So, reordering some motherboards, I selected one as the next board to try, it is an ASUS M3A, an AM2 board, which I repaired some time ago, replacing some (swollen) capacitors, this board if perfectly functional, could be used as an Internet PC (secondary), I actually already have an i5 as an Internet PC, but a second workstation could be useful, or just as a spare PC.
To start and test this MB, I recovered an Athlon LE 1600, a 2.2 GHz with 1 MB cache, it was in an Acer PC updated to Phenom, I have various RAM, which I can use temporarily, only for the purpose of running the PC, I have some for VGA, they are cheap cards, but for testing the MB they are fine.
Before starting it, I need to clean the area between RAM and inductor, there is some oily dirt, I don't know what to use, but maybe I would use alcohol?

This 486 PCI motherboard arrived yesterday, I'm thinking of trying to get it up and running by the end of the year, the seller says it doesn't work, it might not be entirely correct, initially it needs a cleaning, especially in the bigger chips (even chipsets ), you may notice some dark oxide, I have no idea if a contact dresser is fine, or some other product, perhaps it's just superficial, I don't know whether to try a very fine paper (1000 or more), and pass it on the surface PINs, right to scrape the dark part, and make the PINs turn silver again, apart from this, I have seen the manual, and I have some CPUs ready, it will be enough to set the jumpers, and insert a RAM module, as VGA I initially use an ISA, but that definitive will be a 1 or 2 MB PCI.

I probably have a few days to dedicate myself to my favorite hobby, I would like to resurrect some MB, and assemble some PCs, I already have complete configurations that need to be mounted in the case.
I have both repaired (but not yet tested) boards and boards to be repaired, among the repaired ones I have this Gigabyte AM2 with Athlon good.
Among those to be repaired, I have a couple of Socket 7 boards, one is from a Compaq Camaro with AMD K6-2 475 MHz, the other is a PCChips with AMD K6 233 MHz, both may need BIOS rewriting, I'll have to see if it is possible to do the recovery, via floppy.

ASUS AM2, the exact model is M3N78-EM and the supported CPUs are up to 140W!!!

Currently there is a 2.3GHz Athlon
Those temperatures are visible from BIOS, but I don't think they're real 👸🏼, the dissi is cold, I tried to solve it by putting some paste 🍝 between the dissi and the CPU, but it keeps turning off.

The solution could be simple, in the event that the defect is due to the CPU, there could be an insulation problem 🏝 between the core and the cover, and this would prevent the transmission of heat to the cover, absurdly you could try to turn on without a heatsink, keeping your fingers on the cover, if it remains cold, the CPU cover should be removed, and the paste changed 🍝.

There is a minor problem, using the VGA port, the image on the screen 📺 appears light blue (instead of white), while using the DVI port, the image has the right colours, the problem is therefore only in the VGA, there is some problem, maybe 🤔 one or more SMDs detached???

I'm ready to do the first boot of a motherboard after the repair (done not long ago), the card is an S462, Gigabyte GA-7ZMMHC REV:1.0, integrated VIA VGA chipset (expandable from AGP slot), integrated audio, unfortunately 😣 no ISA slot, PC133 RAM, coming from an Olidata PC, you can tell by the labels 🏷 present, AMI BIOS, LAN not present (do you need a PCI card if needed?), there is a CNR slot, which can usually be use for a modem card, no SATA, the date looks like 12/01, i.e. December 2001.

Let's move on to the details, there was an AMD Duron 1000 CPU, I'm not crazy about the CPU, but it can work, I added a 128MB PC133 RAM, even if originally there was 256MB, it's visible on the label 🏷, I have added the heat sink with original AMD fan, then after the boot test, if it works (hopefully good 😌) I add the CF-IDE with DOS Windows, and various bench programs.

As a power supply I use a very common ATX, nothing branded or quality, for temporary use, it's fine 👌, before I had an ASUS 462, so it shouldn't have any problems with this MB.

I forgot the format is uATX (micro), and there are three PCI slots, in case you want to add some cards, like TV 📺 or FireWire for example.

I should have the answers by this evening, I expect a BIOS screen on the screen, and then for MS-DOS to boot, so as to run the QTPRO.

I'm going back to the 462 Gigabyte, so apart from some fears 😬, which turned out to be unfounded, after checking the jumpers and connecting everything I started it.

As you can see, go ahead, I have both the screen and the beep, I hadn't noticed that there is a buzzer on board, at this moment, I haven't yet ⚓️ connected the CF with DOS, I'll do it later, the battery should be replaced, because I imagine it's flat.

You can notice the strange amount of RAM (112 MB), but it depends on the integrated VGA, which uses 🇺🇸 16 MB, stealing them from the main memory, it would not be a problem if you have a large amount, and if you use Windows prior to 2001, but in any case I think it will have to be increased, perhaps 🤔 even almost to the maximum, which should be 1 GB 🇬🇧 (2X 512 MB PC133).

Best wishes, merry Christmas and happy new year

Among the various cards that I keep waiting to be tested, I have a card that I have not identified, of MSI production but without numerical references, maybe it comes from a PC like HP or similar, the biggest problem is that not being able to find the manual, I do not know what are the pins of the PWR-ON, I could try to find them with the tester, but I would not want to cause some problems, if I accidentally made some mess, theoretically just check the PINs if they have voltage and which go to the ground, but I would not want to risk, if you can be avoided it is better.

From what I see being a 775, there should be an Intel CPU (possibly dual core), I hope not to find myself in the presence of a Celeron, for heaven's sake I do not hate them, but I prefer to avoid them, I think they are useful to try, maybe they are also very good for office use, for internet use now in my opinion it takes two or more cores.

If you have any idea what card it is, or where to find a manual or an image to see where to connect the switch, I'm interested Thank you very much

This looks like a HP or Lenovo motherboard (MSI did a lot of production for them), isn't there anything written close to the CPU if you remove the heatsink?
I can see "FCC Micro-Star".

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2023-12-25, 11:24:

This looks like a HP or Lenovo motherboard (MSI did a lot of production for them), isn't there anything written close to the CPU if you remove the heatsink?
I can see "FCC Micro-Star".

I don't know, I should see, but I seem to have looked for it somewhere and found nothing, some time has passed, I don't remember which lot it was in, but knowing which one, you could find out more.
However, I think it could be an HP, but I'm not sure about this.
Yes MSI

So, I made a discovery 💡, I lifted 😮‍💨 a label 🏷, and the logo of the PC manufacturer appeared underneath, it's not HP as I thought, but Acer, coincidentally it's a brand of which I have various motherboards, so to speak I don't have any Packard-Bell for example.

Doing some research 🔬, I found a document 📃, in which there are the F_PANEL1 PINs, from this it is clear that the PWR-ON is to be connected between 6 and 8.

The search 🔍 was quite simple, fortunately, it remains to be seen what happens when starting the motherboard, I hope 🤞 everything goes ok, and seeing the BIOS screen on the screen.

Speaking of Acer 775, I also have this motherboard to try, 8I945AE, visibly everything is OK, I haven't yet ⚓️ seen the supported CPUs, surely all single core P4s can be fine 😌, I'll see if I can find useful info , of course 👌 I wouldn't mind 😢, if the Pentium D is also supported (I won't abbreviate because it seems like something else), in theory by adding CPU, heatsink and RAM, it would be ready to boot, but I have to check if the PWR-ON pins are identifiable (silkscreen?), luckily there are, so I'll try this one as soon as I can.

As I wrote, I discovered that it is from an Acer PC, I put the motherboard on the bench, but it doesn't start, that is, there is no sign of booting, press or not, the PWR-ON is the same

I thought the battery might be flat , in fact it is flat, I change it with a charge, I try and nothing happens, due to a matter of time ⏱, I don't go looking for voltages (various), I look at the back, to see if the soldering is fine 💺, unfortunately 😣 you can't understand much in the dark, they should be ok 👌, in the past I changed the capacitors on the RAM side, now 👣 resigned 😑, I remove the card and disconnect it, then I take the notepad 📒, I find the page where I had noted the work done and the work to be done, this could be the problem, there are some interrupted tracks on the back, near the ATX1 connector, and they are a bit tiny, so for now I won't even try.

We'll see later if I succeed, in which case I think it could start and work.

Just to get rid of the doubt, I put back on the bench, the MB ASUS M3N78-EM with Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2300 MHz, two DDR2 RAM of 512 MB each (1 GB total), a part of this RAM is used by the integrated VGA, I removed the heat sink I had put, this time I have one with heat pipe, reassembled everything and connected the cables, I turned it on, unlike before that after a few minutes of operation it turned off as soon as it reached 62-63 degrees, it is already quite a bit that it is on, the temperature (HW Monitor) rose to about 45 degrees, Maybe it will go up again ️?

How could it reach a maximum and stop, in the sense that it does not go any further.

Tomorrow I'll try to install a Windows, maybe it could work, or raise the temperature until it turns it off?

Who knows ???

Today I didn't have time ⏱, to do some more tests with the ASUS M3N78-EM, yesterday then after quite a while that the PC was on I turned it off, the CPU temperature keeps going up, when I turned it off it was between 60 and 61, the temperature of the MB instead stops when it reaches 30 degrees.

If I wanted to I could have waited for it to rise again ️ by two or three degrees, and at that point it should have turned off, but I don't know how long it would have taken, if minutes or tens of minutes, however I noticed that the fan always runs at the same speed, usually when a temperature close to the limit is reached, it should turn at the maximum.

Rereading about such problems, in fact the problem could be in the CPU, although they pointed out that when it heats up, the CPU protects itself, perhaps scaling the frequency to multi-low, or otherwise, even reducing the VCORE, so that the Watts to be dissipated are less.

Maybe it would suit me, to find an AM2 CPU (or remove it from another PC), put it on and wait, and see how it goes, I point out that the PC is without disks and is on without doing anything, the thing I find strange, is that it does not stabilize at a certain point, and that it slowly rises one degree at a time, I noticed that the chipset heatsink is quite hot, but I think it may be normal, since it has no fan.

Here I am, I anticipate a job that I will do soon, you know that I really like sockets 7 (now even those who did not know it), I have several in the collection, in these I like to force the K6-2 or K6-3 (even plus), in the sense that I install it even if theoretically it is not supported, usually the maximum frequency that is obtained is 400 MHz (FSB 66.6), or 450 (FSB 75), theoretically even 500 (FSB 83.3) would be possible, some with suitable HW (video cards and others) succeed, I personally I tried booting but without connected disks, of course RAM also have a lot of importance, probably 72 PIN SIMMs are not good at that frequency, but you can use PC100 RAMs, there is usually at least one bench along with the 72 PIN SIMMs, except that they are the last MB, but those have the ability to mount any CPU, and even you can select FSB frequencies above 100 .

I'll have a MB FIC PA2010+ between my paws, the chipset is a VIA VPX, I don't like it very much, I've called it a ball to the foot in the past, because compared to the corresponding Intel VX, it's very slow, honestly I never understood if the problem is HW, or SW (driver ???).

I put images of a card taken from I.N., it should be the same, but I know there are different versions of the same MB, so there could be some small differences.

Waiting for other motherboards, including the FIC PA2010+, I start checking one of the 486 boards, starting from 4FLUD-1.0 with Intel 486DX2-66, UMC BIOS AMI chipset, four RAM 30 PINs of 1MB each (total 4MB), L2 cache 128 KB ??? (4X W24257AK-20), but they could also be only 64 KB, 4X ISA 16-bit, 1X ISA 8-bit, 2X OLP (Opti Local Bus).

The first test, it was not encouraging, on the ISA Post Card, it displays — —, but the voltage leds are OK (on), the others seem fine, some flash when turned on (this is normal), but there is no beep, maybe there is something that doesn't work, the next step will be to remove the RAM, and see if it beeps, the temperature of the chips (chipset included) stays cold, I don't know if it takes time ⏱ to make them heat up, ditto for the CPU, the only thing that could prevent booting, is the battery missing, some PCs without don't give any sign, that is, they don't start Own.

Another possible suspicion, numerous tantalum capacitors, some tiny ones, before replacing them, but I would like to test some on board, if they seem knocked out, I try to remove one and double check, there could easily be some failures, and this probably prevents the MB from starting.

On the second attempt, still ️ no results, first thing, I checked the jumpers, and everything seems correct, the amount of L2 cache is set for 128 KB, so it's okay, but only if the chips are 32K each, I don't think they are a problem, in another motherboard, the cache has a flaw, but this does not prevent booting, then at the second screen of the BIOS it crashes, here instead nothing, the post card always marks — —, in short sometimes it seems to do something, leds that flash (reset and irdy), CPU that starts to heat up in the center, so The latter I guess is ok, but to be sure I should try it on another 486 PC.

Another attempt, with cleaning the RAM contacts, nothing different, I try Topless 60 ns modules (instead of those of 70 ns mounted on the MB), nothing, I try four other Toshiba modules, nothing, return to the original modules, but bench change (1 instead of 0), nothing at all.

Now I will probably have to put my paws on the instruments, and start doing some verification, of course maybe first I should do a couple of things, a BIOS reset, and find and connect a 3.6V battery, and see what happens, maybe nothing, but it is not said that it can wake up, another check to be done, it is in the back of the PCB, in case there is any trace interrupted, it needs to be repaired.

Taking a quick look at it, I noticed probable repairs near C26, they are microwires welded to the pins of a multiple resistor (??? At 472 J), I've seen others near the side of ISA4, in another signed 10A331J, now I don't think it comes out like this from the factory, or it's a recent repair (attempting to fix in vain), or it could be an old repair, prior to the failure.

But at the moment, it can't be said with certainty that the motherboard is faulty, it could just be in bulk , or there may just be a SW problem, like a damaged BIOS or to be rewritten.

However, not having particular instruments, such as oscilloscope, I don't know if the problem depends on one of the quartz, the only thing possible would be to buy new ones, and replace the ones present, if you don't start anyway, it means that almost certainly the quartz are all ok.

For tonight I stop, tomorrow as soon as I can I make other attempts, for the moment I leave the Intel 486DX2-66 CPU, but if I want I have a definitely working AMD 486DX2-66, it is the first DX2-66 I bought, it was on a used MB socket, I still have that MB, but I have a Cyrix 486DX2-66 CPU with built-in sink, possibly I will try that MB in parallel, to see if in this (with Intel CPU) there are the same voltages.

For the battery, I have one on the 386DX40, which is disconnected, so I think about recovering it and installing it, maybe with a little luck I could see something on video ???

I made an excerpt from the manual, you can see useful info, everything seems to me to be fine, in the sense that I don't notice anything strange, in the jumper settings.