VOGONS

Search

Common searches

Faulty? Soyo 5EMA+ V1.0

Topic actions

First post, by Snoumaan

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello from Finland!

First topic here. I have this Soyo 5EMA+ SS7 motherboard for long time, like from year 2003. And back then it works, but when I tried to update the bios, middle of update power went off. And after that this motherboard has been in my closet, waiting for better days.
Now I have been trying to get it to work.
Updated bios via programmer TL866II-plus, didn't work becouse bios chip was broken, programmer didn't recognized it. I ordered "new" one, that worked.
Tried to boot with new bios chip and it beebs for graphics card not found and last boot code is 41
I have tried with multiple graphics cars: AGP, PCI and ISA nothing works. Those cards works in different machine.

I allso tried to Uniflash with Abit PX5, it has same bios chip ( MX28F1000PPC-12C4 )

I think it is booting to boot block becouse floppy light is on like 5sek and then off. When I insert boot disk in, it reads like 2-3s then the light stays on forever... And when it is trying to read the disk, boot code goes to FF.

I did make the floppy like this.
Windows 98 machine:
Format a: /s
then only these files I left in disk MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM, and IO.SYS
And after that I created AUTOEXEC.BAT file with two lines and added AWDFLASH.EXE and bios file :
@ECHO OFF
@AWDFLASH AWDBIOS.BIN /cc /py /sn /r

I allso changed the big caps , but no change.
Any good advice where to look next?

Reply 1 of 3, by PcBytes

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Have you tried different RAM?
Sounds weird enough but I recall having issues similar to bootblock errors on an Acorp 6BX86 and changing the RAM sticks solved that.

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB

Reply 2 of 3, by the3dfxdude

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I have the 5ema pro variant of this board. But I think they are all pretty similar that it's fair to suggest this. These things have been seen across the variants.

1. The memory sockets can be flakey. I hope you installed the memory you originally had in the sockets in the same order you remember. But you can try swapping a good stick between the sockets.
2. Plugging in certain keyboards can either make the system boot slow, or give a beep code for missing video card. Try a different keyboard or leaving it unplugged
3. Bad caps are possible. I have not gone the route of replacing mine yet, because I have a stable system. But this seems to be possible based on data going around the net the cap manufacturer was not good. I don't think I have seen someone definitively say that they did a swap on this board to solve this issue. But someone mentioned they were in the process to do so.

It's unfortunate that you swapped the big caps to no improvement. Did you check the caps by chance to prove they were bad? Given the situation that generally seems reported, I am actually more interested in, not the CPU caps, but the small caps up near the memory socket and external I/O, or next to AGP. Of course, you might want to check the power supply too.

Reply 3 of 3, by Snoumaan

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I have tried different ram sticks, no change. Double sided and one sided ram sticks 64mb to 128mb sizes. And tried one by one on memory slots.
And changed 10 of those 22uF caps near the memory slots and one near the bios battery. I measured the old ones ~22uF and esr ~0.7 - 1.1 ohm. Need to buy more of those 22uF caps.
No change after caps change or keyboard unplugged or plugged...

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window