Before having the proper Intel bios chip, the board worked with pci gpu only.
Now at least I can use a Voodoo 3000 AGP.
With other cards the system won’t complete post and it stops at “D3-14” again.

I suspect that the issue again is at bios level, not able to handle properly AGP cards more recent than a Voodoo /TNT2 and similar.

Arything bios savvy users here could do about it?

Mamba wrote on 2025-01-03, 13:20:

Before having the proper Intel bios chip, the board worked with pci gpu only. Now at least I can use a Voodoo 3000 AGP. With oth […]
Show full quote

Before having the proper Intel bios chip, the board worked with pci gpu only.
Now at least I can use a Voodoo 3000 AGP.
With other cards the system won’t complete post and it stops at “D3-14” again.

I suspect that the issue again is at bios level, not able to handle properly AGP cards more recent than a Voodoo /TNT2 and similar.

Arything bios savvy users here could do about it?

An idea, test equal or lower ram size card.
Maybe there is some issue in ram test. Wild guess, no facts to back it.

https://theretroweb.com/chipset/documentation … 2e390624871.pdf
Use a non Ultra Ata drive?

https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/29 … 27256163753.pdf
PAge 26, maybe a missing signal? Broken trace?

This is just me throwing things at you hoping they yield anything.
As a F205, make it happen 😉 Taaac!

Nexxen wrote on 2025-01-03, 13:57:

An idea, test equal or lower ram size card. Maybe there is some issue in ram test. Wild guess, no facts to back it. […]
Show full quote

Mamba wrote on 2025-01-03, 13:20:

Before having the proper Intel bios chip, the board worked with pci gpu only. Now at least I can use a Voodoo 3000 AGP. With oth […]
Show full quote

Before having the proper Intel bios chip, the board worked with pci gpu only.
Now at least I can use a Voodoo 3000 AGP.
With other cards the system won’t complete post and it stops at “D3-14” again.

I suspect that the issue again is at bios level, not able to handle properly AGP cards more recent than a Voodoo /TNT2 and similar.

Arything bios savvy users here could do about it?

An idea, test equal or lower ram size card.
Maybe there is some issue in ram test. Wild guess, no facts to back it.

https://theretroweb.com/chipset/documentation … 2e390624871.pdf
Use a non Ultra Ata drive?

https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/29 … 27256163753.pdf
PAge 26, maybe a missing signal? Broken trace?

This is just me throwing things at you hoping they yield anything.
As a F205, make it happen 😉 Taaac!

Thanks,
About the size of gpu, not sure I understand.

I am using an external SATA controller that perfectly works with the agp voodoo

I am not able to see pcb damages or cuts, but maybe it’s me (would not be the first time).

Mamba wrote on 2025-01-03, 14:15:

Your V3000 has xxMB or ram.
With xx or lower, does the board post with another video card that has xx or lower amount of ram? Does AGP 1-2-4x make a difference?
Maybe there is a problem addressing more than that amount of video ram.

Nexxen wrote on 2025-01-03, 14:33:

Your V3000 has xxMB or ram. With xx or lower, does the board post with another video card that has xx or lower amount of ram? Do […]
Show full quote

Mamba wrote on 2025-01-03, 14:15:

Your V3000 has xxMB or ram.
With xx or lower, does the board post with another video card that has xx or lower amount of ram? Does AGP 1-2-4x make a difference?
Maybe there is a problem addressing more than that amount of video ram.

Ah now I understand.
I don’t have agp cards with less than 16MB of ram, except the voodoo of course.
PCI cards work fine with 32 or more.

My suspects are on the poor bios, with no updates at all.

It is also possible that the board has damages and/or drained capacitors around the cpu slots, but I cannot see anything.
Here attached if you want to take a look.

You're only going to find out if you remove them and measure them...

Have you tried any Radeon cards?

tauro wrote on 2025-01-03, 21:51:

You're only going to find out if you remove them and measure them...

Have you tried any Radeon cards?

No.
I have a 9250. Why?

If it's not a hardware thing, then it's likely to be a BIOS limitation.

I read you tried Nvidia cards and they didn't work, so I thought maybe an AGP Radeon card could be compatible.

I remember having problems with AGP cards on a 440EX chipset. Some worked, other didn't. I distinctly remember that a Voodoo 3 indeed worked.

As I mentioned earlier, the board had a rep for being extremely picky about which AGP cards of the time would work (Voodoo 3 / Banshee, Matrox G400, Rage 128, Nvidia GF2 GTS / TNT2 / GF 256) so not sure it'll behave any better with anything more recent.

Whether this was a BIOS issue (there were only ever 4 releases + possibly 1 beta in the couple of months following the board launch) or as a result of the stability issues with the i840 / MRH-S / SDRAM combo, it seems that SM hooked their range of such boards not long after (there may also have been a replacement program of sorts when the RDRAM-based P3 DRx range launched a month or two later)

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-01-04, 05:12:

As I mentioned earlier, the board had a rep for being extremely picky about which AGP cards of the time would work (Voodoo 3 / Banshee, Matrox G400, Rage 128, Nvidia GF2 GTS / TNT2 / GF 256) so not sure it'll behave any better with anything more recent.

Whether this was a BIOS issue (there were only ever 4 releases + possibly 1 beta in the couple of months following the board launch) or as a result of the stability issues with the i840 / MTH / SDRAM combo, it seems that SM hooked their range of such boards not long after (there may also have been a replacement program of sorts when the RDRAM-based P3 DRx range launched a month or two later)

At this point I would be happy if my GTS would work, but it is not.

I am trying other CPUs I have.
Another Pentium II 266 boots but is recognised as “unknown” and at 200mhz

The only thing I can try is to put in a native slot-1 coppermine to dismiss problems between the slotket and the motherboard (very unlikely).

But I haven’t it

Tested again the voodoo 3000. Rock solid
The same for a Rage pro 8mb I had.
Radeon 9500 is a no go.
It seems that anything not 3.3v won’t work (D3-14).

Mamba wrote on 2025-01-04, 05:51:

At this point I would be happy if my GTS would work, but it is not. […]
Show full quote

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-01-04, 05:12:

As I mentioned earlier, the board had a rep for being extremely picky about which AGP cards of the time would work (Voodoo 3 / Banshee, Matrox G400, Rage 128, Nvidia GF2 GTS / TNT2 / GF 256) so not sure it'll behave any better with anything more recent.

Whether this was a BIOS issue (there were only ever 4 releases + possibly 1 beta in the couple of months following the board launch) or as a result of the stability issues with the i840 / MTH / SDRAM combo, it seems that SM hooked their range of such boards not long after (there may also have been a replacement program of sorts when the RDRAM-based P3 DRx range launched a month or two later)

At this point I would be happy if my GTS would work, but it is not.

I am trying other CPUs I have.
Another Pentium II 266 boots but is recognised as “unknown” and at 200mhz

The only thing I can try is to put in a native slot-1 coppermine to dismiss problems between the slotket and the motherboard (very unlikely).

But I haven’t it

At this point it screams BIOS problems, needing and update.
Too bad Intel didn't issue one.

You know that it is 3.3V only. At least one clear info.

I think I will give up with that thing.

i wish i could find one of these boards in the US. i've got a "collection" of supermicro boards and I dont have this one. ^.^