Did you try a absolute barebones test minimum ram and hardware to see if it'll post. How's the bios battery as well some older systems act funny when there dead or almost dead.

Have you tried disconnecting the keyboard lock (if there is one) ?

chrismeyer6 wrote:

Did you try a absolute barebones test minimum ram and hardware to see if it'll post. How's the bios battery as well some older systems act funny when there dead or almost dead.

The system came with a dead 3.6volt external battery installed. Don't have one on hand, but just tried hooking it up again to see if it was just because it couldn't find a battery. No change.

Removed the 3com Ethernet card and left only the video, I/O cards, and the RAM board in there. No change.

The RAM board's slots had super brittle plastic holders holding the RAM in so I didn't take any out. But reseating the board didn't help.

Removed I/O cards so it was just the VGA card and the RAM board. Nothing.

Brickpad wrote:

Have you tried disconnecting the keyboard lock (if there is one) ?

There's a keyboard lock on the case, yes. Removed the connector from the motherboard, nothing. It's in the unlocked position, anyways.

I also just noticed it checks the memory and then restarts and checks it again instantly. Weird.

I performed the keylock test with both the I/O cards inserted and out.

Both retained nothing. 😕

i would try the board again with a fresh battery i have a few older boards that wont post without a good battery or some that will act really strange

Good idea, because some real-time clocks get entirely powered by the battery.
Whithout one, the clock's CMOS RAM is inaccessible (dead), too.

Replace the keyboard fuse. It's usually a little round yellow cylinder that looks a bit like a diode. They're usually located very close to the keyboard port. You can easily test it with a multi-meter.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Replace the keyboard fuse. It's usually a little round yellow cylinder that looks a bit like a diode. They're usually located very close to the keyboard port. You can easily test it with a multi-meter.

You mean that little fuse above the port?

cj_reha wrote:

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Replace the keyboard fuse. It's usually a little round yellow cylinder that looks a bit like a diode. They're usually located very close to the keyboard port. You can easily test it with a multi-meter.

You mean that little fuse above the port?

Yes, that's the one. Hard to tell for sure, but if that's glass, it looks like it's fogged, indicating a blown fuse.

Doubt a broken fuse would let you do this:
"Memory test disabled by keyboard stroke"
Check the fuse with a multimeter before replacing. You can also check the keyboard data lines with the multimeter in diode test mode. Parasitic diodes should be present between each data line and 5V / GND. If a data line is shorted to either it's not good.

How long did you wait after the lock up? Some errors take some time to show up.

Further things you can do:
- replace the dead battery
- check jumper settings, if any
- re-seat socketed chips
- try without copro and cache disabled
- check for chips producing excessive heat
- check for conductive debris on the board / in the slots
- POST card
- other power supply