Might want to get a diagnostic card. Is anything getting warm?

supercordo wrote on 2024-01-05, 23:57:

Might want to get a diagnostic card. Is anything getting warm?

I’ve got one of those on the way from amazon tomorrow so hopefully gives a better idea.

Nothing feels warm to the touch even after left on for a while that I can tell - but I could just be missing something again

Is the board in a case, or are you bench testing it? A standard suggestion in cases like this is to remove the board from the case (assuming it is in one) and set it up on a table top. Since I have one, I always set mine up on an anti static mat; before I had one, I used to use a cut open anti static bag. A POST speaker, ram, and video card and nothing else.

Do you have any SDRAM around to try instead of the EDO?

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-01-06, 01:26:

Is the board in a case, or are you bench testing it? A standard suggestion in cases like this is to remove the board from the case (assuming it is in one) and set it up on a table top. Since I have one, I always set mine up on an anti static mat; before I had one, I used to use a cut open anti static bag. A POST speaker, ram, and video card and nothing else.

Do you have any SDRAM around to try instead of the EDO?

Bench testing - I did have it in a case initially but pulled it out when I realised I was having issues. Sat on the anti static bag it came in. I’ve tried running with no RAM at all as I figured that would give some sort of beep error code through the speaker but nothing - I dont have any spares of anything which is the annoying part. But currently nothing hooked up but the cpu and ram - have tried both with and without the video card installed

Diagnostics card is a must have for this hobby. They only like $10.

Off the top of my head, I think the voltage setting on that board is quite low with no jumper, which if voltage jumper making a bad connection may be too low to attempt POST/BOOT so give the voltage jumper a good jiggle up and down to scrape off possible oxides and see if it shows life then.

Taylor235 wrote on 2024-01-05, 23:44:

Hi all New here and on this scene so excuse me if I’m missing the blatantly obvious somewhere! My first time attempting to put a […]
Show full quote

Hi all
New here and on this scene so excuse me if I’m missing the blatantly obvious somewhere!
My first time attempting to put a nice old school rig together. Have picked up a socket 7 board - an MSI MS-5158 TX5. Came with a pentium 166 MMX and 32MB of EDO RAM. Seller showed the board tested and working prior to purchase. I’m no expert but I know enough about more modern systems so when I plugged everything in and got no output to the display and no POST beep, I did the normal troubleshooting - reseated the CPU, RAM, resetting the CMOS, replacing the battery but still not booting. Tried running without any expansion cards, without RAM, without the CPU in all different combinations but I am completely lost on this one.

When powered on the CPU fan does spin up, and the light on the SATA-IDE adapter I’m using turns on. Seller suggested that some boards require a -5v rail to work but I didn’t think that was usually the case? Also mentioned an issue they’d noticed where it would occasionally boot with the wrong clock speed recognised and they had to “jiggle” the dip switches - I’ve confirmed that both the jumpers and dip switches are set correctly, even tried underclocking but still to no avail… and I can’t even get as far as the POST to see that anyway! So really stumped here! Any advice would be appreciated.

Your ATX to AT power adapter is working properly?

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-01-06, 04:25:

Off the top of my head, I think the voltage setting on that board is quite low with no jumper, which if voltage jumper making a bad connection may be too low to attempt POST/BOOT so give the voltage jumper a good jiggle up and down to scrape off possible oxides and see if it shows life then.

Have just tried this - also tried swapping the jumper for a spare but still no signs of life. 🙁

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-01-06, 09:02:

Taylor235 wrote on 2024-01-05, 23:44:

Hi all New here and on this scene so excuse me if I’m missing the blatantly obvious somewhere! My first time attempting to put a […]
Show full quote

Hi all
New here and on this scene so excuse me if I’m missing the blatantly obvious somewhere!
My first time attempting to put a nice old school rig together. Have picked up a socket 7 board - an MSI MS-5158 TX5. Came with a pentium 166 MMX and 32MB of EDO RAM. Seller showed the board tested and working prior to purchase. I’m no expert but I know enough about more modern systems so when I plugged everything in and got no output to the display and no POST beep, I did the normal troubleshooting - reseated the CPU, RAM, resetting the CMOS, replacing the battery but still not booting. Tried running without any expansion cards, without RAM, without the CPU in all different combinations but I am completely lost on this one.

When powered on the CPU fan does spin up, and the light on the SATA-IDE adapter I’m using turns on. Seller suggested that some boards require a -5v rail to work but I didn’t think that was usually the case? Also mentioned an issue they’d noticed where it would occasionally boot with the wrong clock speed recognised and they had to “jiggle” the dip switches - I’ve confirmed that both the jumpers and dip switches are set correctly, even tried underclocking but still to no avail… and I can’t even get as far as the POST to see that anyway! So really stumped here! Any advice would be appreciated.

Your ATX to AT power adapter is working properly?

It’s an ATX board so takes 20 pin power.

Update! I’m not actually sure what I did to fix it but I do now get some form of POST - in one long beep and three short beeps - which I believe to be a memory error? Is that correct and how can I go about troubleshooting it? I’ve removed one of the sticks so now only one inserted, have tried this for both sticks individually but still getting the same beeps.

Taylor235 wrote on 2024-01-06, 11:55:

Update! I’m not actually sure what I did to fix it but I do now get some form of POST - in one long beep and three short beeps - which I believe to be a memory error? Is that correct and how can I go about troubleshooting it? I’ve removed one of the sticks so now only one inserted, have tried this for both sticks individually but still getting the same beeps.

Clean the memory stick connectors with IPA and blow out the memory slots with air or use a clean toothbrush. Also double check all jumpers are configured correctly.

Taylor235 wrote on 2024-01-06, 11:55:

Update! I’m not actually sure what I did to fix it but I do now get some form of POST - in one long beep and three short beeps - which I believe to be a memory error? Is that correct and how can I go about troubleshooting it?

Depending on the BIOS, it could also indicate a video card problem.

I'd try a different video card if possible.

Taylor235 wrote on 2024-01-06, 11:55:

Update! I’m not actually sure what I did to fix it but I do now get some form of POST - in one long beep and three short beeps - which I believe to be a memory error? Is that correct and how can I go about troubleshooting it? I’ve removed one of the sticks so now only one inserted, have tried this for both sticks individually but still getting the same beeps.

It is weird that you said nothing is getting warm, because the CPU is starting otherwise there would be no beeps.
Never mind.

So what RAM are you using? 2 times 16MB EDO 72pin? If yes, you cannot just use one, it needs to be installed as a pair (pentium uses 64 bit memory).
So try a different RAM pair.

One long and three short beeps is Award BIOS' way to signal that no GPU was found. It's not the main RAM you need to swap now, but the GPU.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-01-06, 16:07:

One long and three short beeps is Award BIOS' way to signal that no GPU was found. It's not the main RAM you need to swap now, but the GPU.

Might be true.
But when he gets the same beeps with 2 or only one 72pin modules, then it must be the RAM. The board needs 2 72 pin modules.

IIRC if it was a incompatible RAM it'd scream a long beep, and we don't know what GPU is used.

Alternatively, if the beeps are a slight pitch lower in tone, that is a S3 GPU specific beep. You only get that if you don't connect a monitor to any S3 card pre-Savage 4.

So, first of all, if the MB has an ISA slot, I would use a VGA ISA, from there either the acoustic signal (beep) disappears, or nothing changes, in my opinion with the VGA ISA, you could have a screen on the screen (BIOS) , but you need to use a pair of 72 PIN RAMs, possibly identical.

Agreed with above - 2x 72p SIMM needed. Apart from that, keep it simple: disconnect everything except CPU, VGA and those two SIMMs. It's not likely that SATA-PATA adapters are causing the problem, but only way to be sure is to remove them and everything else from the equation.