The PCB is quite warped because of the high pressure of the cpu cooler mechanism. I wouldn't be surprised if this broke some of the BGA points under the CPU socket.

I stole the AGP MX440 from a working system now and removed the PCI card and it won't give an image on the AGP card.

it could be cracked solder joints under the north bridge chipset. I would remove the heatsink off the chipset and apply pressure with my finger on the chipset's pcb toward the AGP slot, then turn on the board to see if it fixes the agp issue.

Could be. I tried what you suggested and used a little copper heatsink on the die to not kill it. It gets hot fast without anything. It didn't help, unfortunately. I should try the same with the CPU area since it's so warped there..

Don't worry about the warping. They were all like that. Absolutely do not attempt to flatten it.

The cmos sounds are stored in the cmos or southbridge I can't remember. Both are far from the warping.

Starting with the obvious: cmos battery?

The battery is new. I replaced it the moment I got the board as the old one was dead. It holds time and all other settings I change except CPU and mem settings.

All jumpers on the baord are in the default location according to the manual. It does the same without anyother cards or peripherals plugged in except video card.

I tried a floppy too now and it isn't detected. I suspect all these problems are related. I've looked for scratches and there are a few that don't go through the solder mask but I'll have to look harder. I'll also look for blown ferrite beads and damaged passives. There's often damage around the mounting holes as screwdrivers slip but this one was fine there.

The warp is impressive. What a goofy way to mount the cooler on these.

Oh. That triggers a memory.
Look for the datasheet for the superio.
Some of them store the settings.

Personally though, I'd chuck it in the dishwasher (no soap, no battery) and once dry, see if it's still doing it.

The warp is pretty standard for the 478.

I found a blown IC. A GD75232 RS232 line driver/receiver. I can remove it and see if it changes anything if it's drawing currents it shouldn't but It probably only affects com ports. It could be an indication that something really bad happened to the motherboard at some poiint though.

BTW. Drivers for Com ports and LPT wouldn't install in either Win98 or Xp. I figured it was jsut a matter of incompatible drivers. The blown IC could be pulling down or up something from the IO chip that it shouldn't.

Yeah I should clean it in the dishwasher. It's got lots of dust and had a dead bug on it when I got it.

Good news! Removing the blown IC fixed the problems. It now boots with an AGP card and doen't halt after aving the BIOS. 😀 I can start building an awesonee system now. I haven't tried the floppy drive yet but I assume it'll also work.

Nice one.

The integrated sound card even work in DOS with SBEMU.

Ok, this motherboard is great. I installed Windows 98SE and Windows XP on a SATA SSD using the on board SATA without having to use a driver disc, and the sound card works well in DOS.

I ordered a Radeon 9600XT for it today to replace the FX5500 PCI that I'm using now.

Another win for this motherboard. USB mouses work in MS DOS with cutemouse. Even combined mouse/keyboard on one USB works. Even something as modern as a standard Unifying Logitech USB.

The beauty of intel chipsets.
They make damn sure they're binary compatible within reason, and drivers get WHQL'd

Mice... not really that impressive tbh.
They're a 'solved problem'. There's nothing you can add to them to make a new one different to an old one.

I just haven't seen a motherboard before that could use USB HID devices as if they were legacy in DOS.

The only thing I don't like so far is the lack of a gameport. Good thing most games that I need one for also run in Windows 98.