Try any PCI GPU. 2F seems to be GPU not found on AMI BIOSes.

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-14, 13:13:

So I make a brief summary, on the Compaq Camaro (Mitac 5114VU), using the RAM and the CPU K6-2-475, at startup on the post card […]
Show full quote

So I make a brief summary, on the Compaq Camaro (Mitac 5114VU), using the RAM and the CPU K6-2-475, at startup on the post card some codes are displayed, but in short it stops on 2F 2E, but usually I do these boot tests, without any drive.
From what I understand instead, if there is no drive connected, it may not start (?).
But on my motherboard, despite trying many times to start, I don't have any video screen, I think I also tried with a PCI video card, thinking that the integrated one could be defective.
So I think I'll do it in the next few days, a short test, with some drives connected, using a Samsung HD, and a 1.44MB floppy player 💾, who knows if in this way, I can see progress, or even a BIOS screen on the monitor.?

I can confirm that the CAMARO starts without a floppy drive attached because I start mine a few times and it did display an error message

I attached a WD hard drive with 640mb with MS-DOS and it still freezes after trying to access the disk drive

The ram I used is the one shown .. i tried other rams and it always complained by not booting or failing the memory test
everytime it didnt like the ram it would display some random POST code

Let me know if you want me to do some measurements on my board to try to help troubleshoot yours

Nuno

Nunoalex wrote on 2025-09-14, 17:44:

I can confirm that the CAMARO starts without a floppy drive attached because I start mine a few times and it did display an erro […]
Show full quote

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-14, 13:13:

So I make a brief summary, on the Compaq Camaro (Mitac 5114VU), using the RAM and the CPU K6-2-475, at startup on the post card […]
Show full quote

So I make a brief summary, on the Compaq Camaro (Mitac 5114VU), using the RAM and the CPU K6-2-475, at startup on the post card some codes are displayed, but in short it stops on 2F 2E, but usually I do these boot tests, without any drive.
From what I understand instead, if there is no drive connected, it may not start (?).
But on my motherboard, despite trying many times to start, I don't have any video screen, I think I also tried with a PCI video card, thinking that the integrated one could be defective.
So I think I'll do it in the next few days, a short test, with some drives connected, using a Samsung HD, and a 1.44MB floppy player 💾, who knows if in this way, I can see progress, or even a BIOS screen on the monitor.?

I can confirm that the CAMARO starts without a floppy drive attached because I start mine a few times and it did display an error message

I attached a WD hard drive with 640mb with MS-DOS and it still freezes after trying to access the disk drive

The ram I used is the one shown .. i tried other rams and it always complained by not booting or failing the memory test
everytime it didnt like the ram it would display some random POST code

Let me know if you want me to do some measurements on my board to try to help troubleshoot yours

Nuno

Thanks a lot Nuno
Today I recovered the motherboard, which I keep in a (self-built) file, it was very easy to find it, while in the past I had to search among various boards in different boxes.
I also recovered an old 4.3 GB Samsung HD 🇬🇧, I will only need this to try the boot, later I will use another one, probably of similar capacity and different brand, I just have to find a 40 PIN IDE cable, I have some 80 PIN, but I should have another 40 ones somewhere.
Since it will work without a floppy reader 💾, I avoid connecting it, eventually if you need it I have one ready that I use to reprogram the BIOS, but I probably shouldn't need it, I think it's possible that the failure to start, depended on the RAM, I tried some modules, but I don't think they were the same (or similar) to the one you use, I should have one in one of my PCs, unfortunately it won't be easy to find it, I hope to find it and at that point, if I'm lucky 🍀 I could solve it.
For the moment I wouldn't make some measurements, if this test with RAM and HD fails, or I get other post codes, maybe 🤔 I'll tell you which measurements could be needed, but overall the motherboard seemed very tidy to me, maybe first I can look at some points under the microscope, hoping to find something.

kotel wrote on 2025-09-14, 13:23:

Try any PCI GPU. 2F seems to be GPU not found on AMI BIOSes.

Yes, I'll try first with the RAM like Nuno's, with a 4.3 GB Samsung HD 🇬🇧, without a floppy player, then if it doesn't display anything on video, or doesn't change anything by locking on the same post card codes, I'll try it with a VGA PCI, I have to find a 40PIN IDE cable, then I would be able to do startup tests.
I hope to make some progress, or even to solve, clearly in this last case, I shouldn't worry about updating the BIOS, but I reflected that the failure, could be the result of a BIOS update that went wrong, I came across my paws 🐾, various motherboards with corrupted or damaged BIOS, unfortunately here the chip is welded, and for the moment it is a problem not a small problem.

I have almost everything ready to try the Camaro, I found a second RAM module, only 16 MB, with four chips on one side, the chips have the same acronym as the RAM used by Nuno, the module is definitely working, because I recently tested several, and I only kept the ones that work.
Theoretically, if all goes well, I should be able to start the PC, in fact I'm not really convinced that it works, it's also true that I could have done something wrong, in the previous tests at the bench, but it's also true that, sometimes without the right RAM, the PC either doesn't start or can start and give an error, usually some beeps would be heard by the speaker 🔊, here unfortunately there is no place to connect an external one.
This would be very useful, if I could listen to the sequence of beeps emitted at startup, I would understand what the problem is, it is true that I see the post codes on the PCI post-card, but it would help to know if it emits any beeps or not.

I made some attempts with the Compaq Camaro, currently I can't do better, on the post card it displays 2F 2E, it can't continue, I tried to leave it on to see if maybe it changed codes, but nothing!
I didn't expect anything strange, I thought that the problem of not starting could be due to RAM, and if the modules used by Compaq are the same as others from different manufacturers, I don't think 2F 2E is caused by incompatible RAM, but I think that almost all the RAM tested works, or rather it would work if the card started, because if there was this RAM problem, I would see in the post card the codes 47 43, in particular the 47 should report the RAM problem.
I tried a couple of VGA PCI, no BIOS screen, both with the built-in VGA and with the PCI video cards, so I would rule out this problem, unless it displays something outside the visible area on the screen, I don't think it's possible, because if I'm not mistaken, the first screen, should be the blue one with the Compaq logo in the center.
Another attempt, using a 4.3 GB Samsung HD 🇬🇧, connected via IDE 40PIN cable, the noises it makes at startup, they seem normal, this would mean that the BIOS should have recognized it and should start it (later), also tried two different IDE CF adapters, nothing changes.
I thought that maybe 🤔, I could try to put a Pentium CPU (not MMX), to see if there is any difference, for the record the jumpers should be moved, or alternatively I could use a 200 MHz K6 CPU, this just to see if maybe 🤔 the CPU has some problem, I think I've already tried other K6-2 CPUs, and so I don't think I'd get different post codes.
Last thing, I saw from my notes, that the voltages on the mosfet and regulators, are I would say normal, in a PIN there are about 2.2V, which would be the voltage 😬 VCORE, maybe I could as a last attempt, see if the 2.2V reach socket 7, from memory I don't remember what the PINs are on socket 7, but if I'm not mistaken there are several, not just one.

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve the problem(?).
I saw that it uses a homemade BIOS 🏠, actually it could be a custom BIOS by Compaq produced by the usual Award AMI or Phoenix, while searching for the 2F error code, I found more likely the correspondence to "Write to diagnostic byte", and so it seems that it has a diagnostic problem, what causes it at the moment I don't know 😐, or if this problem is due to corruption or damage to the BIOS (?).
It would be useful to know if in a card in these conditions, you can force the Recovery BIOS, since the chip is welded, and you can't remove it to reprogram it, of course the floppy player should be connected 💾, and after downloading a correct version (original Compaq), you should wait for it to rewrite the chip, honestly I don't know what the previous owner of this motherboard did, it would help a lot to know if he tried to update or rewrite the BIOS chip (?).
I didn't fix myself with the BIOS failure, but from previous experiences with other MB, I could say that it can be quite likely, unfortunately in this MB you can't connect a speaker 🔊, it would be very useful to know if and how many beeps it emits, unfortunately 😣 on the BIOS subject my knowledge is minimal, while on the error codes I have accumulated some experience, thanks to several MB, and sometimes the best thing is to exclude problems due to the BIOS, if the card is in excellent condition, or if after the repairs the card still does not start properly.
Following the YouTube videos (by friends of Vogons), I noticed that they almost always perform a BIOS reprogramming, sometimes because the BIOS chip is missing, other times instead to make corrections, or add support to other CPUs (newer), however it is, it is usually successful and starts normally.

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-25, 07:42:

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve […]
Show full quote

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve the problem(?).
I saw that it uses a homemade BIOS 🏠, actually it could be a custom BIOS by Compaq produced by the usual Award AMI or Phoenix, while searching for the 2F error code, I found more likely the correspondence to "Write to diagnostic byte", and so it seems that it has a diagnostic problem, what causes it at the moment I don't know 😐, or if this problem is due to corruption or damage to the BIOS (?).
It would be useful to know if in a card in these conditions, you can force the Recovery BIOS, since the chip is welded, and you can't remove it to reprogram it, of course the floppy player should be connected 💾, and after downloading a correct version (original Compaq), you should wait for it to rewrite the chip, honestly I don't know what the previous owner of this motherboard did, it would help a lot to know if he tried to update or rewrite the BIOS chip (?).
I didn't fix myself with the BIOS failure, but from previous experiences with other MB, I could say that it can be quite likely, unfortunately in this MB you can't connect a speaker 🔊, it would be very useful to know if and how many beeps it emits, unfortunately 😣 on the BIOS subject my knowledge is minimal, while on the error codes I have accumulated some experience, thanks to several MB, and sometimes the best thing is to exclude problems due to the BIOS, if the card is in excellent condition, or if after the repairs the card still does not start properly.
Following the YouTube videos (by friends of Vogons), I noticed that they almost always perform a BIOS reprogramming, sometimes because the BIOS chip is missing, other times instead to make corrections, or add support to other CPUs (newer), however it is, it is usually successful and starts normally.

I'm sorry you are not being able to bring this board back to life

it is a very interesting board ... the first socket 7 I seen without ISA slots and fully ATX with onboard sound

This weekend I will try a diskette with a copy of the bios that is on the retro web to see if the bios restores itself... but I have no idea what filename the recovery process is expecting

good luck

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-25, 07:42:

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve […]
Show full quote

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve the problem(?).
I saw that it uses a homemade BIOS 🏠, actually it could be a custom BIOS by Compaq produced by the usual Award AMI or Phoenix, while searching for the 2F error code, I found more likely the correspondence to "Write to diagnostic byte", and so it seems that it has a diagnostic problem, what causes it at the moment I don't know 😐, or if this problem is due to corruption or damage to the BIOS (?).
It would be useful to know if in a card in these conditions, you can force the Recovery BIOS, since the chip is welded, and you can't remove it to reprogram it, of course the floppy player should be connected 💾, and after downloading a correct version (original Compaq), you should wait for it to rewrite the chip, honestly I don't know what the previous owner of this motherboard did, it would help a lot to know if he tried to update or rewrite the BIOS chip (?).
I didn't fix myself with the BIOS failure, but from previous experiences with other MB, I could say that it can be quite likely, unfortunately in this MB you can't connect a speaker 🔊, it would be very useful to know if and how many beeps it emits, unfortunately 😣 on the BIOS subject my knowledge is minimal, while on the error codes I have accumulated some experience, thanks to several MB, and sometimes the best thing is to exclude problems due to the BIOS, if the card is in excellent condition, or if after the repairs the card still does not start properly.
Following the YouTube videos (by friends of Vogons), I noticed that they almost always perform a BIOS reprogramming, sometimes because the BIOS chip is missing, other times instead to make corrections, or add support to other CPUs (newer), however it is, it is usually successful and starts normally.

Hi PC@LIVE,

I see you already had great help with your Compaq Camaro (Mitac 5114VU) board.
I will try to add with my view on the BIOS issue.

As you report the hang at POST codes 2E 2F, I believe this board doesn’t have the Compaq AMI BIOS but has been updated with a Mitac v6.00PG Award BIOS.
These POST codes are more in line with this BIOS core version. Looking at: https://blog.theretroweb.com/2024/01/20/award … /#Version_600PG I see that usually POST 2D put the first messages on the screen and POST 2F is reserved, but that can be different on the Mitac BIOS.

I think the BIOS on your board is OK because at POST 2F the BIOS has already proceeded way past the steps where the BIOS performs all its checksum and integrity checks.

Does your POST analyzer card have a button to step through all previously logged POST codes? If so, and if you see the codes go back from 2F to 01 and then show C5, C3, C1, and C0, then we know for sure that your BIOS is a v6.00PG from Award.
Please let me know if you see this, so I can analyze the Mitac BIOS to see what it is doing in POST step 2F.

Ciao, Jan

Nunoalex wrote on 2025-09-25, 10:40:

I'm sorry you are not being able to bring this board back to life […]
Show full quote

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-25, 07:42:

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve […]
Show full quote

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve the problem(?).
I saw that it uses a homemade BIOS 🏠, actually it could be a custom BIOS by Compaq produced by the usual Award AMI or Phoenix, while searching for the 2F error code, I found more likely the correspondence to "Write to diagnostic byte", and so it seems that it has a diagnostic problem, what causes it at the moment I don't know 😐, or if this problem is due to corruption or damage to the BIOS (?).
It would be useful to know if in a card in these conditions, you can force the Recovery BIOS, since the chip is welded, and you can't remove it to reprogram it, of course the floppy player should be connected 💾, and after downloading a correct version (original Compaq), you should wait for it to rewrite the chip, honestly I don't know what the previous owner of this motherboard did, it would help a lot to know if he tried to update or rewrite the BIOS chip (?).
I didn't fix myself with the BIOS failure, but from previous experiences with other MB, I could say that it can be quite likely, unfortunately in this MB you can't connect a speaker 🔊, it would be very useful to know if and how many beeps it emits, unfortunately 😣 on the BIOS subject my knowledge is minimal, while on the error codes I have accumulated some experience, thanks to several MB, and sometimes the best thing is to exclude problems due to the BIOS, if the card is in excellent condition, or if after the repairs the card still does not start properly.
Following the YouTube videos (by friends of Vogons), I noticed that they almost always perform a BIOS reprogramming, sometimes because the BIOS chip is missing, other times instead to make corrections, or add support to other CPUs (newer), however it is, it is usually successful and starts normally.

I'm sorry you are not being able to bring this board back to life

it is a very interesting board ... the first socket 7 I seen without ISA slots and fully ATX with onboard sound

This weekend I will try a diskette with a copy of the bios that is on the retro web to see if the bios restores itself... but I have no idea what filename the recovery process is expecting

good luck

Hi Nuno
Thank you for your suggestions, I don't think my motherboard has a hw failure, I suspect the problem is due to a corrupt or poorly updated BIOS, I'm interested in making it work, because it has the MVP4 chipset, which makes it interesting at least for me.
Unfortunately, since there is no ISA slot, it is not possible to use a VGA ISA, usually with this kind of card, you can see on the screen if the PC tries the Recovery BIOS.
It was still useful for me to do further tests, because from what I saw, I would exclude a memory problem, it is true that I did not find among my RAM modules, one identical to yours, but I tried some modules that had the same acronyms on the chips, and that maybe were very similar, the card in theory can use RAM up to 256 MB, for a maximum total of 512 MB (256 X2).
Regarding your motherboard, you should try to see if it tries to read the floppy 💾, if you have the BIOS screen (video), you should follow the instructions related to the BIOS that you will use to update, maybe you just need to type the name of the file, for AMI BIOS just put the file in a blank disc and rename it AMIBOOT I think . BIN, but for BIOS Award or similar, maybe the disk should be bootable, if I remember correctly.

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-09-25, 13:33:

Hi PC@LIVE, […]
Show full quote

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-25, 07:42:

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve […]
Show full quote

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve the problem(?).
I saw that it uses a homemade BIOS 🏠, actually it could be a custom BIOS by Compaq produced by the usual Award AMI or Phoenix, while searching for the 2F error code, I found more likely the correspondence to "Write to diagnostic byte", and so it seems that it has a diagnostic problem, what causes it at the moment I don't know 😐, or if this problem is due to corruption or damage to the BIOS (?).
It would be useful to know if in a card in these conditions, you can force the Recovery BIOS, since the chip is welded, and you can't remove it to reprogram it, of course the floppy player should be connected 💾, and after downloading a correct version (original Compaq), you should wait for it to rewrite the chip, honestly I don't know what the previous owner of this motherboard did, it would help a lot to know if he tried to update or rewrite the BIOS chip (?).
I didn't fix myself with the BIOS failure, but from previous experiences with other MB, I could say that it can be quite likely, unfortunately in this MB you can't connect a speaker 🔊, it would be very useful to know if and how many beeps it emits, unfortunately 😣 on the BIOS subject my knowledge is minimal, while on the error codes I have accumulated some experience, thanks to several MB, and sometimes the best thing is to exclude problems due to the BIOS, if the card is in excellent condition, or if after the repairs the card still does not start properly.
Following the YouTube videos (by friends of Vogons), I noticed that they almost always perform a BIOS reprogramming, sometimes because the BIOS chip is missing, other times instead to make corrections, or add support to other CPUs (newer), however it is, it is usually successful and starts normally.

Hi PC@LIVE,

I see you already had great help with your Compaq Camaro (Mitac 5114VU) board.
I will try to add with my view on the BIOS issue.

As you report the hang at POST codes 2E 2F, I believe this board doesn’t have the Compaq AMI BIOS but has been updated with a Mitac v6.00PG Award BIOS.
These POST codes are more in line with this BIOS core version. Looking at: https://blog.theretroweb.com/2024/01/20/award … /#Version_600PG I see that usually POST 2D put the first messages on the screen and POST 2F is reserved, but that can be different on the Mitac BIOS.

I think the BIOS on your board is OK because at POST 2F the BIOS has already proceeded way past the steps where the BIOS performs all its checksum and integrity checks.

Does your POST analyzer card have a button to step through all previously logged POST codes? If so, and if you see the codes go back from 2F to 01 and then show C5, C3, C1, and C0, then we know for sure that your BIOS is a v6.00PG from Award.
Please let me know if you see this, so I can analyze the Mitac BIOS to see what it is doing in POST step 2F.

Ciao, Jan

Ciao, Jan
So thank you for the suggestions, and for the help, usually it wouldn't have been a problem, removing the BIOS chip, but here it's welded, so reading it without removing it, I don't think it's possible, it's a PLCC32, a format that I could read in the USB nano programmer, or via Legacy adapter.
So I would say that I can't say with certainty, which BIOS is stored there, perhaps thanks to the post codes displayed, you could understand if it is the original Compaq BIOS (AMI if I understand correctly), or the one used by Mitac (Award).
Looking for the post codes on the Internet, it seemed to me that it was the original Compaq one, because removing the RAM and starting it displays the code 47, which reports the problem to the RAM, instead for the 2F code, it says: "Write to diagnostic byte", these are in a list of error codes for Compaq BIOS.
I'll try to do other tests, to try to memorize and report here the sequence of post codes displayed, there are not many, because it stops almost immediately, I'll see to press the button on the postcard, and write down if it shows other post codes, I hope it's as you suggest, that is, that it's a Mitac (Award) BIOS, and that maybe with your help, we can make progress.
Greetings Elio

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-25, 15:58:

Ciao, Jan So thank you for the suggestions, and for the help, usually it wouldn't have been a problem, removing the BIOS chip, b […]
Show full quote

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-09-25, 13:33:

Hi PC@LIVE, […]
Show full quote

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-25, 07:42:

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve […]
Show full quote

For the moment I have given up on doing further tests, I would like to try to understand what 2F means, and what to do to solve the problem(?).
I saw that it uses a homemade BIOS 🏠, actually it could be a custom BIOS by Compaq produced by the usual Award AMI or Phoenix, while searching for the 2F error code, I found more likely the correspondence to "Write to diagnostic byte", and so it seems that it has a diagnostic problem, what causes it at the moment I don't know 😐, or if this problem is due to corruption or damage to the BIOS (?).
It would be useful to know if in a card in these conditions, you can force the Recovery BIOS, since the chip is welded, and you can't remove it to reprogram it, of course the floppy player should be connected 💾, and after downloading a correct version (original Compaq), you should wait for it to rewrite the chip, honestly I don't know what the previous owner of this motherboard did, it would help a lot to know if he tried to update or rewrite the BIOS chip (?).
I didn't fix myself with the BIOS failure, but from previous experiences with other MB, I could say that it can be quite likely, unfortunately in this MB you can't connect a speaker 🔊, it would be very useful to know if and how many beeps it emits, unfortunately 😣 on the BIOS subject my knowledge is minimal, while on the error codes I have accumulated some experience, thanks to several MB, and sometimes the best thing is to exclude problems due to the BIOS, if the card is in excellent condition, or if after the repairs the card still does not start properly.
Following the YouTube videos (by friends of Vogons), I noticed that they almost always perform a BIOS reprogramming, sometimes because the BIOS chip is missing, other times instead to make corrections, or add support to other CPUs (newer), however it is, it is usually successful and starts normally.

Hi PC@LIVE,

I see you already had great help with your Compaq Camaro (Mitac 5114VU) board.
I will try to add with my view on the BIOS issue.

As you report the hang at POST codes 2E 2F, I believe this board doesn’t have the Compaq AMI BIOS but has been updated with a Mitac v6.00PG Award BIOS.
These POST codes are more in line with this BIOS core version. Looking at: https://blog.theretroweb.com/2024/01/20/award … /#Version_600PG I see that usually POST 2D put the first messages on the screen and POST 2F is reserved, but that can be different on the Mitac BIOS.

I think the BIOS on your board is OK because at POST 2F the BIOS has already proceeded way past the steps where the BIOS performs all its checksum and integrity checks.

Does your POST analyzer card have a button to step through all previously logged POST codes? If so, and if you see the codes go back from 2F to 01 and then show C5, C3, C1, and C0, then we know for sure that your BIOS is a v6.00PG from Award.
Please let me know if you see this, so I can analyze the Mitac BIOS to see what it is doing in POST step 2F.

Ciao, Jan

Ciao, Jan
So thank you for the suggestions, and for the help, usually it wouldn't have been a problem, removing the BIOS chip, but here it's welded, so reading it without removing it, I don't think it's possible, it's a PLCC32, a format that I could read in the USB nano programmer, or via Legacy adapter.
So I would say that I can't say with certainty, which BIOS is stored there, perhaps thanks to the post codes displayed, you could understand if it is the original Compaq BIOS (AMI if I understand correctly), or the one used by Mitac (Award).
Looking for the post codes on the Internet, it seemed to me that it was the original Compaq one, because removing the RAM and starting it displays the code 47, which reports the problem to the RAM, instead for the 2F code, it says: "Write to diagnostic byte", these are in a list of error codes for Compaq BIOS.
I'll try to do other tests, to try to memorize and report here the sequence of post codes displayed, there are not many, because it stops almost immediately, I'll see to press the button on the postcard, and write down if it shows other post codes, I hope it's as you suggest, that is, that it's a Mitac (Award) BIOS, and that maybe with your help, we can make progress.
Greetings Elio

Ciao Elio,

I’ve looked into the 11/07/2001 Mitac Award BIOS and the POST step 2F has no code and doesn’t do anything. So it can never hang at POST 2F and is indeed reserved in this v6.00PG BIOS.
This means that my idea that you have an Award BIOS on your board is incorrect and the BIOS is probably still the Compaq AMI BIOS.

Also the POST code 47 you get when the RAM is removed, points to an AMI BIOS.
Looking at POST code 2F in several AMI BIOSes, now I see it is usually a test for Video memory, or missing Graphics card as kotel mentioned earlier. Because the North Bridge has integrated AGP graphics and uses part of the installed RAM as Video RAM, there is no dedicated on-board Video memory chip.
Maybe another SDRAM stick will solve the problem?

If it is just a Video memory problem, using a PCI Graphics card should have helped. I don’t know why it didn’t.
Anyway, writing down the complete string of POST codes may still help in finding the problem.

Cheers, Jan

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-09-26, 09:02:

Ciao Elio, […]
Show full quote

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-09-25, 15:58:

Ciao, Jan So thank you for the suggestions, and for the help, usually it wouldn't have been a problem, removing the BIOS chip, b […]
Show full quote

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-09-25, 13:33:

Hi PC@LIVE, […]
Show full quote

Hi PC@LIVE,

I see you already had great help with your Compaq Camaro (Mitac 5114VU) board.
I will try to add with my view on the BIOS issue.

As you report the hang at POST codes 2E 2F, I believe this board doesn’t have the Compaq AMI BIOS but has been updated with a Mitac v6.00PG Award BIOS.
These POST codes are more in line with this BIOS core version. Looking at: https://blog.theretroweb.com/2024/01/20/award … /#Version_600PG I see that usually POST 2D put the first messages on the screen and POST 2F is reserved, but that can be different on the Mitac BIOS.

I think the BIOS on your board is OK because at POST 2F the BIOS has already proceeded way past the steps where the BIOS performs all its checksum and integrity checks.

Does your POST analyzer card have a button to step through all previously logged POST codes? If so, and if you see the codes go back from 2F to 01 and then show C5, C3, C1, and C0, then we know for sure that your BIOS is a v6.00PG from Award.
Please let me know if you see this, so I can analyze the Mitac BIOS to see what it is doing in POST step 2F.

Ciao, Jan

Ciao, Jan
So thank you for the suggestions, and for the help, usually it wouldn't have been a problem, removing the BIOS chip, but here it's welded, so reading it without removing it, I don't think it's possible, it's a PLCC32, a format that I could read in the USB nano programmer, or via Legacy adapter.
So I would say that I can't say with certainty, which BIOS is stored there, perhaps thanks to the post codes displayed, you could understand if it is the original Compaq BIOS (AMI if I understand correctly), or the one used by Mitac (Award).
Looking for the post codes on the Internet, it seemed to me that it was the original Compaq one, because removing the RAM and starting it displays the code 47, which reports the problem to the RAM, instead for the 2F code, it says: "Write to diagnostic byte", these are in a list of error codes for Compaq BIOS.
I'll try to do other tests, to try to memorize and report here the sequence of post codes displayed, there are not many, because it stops almost immediately, I'll see to press the button on the postcard, and write down if it shows other post codes, I hope it's as you suggest, that is, that it's a Mitac (Award) BIOS, and that maybe with your help, we can make progress.
Greetings Elio

Ciao Elio,

I’ve looked into the 11/07/2001 Mitac Award BIOS and the POST step 2F has no code and doesn’t do anything. So it can never hang at POST 2F and is indeed reserved in this v6.00PG BIOS.
This means that my idea that you have an Award BIOS on your board is incorrect and the BIOS is probably still the Compaq AMI BIOS.

Also the POST code 47 you get when the RAM is removed, points to an AMI BIOS.
Looking at POST code 2F in several AMI BIOSes, now I see it is usually a test for Video memory, or missing Graphics card as kotel mentioned earlier. Because the North Bridge has integrated AGP graphics and uses part of the installed RAM as Video RAM, there is no dedicated on-board Video memory chip.
Maybe another SDRAM stick will solve the problem?

If it is just a Video memory problem, using a PCI Graphics card should have helped. I don’t know why it didn’t.
Anyway, writing down the complete string of POST codes may still help in finding the problem.

Cheers, Jan

Ciao Jan
So I'll try the Compaq Camaro by tonight, and who knows if the codes prior to 2F can actually help.
Yes I had tried a couple of VGA PCI, and there was no difference, of course I can try with a third card, and see if you see something or not, maybe both of those used in the tests, could be somehow incompatible, even if I use one in all PCs, both prior to the S.7 and it works, for the record it is a SiS 6215, the other is an 8MB ATi Rage XL PCI, but this one on relatively older PCs, does not work because there is PCI 5.0V, while with PCI 3.3V it is fine, so I don't know if it works on this motherboard, but I hope so so 👌.
So I hope to have useful news soon, at least to understand if we can make some progress, maybe if I have enough time ⏱, I'll try a slower CPU, like a 300 or 350 MHz, I think in the past I've already tried it, but if I have them at hand, basically it doesn't cost me anything to try.
Greetings Elio

I just finished the tests at the counter with the Compaq Camaro, I used a fairly compatible memory module, it's a 32 MB with a GM72VXXXX chip, I had it on the Celeron 400 in the early 2000s, that MB was quite demanding 😭 it only accepted that type of chip and a few others, however it works because I see the usual codes in the post card.
Starting other times, I read other codes, instead of the usual 2F 2E, 06 Eb appeared, with this code I tried to see the previous ones, pressing the post card button, I hope I didn't skip something, but I wrote these:
51 75 24 d4 75 24 C2 04 26 24 04 C2 71 04 00 19 1F 06 26 50 80 75 06 F6.
By eye I read after the usual — —, C2 then unfortunately it's so fast that I can't read anything else, until it stops, usually on 2F 2E.
With these codes I transcribed the others, pressing the Post Card button, they would be these:
43 42 2A 0F (oppure 08?) 43 42 40 0E 13 12 11 10 15 14 0d 05 04 03 02 01 09 08 00.
At the moment I don't know what they correspond to, but I'm a little surprised, that it displays all these codes in a very short time, I hope 🤞 that at least they can be used to understand something, and that maybe 🤔 it's very useful.
Finally once after viewing 06 Eb, shortly after the codes became 00 40, a sign that it has made one or more steps forward.
Occasionally, I saw the codes stop on Eb 24 or Eb 04, instead of the usual 2F 2E.
That's all for now, these tests were carried out without a drive, first with the integrated VGA, and then with a Miro PCI S3 Trio32 VGA.

This morning I did some tests, probably in the past I had already done them, however I short-circuited the two poles of the CR2032 battery for a while, this should be the equivalent of the jumper displacement, to reset the CMOS, a kind of BIOS reset in short, at least it should return the BIOS settings to the initial ones, that is, if something was stored wrong 😑, it should report everything as originally, I did it this way because it is done quite quickly, alternatively it could remove the battery, but you have to wait some time, I just have the doubt if you had to move the jumper, on the reset position, I left it on the normal one.
I tried to start both without the battery and with the battery inserted, I measured the voltage, which is just over 3V, so I would rule out a problem caused by low battery voltage 🪫.
The last test, the CPU change, I keep some in my collection, they are all K6 mostly mostly K6-2, they were tried years ago, the PC starts up but I haven't tried them individually, in depth, so I can't be sure that they are 100% working, but anyway they were able to complete the boot of the PC, so they can be considered working, in the sense that they should be able to start the PC until the OS is loaded, beyond that I don't know 🤔 if blue screens can appear (?).
The result of these tests doesn't change anything, on the Compaq Camaro it displays the usual post codes, and it stops on 2F 2E, I think it's waiting for something, but not seeing anything on the screen, I don't know if it would be enough to press a key on the keyboard ⌨️ to go further, honestly it doesn't seem to me that the PC crashes, or freezes, if that's the case, then there could be a defective hw component, the only one I could hypothesize, it could be the cache chip, but it's welded and I don't think you can switch to 0K, so I just have to hope that that chip works.

Ciao Elio,

Thanks for the tests and for writing down the string of POST codes.
The first test that ends with 06 EB and all the codes that are logged before that look very strange. I have no idea what was going on there.

The second test that ended with the usual 2F 2E produced a logical string of POST codes. When I look into the Compaq Camaro BIOS, I can actually see the code that produces these POST codes.
I will need to disassemble that part of the BIOS to understand what POST step 2F is doing and why it may hang. This will take me some time.

Something else you can try is lowering the FSB setting to 66MHz. On these Super Socket 7 boards, when 95 or 100MHz FSB doesn’t work for some reason, running a much lower FSB may sometimes help to diagnose the problem.
When 66MHz works, you can try 75 and 83MHz.
The manual doesn’t list these lower FSBs, but the JP12, JP13, JP14, JP15 settings for all these FSB speeds are nicely silkscreened on the motherboard.

Jan

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-09-28, 10:58:

Ciao Elio, […]
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Ciao Elio,

Thanks for the tests and for writing down the string of POST codes.
The first test that ends with 06 EB and all the codes that are logged before that look very strange. I have no idea what was going on there.

The second test that ended with the usual 2F 2E produced a logical string of POST codes. When I look into the Compaq Camaro BIOS, I can actually see the code that produces these POST codes.
I will need to disassemble that part of the BIOS to understand what POST step 2F is doing and why it may hang. This will take me some time.

Something else you can try is lowering the FSB setting to 66MHz. On these Super Socket 7 boards, when 95 or 100MHz FSB doesn’t work for some reason, running a much lower FSB may sometimes help to diagnose the problem.
When 66MHz works, you can try 75 and 83MHz.
The manual doesn’t list these lower FSBs, but the JP12, JP13, JP14, JP15 settings for all these FSB speeds are nicely silkscreened on the motherboard.

Jan

Ciao Jan
Thank you very much for the info
I have seen the 06 EB codes only a few times (maybe a couple), and I would say that in the transcription of the previous codes, I could inadvertently press the button twice, and it could be possible that something is missing, and this would make the following codes strange, but all the times I started (recently), I have not seen those codes anymore, so I can't see if some are missing, or if I wrote someone wrong 😑 in the rush to write them down.
For the usual codes, 2F2E instead as you may have read, I did a test with the K6-2 350, actually since the FSB was 95, it should have started at 333 MHz, unfortunately not having the BIOS screen on the video, I don't see 🙈 anything it does, besides not hearing 🙉 anything, that is, whether or not it beeps.
I will see to do further tests as soon as possible, with a K6 200, then multi 3X and FSB 66, but before removing the 475 currently present, I will try the 5X with FSB 66, which should give 333 MHz, I think I have tried in the past, but I can easily move the jumpers, and see if there is any sign of progress (?).
Yes, I understand that it is not easy to analyze the BIOS, and that it takes a lot of time, if you can understand what problem there may be, it would be a nice step forward, at least you could try to look for what could be defective, or if maybe there is one or more PINs to re-sealt (in some chips).
Greetings Elio

I continue with the attempts to recover ❤️‍🩹 the Compaq Camaro motherboard, looking at some points with the lens (not under the microscope), the board appears in excellent condition, but this could make me doubt, that in reality it could be the result of a recent wash, or that the board had been put away, when this problem arose, and probably this could have happened, in the first years of the PC's life, this board could perhaps be put away for a future repair (never performed).
Thanks to the lens, I saw the pins of the Cache chip, they don't seem so different from any other chip, in the sense that I haven't seen the dark-colored pins, if illuminated you can see a reflection, a sign that they should be in good condition, unfortunately 😣 at the moment I wouldn't want to tease the pins, in the sense of trying to move them, because if one or more move, it means that they should be re-sealed, and this for me is quite complicated, it is also true that if one or more moved, it could be a cause of the blockage, but currently I can't say for sure that it's a hw problem, indeed the increasingly likely suspicion is partial damage to the BIOS (or the BIOS chip).
Further details observed with the lens, it was the presence of dust in some corners, I removed it with a small brush, then I checked the Socket 7 (after removing the CPU), in every single hole I saw the relative contact, this should exclude a connection problem, which could only be in the case of a lot of oxide, but they all seemed golden to me, so I didn't see anything out of place, in short I would say nothing strange.
Last attempt, with the K6-2-475 I selected the jumpers for FSB 66, but still nothing on the screen and always the same 2F 2E codes, I would say that both the FSB and the multi, have no influence, so the failure to start I don't think depends on those jumpers.

I continue, but without any result (I would say), the tests with the MB Compaq Camaro, whatever I try, it can't pass the post codes 2F 2E, clearly that 2F refers to something, unfortunately 😣 it's not easy to understand if it's a hw or sw problem, personally I think it can most likely be a sw problem, or something like a chip (BIOS?) Partly damaged, as I wrote earlier, it is not possible to remove it because it is welded, it would have to be removed and a socket would be welded, an operation not too complicated for those who have adequate tools 🛠.
I noticed that on the Post Card PCI, there is an LED (IRDY) that flashes and then stays on, at that point 🧵 it seems that the card remains on hold, unfortunately 😣 in this MB there are no ISA slots, maybe 🤔 an ISA VGA could show on video if there is a message, another problem that I had already mentioned, is the lack of a speaker socket 🔊, it is not said that it does not emit beeps, these in the right combination make it clear that there is a problem, I had thought in the past that there could be a problem with the RAM, but with the tests performed recently, the one I use was tested on another PC, and I have discarded several faulty or malfunctioning banks, and considering that it passes the code post 47, it means that the RAM is fine, or at least not from error.
Last considerations on the BIOS, it seems that there is the original Compaq, which would be a modified AMI, if it had a DIP32 type BIOS chip, you could use the trick for the Recovery BIOS, just short circuit two PINs when starting the PC, it's something I don't do, but it works and in special cases it can be useful, theoretically it should also work with PLCC32 chips, finding the correspondence of the same pins, but I wouldn't want to be the first to do something like that, in short I don't want to risk, without certainty of the result.
Finally, on some websites, I found error post codes for Compaq BIOS, so maybe 🤔 they are not the correct version, but they could provide indications on error codes, which the AMI BIOS instead indicates as reserved.
Here's one:
https://uxd.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360 … OST-Error-Codes

Ciao Elio,

I’m sorry to hear the 66MHz FSB trial didn’t work and the Camaro board still refuses to POST.

I made some progress analyzing this Compaq BIOS but POST step 2F has a lot of code and I haven’t figured out yet how it works.
Luckily, someone made a copy of this Compaq BIOS with Uniflash and posted it on TRW, so I have something to work with.

The top 16KB of this 256KB BIOS is the bootblock and contains readable code and data. The rest of the BIOS is not recognizable as code and is probably compressed or encrypted. I don’t recognize any known structures in this BIOS, so it is probably not AMI but Compaq’s own product.

All POST code up to step 2F is in the bootblock so I was able to disassemble that. When I follow the code from the start address to POST_2F, I see the follow POST steps in this order:
00, 08, 09, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 0D, 14, 15, 10, 11, 12, 13, 0E, 42, 43, 0F, 28, 2A, 2D, 42, 43, 2E, 2F.
This coincides nicely with what you found, only steps 28 and 2D are missing from your list.
In POST steps 42 and 43 the RAM is tested and all POST code up till step 0F runs from ROM and POST_0F copies the bootblock to RAM. Step 28 jumps to this code in RAM and from step 2D onwarts the POST runs from RAM, including a second call to steps 42 and 43 to test another part of memory. So also steps 2E and 2F run from RAM.
If one of the two steps 43 reports a memory error, the code jumps straight to POST 47 and halts, and never reaches steps 2E and 2F.

Because of this initial analysis, I agree that the RAM is fine and that the problem is either the BIOS or some hardware failure.
I haven’t found any checksum code yet and I don’t know if this BIOS has a recovery mode, so shorting 2 address lines on the BIOS chip to trigger a BIOS checksum error may not work on this BIOS.

I will study the POST_2F code further and hope to find a clue there.
Cheers, Jan