byte_76 wrote on 2025-04-24, 05:49:
Since the slots are wired in parallel, would it be a fair assumption that the connections are good under the north bridge because the other two slots are working?
With the board not powered, I did measure the contacts of the slots from the top the other day and compared the results to the other slots. The readings were the same but I’ll do it again.
Yes, at least all solder joints for the slots 2 and 3 are all connected, so are the data/address buses and all the essential control signals related to them.
If slot 1 produced absolutely identical readings, compared to the other slots with the relation to ground, then cracked solder joints/vias are unlikely.
These old BGA chipsets rarely develop cracked solder joins on their own, usually it's the external forces that cause them, eg. warping of the board. Looking at the datasheet (pg. 12-17), you can notice that the majority of the DRAM bus connections are located at the opposite corner from the key pin, I'd investigate that quadrant more thoroughly. You can try pushing that corner down while simultaneously resetting the system.
byte_76 wrote on 2025-04-24, 05:49:
Which components on this board would be part of the control and clock signals? I’d like to check the components to see if I can find anything strange.
Control signals come from the northbridge, while clock is derived from the clock generator IC "ICS9148-58", there are 4 clock signals coming from it per slot - SDRAM[0:11].
byte_76 wrote on 2025-04-24, 05:49:
Out of interest, why do you avoid using the board in a build? It seems like a nice board. Did you have some issues with it?
It definitely is a nice board in terms of quality, layout and especially its clock generator's wide range clock output settings, but it uses a VIA "Apollo Pro" chipset which doesn't deliver a good perfomance compared to the 440LX/BX chipsets from intel, the memory performance is worse and AGP implementation is bad. True AGP cards (the ones that support AGP features) like TNTs Geforce or Radeon lineup will have all sorts of problems with these early slot1 VIA chipsets and their AGP GART drivers + performance will be degraded. I remember that my 700MHz pentium III OC'ed to 864MHz performed more or less like a 450MHz PII that my friend had at the time in D3D/OGL games, we both had GF4 video cards, except he had a 440BX based MB.
You can find many benchmark comparisons on the net between these VIA chipsets and intel 440 ones, I did one not too long ago, if you are interested I might unearth and post it here.