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Asus 486 mobo PVI-486SP3 won't POST.

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Reply 20 of 25, by retro games 100

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Tetrium wrote:
h-a-l-9000 wrote:

> the BIOS could potentially become a bit "confused" and then put itself in to a
> kind of non operational state?

Yes, that's possible.

Oi, I've tested countless motherboards without the battery installed. Important is that you do not ever power on a motherboard with it's jumpers set to clear CMOS!

Just leave the cache chips in, you could try and configure the jumpers to 0kb cache. If I'm correct, the motherboard will then not check the cache, even if it is in fact installed. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I never tried this myself!

After you tested these mobos without a battery, did you retest them again, sometime later, to see if everything was OK with them?

Regarding 0kb cache: unfortunately AFAIK, there is no such configuration. As seen here -

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/A/AS … PVI-486SP3.html

Reply 22 of 25, by Tetrium

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h-a-l-9000 wrote:

I've come across one or two mainboards that insisted in a battery. Might have been VIA crap though.

Yes, whenever I find a new mainboard I'll usually pull the main battery to let it drain (without removing any jumpers) and after a couple days or so I'll boot the motherboard without a battery. So far it has worked every single time, it just won't remember any setting when you change things in the BIOS. It even works on a 386 motherboard that I forcefully removed the leaking battery. It still boots just fine. It could however very well be possible that it gives trouble booting without a battery. I just haven't come across any such motherboard yet.

I'll look into the no cache thingy. I have the same mobo, I 'thought' the 0kb cache thingy was possible on any mobo that has removable cache chips.

Edit:At first glance it indeed doesn't have any jumper settings for 0kb cache...atleast no official ones.
Even though at first glance jumper settings for motherboards of this age seem erratic but theres often some logic behind it (not always though).

Lets say we keep this thread runing for a lil while longer and at the end we haven't been able to get this motherboard working, we could always try this as a last resort 😉
Ofcourse if that doesn't work (or if you're not willing to 'gamble' (which it basically is ofcourse) you could try to remove the cache chips anyway.

At the end, it might better to take a guess when all other options are out.

I'm sure there were socket 3 motherboards that originally shipped without any cache chips atall.
Does anyone happen to have a link to a manual of a motherboard that has these jumper settings and is not made by PC-Chips?

Last edited by Tetrium on 2010-04-13, 16:15. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 23 of 25, by Amigaz

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Tetrium wrote:
h-a-l-9000 wrote:

I've come across one or two mainboards that insisted in a battery. Might have been VIA crap though.

Yes, whenever I find a new mainboard I'll usually pull the main battery to let it drain (without removing any jumpers) and after a couple days or so I'll boot the motherboard without a battery. So far it has worked every single time, it just won't remember any setting when you change things in the BIOS. It even works on a 386 motherboard that I forcefully removed the leaking battery. It still boots just fine. It could however very well be possible that it gives trouble booting without a battery. I just haven't come across any such motherboard yet.

I'll look into the no cache thingy. I have the same mobo, I 'thought' the 0kb cache thingy was possible on any mobo that has removable cache chips.

Please check my video clip posted in this thread...it boots/posts without the battery

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 24 of 25, by Tetrium

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Amigaz wrote:
Tetrium wrote:
h-a-l-9000 wrote:

I've come across one or two mainboards that insisted in a battery. Might have been VIA crap though.

Yes, whenever I find a new mainboard I'll usually pull the main battery to let it drain (without removing any jumpers) and after a couple days or so I'll boot the motherboard without a battery. So far it has worked every single time, it just won't remember any setting when you change things in the BIOS. It even works on a 386 motherboard that I forcefully removed the leaking battery. It still boots just fine. It could however very well be possible that it gives trouble booting without a battery. I just haven't come across any such motherboard yet.

I'll look into the no cache thingy. I have the same mobo, I 'thought' the 0kb cache thingy was possible on any mobo that has removable cache chips.

Please check my video clip posted in this thread...it boots/posts without the battery

Hehe, indeed it does 😉
But if you decide to try this, I'd recommend leaving the battery out for a looonger time so the BIOS has resetted -all- of it's settings to the default values. You wouldn't want to boot a motherboard with it's BIOS only -half- drained!
And do not boot with the jumper set to clear CMOS! I can't emphasize that enough. If you do, you'll release the magic smoke (I know from experience 🙁 )

Btw, I came up with another longshot. You could try cleaning the SIMM contacts on the motherboard with rubbing alcohol, just to make sure they aren't dirty, thus preventing the motherboard from being able to see the memory correctly.
Could also try to boot with the graphics card in another PCI slot but my guess is you already tried that one

Edit:corrected minor spelling

Reply 25 of 25, by jesolo

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Realise this is a very old post but, I just bought a PVI-486SP3 motherboard myself (rev 1.2) and thought I'd share some of my findings.
Came with some cables, an Intel 486DX-33 CPU (with its heatsink and fan) and even the original manual.
At first I swopped out this CPU with an AMD DX4-100 (write thru) CPU.
After carefully checking all the jumper settings and installing the motherboard in one of my old cases, I inserted some 72-pin simms I also used on another 486 motherboard (LS-486E rev D).
Upon starting the PC, just a faint beeping sound and then nothing.

I then thought it might be the CPU.
Swopped it out with the the Intel 486DX-33.
Still nothing.
Even inserted another graphics card.

Finally, I thought let me completely remove the memory from the motherboard.
When I then tried to start the PC, I heard the all familiar beeping error code of "memory error or no memory detected".
Put another pair of simms in. Still the same problem.
Eventually I dug into an old box of mine and found another pair of 4 MB simms that I used at one point on an older 486 Socket 2 motherboard.
Sure thing, the PC booted up.

So, lesson I learned is that this motherboard is definitely finicky when it comes to having the correct memory installed. Appears that EDO memory is definitely not compatible with this motherboard.
This motherboard still has a very old BIOS revision which I've now flashed to the the latest version.

PS: This motherboard can run with only one Simm installed on the motherboard, provided its installed in slot 1.