATX350-PA 350W — bare Pentium Pro doesn't work, but Pentium 166 with a bunch of hardware does.
2) InWin PowerMan IW-P300A2-0 — Pentium 3 with bunch of hardware works. I just mentioned it for comparison, because someone said that PPro is too power hungry. Sure it needs more power than a P166, but not a P3@500.

Overall I like FSP PSUs but I pretty much expect them to need fresh capacitors at some point.
Usually not hard to recap FSP and after that they pretty much last forever.
Since bad caps can affect individual rails the symptoms won't always be the same between systems.

I'm not familiar with InWin PowerMan.

Caps (even so called 'good brands') are a high failure rate part in old equipment. (Including motherboards and add-in cards.)
Any time you are messing with electronics over 15 years old the caps should be suspect by default.
The older the equipment is the more likely some will be bad.

Describe "doesn't work" a bit better.
Are you getting fan-kick, beep codes, stone dead?
Have you done any voltage checks?
Inspect the chips (incl. chipset, MOSFETS, and any other) for cracks, pits or melted areas.
.

.

PCBONEZ wrote:

Overall I like FSP PSUs but I pretty much expect them to need fresh capacitors at some point. Usually not hard to recap FSP and […]
Show full quote

Overall I like FSP PSUs but I pretty much expect them to need fresh capacitors at some point.
Usually not hard to recap FSP and after that they pretty much last forever.
Since bad caps can affect individual rails the symptoms won't always be the same between systems.

Caps (even so called 'good brands') are a high failure rate part in old equipment. (Including motherboards and add-in cards.)
Any time you are messing with electronics over 15 years old the caps should be suspect by default.
The older the equipment is the more likely some will be bad.

Well, like I said, I plan to get both my ATX systems new PSUs soon (I don't have any skills to recap a power supply, honestly). Currently, I'm looking at LinkWorld LW6-600W. Cheap, has 20+4 connector, offers 24A over 3v and 40A over 5v.

PCBONEZ wrote:

Describe "doesn't work" a bit better. Are you getting fan-kick, beep codes, stone dead? Have you done any voltage checks? Inspec […]
Show full quote

Describe "doesn't work" a bit better.
Are you getting fan-kick, beep codes, stone dead?
Have you done any voltage checks?
Inspect the chips (incl. chipset, MOSFETS, and any other) for cracks, pits or melted areas.

No beep codes. The fans, LEDs and floppy/HDD/CD drives all work/make noises when connected. The CPU does get hot. Unfortunately, I already replaced the mobo with the 430HX board, so I can't test any further.

My nature is to fix things.
Having to scrap an otherwise good motherboard over $5 or $10 in caps is just not in me.
.