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P100 Hanging at "Updating ESCD"

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Reply 40 of 63, by Horun

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Can you post your boards original "bad" bios ? Just for research..... thanks
be sure to zip it up....

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 42 of 63, by Horun

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Thanks. Aha I see data in a segment that does not belong, might be the corrupt ESCD stuff.
removed my boo-boo

Last edited by Horun on 2023-01-29, 13:33. Edited 1 time in total.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 43 of 63, by maxtherabbit

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I'm starting to suspect that your motherboard cannot write to the flash chip at all. Not due to a damaged flash IC (since you've already replaced it) but possibly due to damage in the motherboard itself.

Also, you have an external EEPROM programmer right? What happens if you try to flash the BIOS in situ using UNIFLASH?

Reply 44 of 63, by Horun

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Good thought Max ! If the chipset is not enabling the Write Enable on the eeprom (when proper registers are called on iirc) then the bios cannot be software flashed and the ESCD cannot write to it.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 45 of 63, by Syntho

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I tried your EEPROM fix. I was met with 3 beeps, then two more beeps, and the two beeps were high and low pitched.

I'm looking up uniflash. The software download link isn't working on the official site. It seems to be DOS-based, and my programmer is a USB model. Not sure how to go about it but I'm looking into trying it. If I have to boot to DOS to use it, I can't use it because I can't get past that part on my PC currently (Updating ESCD comes right before boot).

EDIT: then again I can boot using that other bios to dos, then try flashing. Let me see if I can figure out how to do this...

Reply 46 of 63, by Spitz

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Syntho I may have solution for You. What cache chips are installed on mobo?

On one of my FIC-PA Mobo which I bought as non working I had corrupted cache modules. The option was to set 128, 256, 512 or off. Only 128 or off option work for it. It was freezing at ESCD same spot as in Your case. My opinion is that some of the info given from BIOS my go through cache if this one is enabled and if it's corrupted it will freeze.... Maybe that changed BIOS works in different way.. I dunno.

Anyway I've managed to fix this problem and mobo is usable. I highly recommend to work with switches/jumpers on mobo and try to chceck random options after uploading original BIOS.

Last edited by Spitz on 2023-01-29, 10:17. Edited 1 time in total.

Well... I miss 80/90s ... End of story

Reply 47 of 63, by Syntho

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Spitz wrote on 2023-01-29, 10:04:

Syntho I may have solution for You. What cache chips are installed on mobo?

On one of my FIC-PA Mobo which I bought as non working I had corrupted cache modules. The option was to set 128, 256, 512 or off. Only 128 or off option work for it. It was freezing at ESCD same spot as on Your case.

AA26256AK-15

I believe it's 256k worth. I ripped all of them out and tried disabling External Cache in the bios but it wouldn't work.

Reply 48 of 63, by Spitz

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Syntho wrote on 2023-01-29, 10:17:
Spitz wrote on 2023-01-29, 10:04:

Syntho I may have solution for You. What cache chips are installed on mobo?

On one of my FIC-PA Mobo which I bought as non working I had corrupted cache modules. The option was to set 128, 256, 512 or off. Only 128 or off option work for it. It was freezing at ESCD same spot as on Your case.

AA26256AK-15

I believe it's 256k worth. I ripped all of them out and tried disabling External Cache in the bios but it wouldn't work.

Try disabling on MOBO, not in BIOS only. I can see You can set it to 128 or 0 - try it. IT MUST be disabled if a cache is faulty or not present on both BIOS and physically on the motherboard.

One more remark, if You're using SRAM cache memory plugged into slot it won't work together with onboard cache.

Well... I miss 80/90s ... End of story

Reply 50 of 63, by Spitz

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Syntho wrote on 2023-01-29, 10:38:

I moved the jumper to the off position and still no dice. Going to try uniflash now...

Syntho one more thing. Try to unplug HDD out just to see if it will go through this damn ESCD...

Well... I miss 80/90s ... End of story

Reply 51 of 63, by Syntho

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Spitz wrote on 2023-01-29, 10:45:
Syntho wrote on 2023-01-29, 10:38:

I moved the jumper to the off position and still no dice. Going to try uniflash now...

Syntho one more thing. Try to unplug HDD out just to see if it will go through this damn ESCD...

Yep, tried that too.

Also, I just discovered that the alternate bios I tried doesn't let the floppy drive work. Can't boot or copy files, and thus can't use uniflash. Have to find another workaround now.

Reply 52 of 63, by Syntho

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OK, I got the floppy working and successfully used uniflash. It didn't help, however. Still stuck on Updating ESCD.

I noticed that when no cards are in the system (even a video card!) it seems to boot and I can tell by the HD crunching away. That's probably because by chance, the last time ESCD updated successfully, no cards were in the system. I've got two known good video cards and the system once worked fine with both, so the cards themselves aren't the issue.

There is one very last thing I'm going to try. It's a long shot but there is a capacitor in the area that has a slightly bulging top. It isn't bad, it's just not flat like the others. There's no green stuff anywhere either. Gonna have to order it as I don't have any exact replacements on hand.

Reply 53 of 63, by Syntho

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Look at the bigger caps at the top left and right. These are near the CPU. Ignore the smaller ones in the middle. The right one has a slightly bulging top as compared to its sister on the left. I doubt this is much of a problem but it's the only one that looks suspect. I also did a visual trace and it doesn't go back to the EEPROM area. The other caps look fine.

I'm out of ideas guys.

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Reply 54 of 63, by Spitz

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Do You have spare coin battery? This maxell looks that was here from the beginning and would have to be changed. Worth to change this cap as well or maybe change all of them to be sure. Caps can dry out and don't have to leak. For example in Amiga 500/Amiga 500+ they dry out but in Amiga 600, 1200, CD32 they leak. But that You may know already. I wonder why it seems to boot without problem after unpluging cards. Do You have other cards to try it? Maybe to change from isa to pci etc.

Well... I miss 80/90s ... End of story

Reply 55 of 63, by Syntho

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Guys I think I have CRACKED THE CODE!!! Not out of the water yet because I have to test more but I just got it to work 2 times in a row.

It isn't the bios. It isn't a bad cap. It isn't bad cache. It isn't bad PCI/ISA cards. It's...

The Front Panel Header.

This whole time I'm trying to hunt down an issue elsewhere but when I unplugged the front panel connectors, it worked. I thought it was a fluke (I had it work a couple times with them plugged in by chance) but I plugged all the cables back in (took a pic before hand) and it stopped working again. Then I realized the only thing that changed was the FP header, so I unplugged them all again and it worked fine.

I took a brief look at the manual and there is a turbo thing and an SMI thing. I must have had something hooked up to the wrong pins.

https://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/archive/Azza/m … ual/5is/5is.pdf

Look on page 4-5 for a description but also 3-1 for the layout. I remember not understanding exactly where to put everything because the manual is confusing.

I'm gonna go do some testing and be back later.

Can you guys guess as to which one of these things was the culprit? I'm gonna guess the SMI thing. I don't even know what that is.

Reply 56 of 63, by Horun

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Syntho wrote on 2023-01-29, 13:32:
Guys I think I have CRACKED THE CODE!!! Not out of the water yet because I have to test more but I just got it to work 2 times i […]
Show full quote

Guys I think I have CRACKED THE CODE!!! Not out of the water yet because I have to test more but I just got it to work 2 times in a row.

It isn't the bios. It isn't a bad cap. It isn't bad cache. It isn't bad PCI/ISA cards. It's...

The Front Panel Header.

This whole time I'm trying to hunt down an issue elsewhere but when I unplugged the front panel connectors, it worked. I thought it was a fluke (I had it work a couple times with them plugged in by chance) but I plugged all the cables back in (took a pic before hand) and it stopped working again. Then I realized the only thing that changed was the FP header, so I unplugged them all again and it worked fine.

I took a brief look at the manual and there is a turbo thing and an SMI thing. I must have had something hooked up to the wrong pins.
Can you guys guess as to which one of these things was the culprit? I'm gonna guess the SMI thing. I don't even know what that is.

Wow never suspected you had that jumpered/switched on. The SMI is a Suspend Mode or "System Management Interrupts are high priority unmaskable hardware interrupts which cause the CPU to immediately suspend all other activities, including the operating system.." so yes if jumpered during boot up would halt the system after loading bios.
That means the original BIOS is probably good !

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 58 of 63, by Nexxen

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Horun wrote on 2023-01-29, 14:01:
Syntho wrote on 2023-01-29, 13:32:
Guys I think I have CRACKED THE CODE!!! Not out of the water yet because I have to test more but I just got it to work 2 times i […]
Show full quote

Guys I think I have CRACKED THE CODE!!! Not out of the water yet because I have to test more but I just got it to work 2 times in a row.

It isn't the bios. It isn't a bad cap. It isn't bad cache. It isn't bad PCI/ISA cards. It's...

The Front Panel Header.

This whole time I'm trying to hunt down an issue elsewhere but when I unplugged the front panel connectors, it worked. I thought it was a fluke (I had it work a couple times with them plugged in by chance) but I plugged all the cables back in (took a pic before hand) and it stopped working again. Then I realized the only thing that changed was the FP header, so I unplugged them all again and it worked fine.

I took a brief look at the manual and there is a turbo thing and an SMI thing. I must have had something hooked up to the wrong pins.
Can you guys guess as to which one of these things was the culprit? I'm gonna guess the SMI thing. I don't even know what that is.

Wow never suspected you had that jumpered/switched on. The SMI is a Suspend Mode or "System Management Interrupts are high priority unmaskable hardware interrupts which cause the CPU to immediately suspend all other activities, including the operating system.." so yes if jumpered during boot up would halt the system after loading bios.
That means the original BIOS is probably good !

Added this to my notes on troubleshooting.
I never used those "green function" or "suspend mode" as I never found them useful (my opinion).
---------------

@syntho: I'm happy it works and you have it back on track for some further use 😀

PC#1 Pentium 233 MMX - 98SE
PC#2 PIII-1Ghz - 98SE/W2K

Reply 59 of 63, by Syntho

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I had nothing plugged into the SMI pins. Turns out it was the Turbo cable/pins. I've never set up turbo before. Maybe I'll look into it. For now I'm going to leave both the Turbo and its LED unplugged altogether.

Will keep building the system back little by little and give an update in a bit...

PS: yep, that bios is fine. Feel free to upload it to those websites mentioned here.