According to my little booklet, for the Award bios the codes mean this:

1 long - 2 short = Video Error. Cannot initialize Screen to Display Any information [sic]
1 long - 1 short = RAM or motherboard error.

For a Phoenix bios:

1 - 2 - 1 - 1 = Initialize Power Management

Very helpful, I'm sure. Don't know how accurate - it doesn't mention anything about high notes or low notes.

On the one hand VGA initialization error makes sense because I get nothing on the monitor.. On the other hand it makes no sense because everything works once I remove the adapter from the IDE port?

Ordered an 8.4GB Seagate drive, so eh.. Weird stuff, really.

appiah4 wrote:

On the one hand VGA initialization error makes sense because I get nothing on the monitor.. On the other hand it makes no sense because everything works once I remove the adapter from the IDE port?

i remember friend of mine having similar issues, cant boot if both VGA & IDE-HDD was present, but it able to boot if one of them are removed.
he resolves it:
- remove the HDD
- moving the vga card into another pci slot
- reset ESCDI
- mount the HDD again.

Joey_sw wrote:

i remember friend of mine having similar issues, cant boot if both VGA & IDE-HDD was present, but it able to boot if one of them […]
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appiah4 wrote:

On the one hand VGA initialization error makes sense because I get nothing on the monitor.. On the other hand it makes no sense because everything works once I remove the adapter from the IDE port?

i remember friend of mine having similar issues, cant boot if both VGA & IDE-HDD was present, but it able to boot if one of them are removed.
he resolves it:
- remove the HDD
- moing the vga card into another pci slot
- reset ESCDI
- mount the HDD again.

Most interesting I will move the pci soundcard and try this though the voodoo2 placement kind of limits things due to the intemediary cabke being a pita to use with adjacent slots..

Hiwever resetting escdi lost me. A google search fir the suggestion returned nothing. How is this magic done?

appiah4 wrote:

However resetting escdi lost me. A google search fir the suggestion returned nothing. How is this magic done?

Sorry about that, its wrong shortening, what i mean is reseting ESCD Information.
http://www.dewassoc.com/support/bios/escd.htm

A 1997 Award BIOS, should've something called: "Reset configuration data" (not to be confused with load bios default settings) in the BIOS settings.
That was used for reseting the ESCD information

I'll try this, although currently there's no BIOS battery on the board so I doubt ESCD info is getting saved in the first place (which might be the main issue here, as I get CMOS checksum error, battery failure at every boot).

Also, from what you linked:

ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data)

At times the Extended System Configuration Data update will fail in the BIOS as the system boots. The problem occurs with AMI and Award BIOS versions that used a poor method to prevent using compressed BIOS code while updating ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data) memory area in the BIOS. This has, for the most part, been eliminated in the PnP Bios releases.

Most generally, those computers equipped with the OverDrive® processor diagnostics will verify this before the installation of the OverDrive processor as it checks to see if the ESCD addresses are being aliased to the 4 GB memory range.

I am using a Pentium Overdrive 166 MHz at the moment.. So that might be relevant?

I moved the cards updated the escd plugged in the idecf an now I just get the one long two short beeps. No more lower note beeps.

I think I know whats happening. ESCD gets updated but then I power off and since there is no cmos battery the new ESCD info gets wiped when I install the IDECF and I cant get it to post. Iy probably expects vga in PCI1 by default but it was in PCI4 and now is in PCI5.

Ill have a battery for the board tomorrow. I have a feeling all will be fine afterwards.

In the meantime during one of my boot attempts I got a strange continuous beeping with garbled text scrolling on the screen. I caught glimpse of NCR Corporation at some point. A hard reset fixed it. Booting without battery gives me CMOS checksum errors.. I hope the bios is well and the board is ok..

I had a similar issue with a CF-IDE adapter on an ISA card (FYI the post title says IDE-FC which is an IDE to SCSI Fibre Channel adapter, very different to CF-IDE!) I never resolved the problem as I switched to an IDE to SD-card adapter, but there was some issue with the card connecting some signal that wasn't expected on older IDE adapters. There was a big thread on one of the other vintage PC forums where someone came up with the fix which involved something like removing a pin from the IDE socket, but I can't remember what the fix actually was now.

Nothing I did fixed the issue so I bought a 8.4gb IDE HDD instead. I think the board is 40pin standard ide and the CF adapter only works with 80pin UATA standard or something. At least it works now!

I understand it seems completely illogical, but once I had a similar issue with exactly the same CF adapter and card: on a specific motherboard, plugging the adapter directly to the IDE connector caused beeping as there's no VGA installed. I solved it by using a HDD cable and connecting a different (male) adapter to it, one of those that go to the slots and make the card accessible from outside the case. Yeah I know it makes no sense but still it's true 😀

konc wrote:

I understand it seems completely illogical, but once I had a similar issue with exactly the same CF adapter and card: on a specific motherboard, plugging the adapter directly to the IDE connector caused beeping as there's no VGA installed. I solved it by using a HDD cable and connecting a different (male) adapter to it, one of those that go to the slots and make the card accessible from outside the case. Yeah I know it makes no sense but still it's true 😀

Whaat? That would require a female to male IDE ribbon cable though, wouldn't it? Where did you sorce this sorcery? I would be totally baffled if this were the case.

appiah4 wrote:

konc wrote:

I understand it seems completely illogical, but once I had a similar issue with exactly the same CF adapter and card: on a specific motherboard, plugging the adapter directly to the IDE connector caused beeping as there's no VGA installed. I solved it by using a HDD cable and connecting a different (male) adapter to it, one of those that go to the slots and make the card accessible from outside the case. Yeah I know it makes no sense but still it's true 😀

Whaat? That would require a female to male IDE ribbon cable though, wouldn't it? Where did you sorce this sorcery? I would be totally baffled if this were the case.

No, a normal HDD cable with a male adapter, something like those
http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_0711_1.jpg
https://images.monoprice.com/productlargeimages/27851.jpg

Ok the cable you describe is exactly what I was wondering where to find - never saw anything of the kind.

On the other hand, I may as well just buy a different CF-IDE adapter at some point.. For the moment, a real HDD will do the job. Not like I'd get lightning fast speeds from a CF-IDE over ATA-33 on a P166MMX in the first place, I just didn't want to deal with a 20 year old mechanical drive.

appiah4 wrote:

Ok the cable you describe is exactly what I was wondering where to find - never saw anything of the kind.

May be I didn't phrase it well: Just a normal HDD cable.

Which you will connect to a male CF adapter.

konc wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

Ok the cable you describe is exactly what I was wondering where to find - never saw anything of the kind.

May be I didn't phrase it well: Just a normal HDD cable.

Which you will connect to a male CF adapter.

Ok, ok, I get it now, the adapter I have now is a lost cause 😀 With this board anyway.

appiah4 wrote:

konc wrote:

I understand it seems completely illogical, but once I had a similar issue with exactly the same CF adapter and card: on a specific motherboard, plugging the adapter directly to the IDE connector caused beeping as there's no VGA installed. I solved it by using a HDD cable and connecting a different (male) adapter to it, one of those that go to the slots and make the card accessible from outside the case. Yeah I know it makes no sense but still it's true 😀

Whaat? That would require a female to male IDE ribbon cable though, wouldn't it? Where did you sorce this sorcery? I would be totally baffled if this were the case.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/OPEN-SMART-Fle … 51-b567ab6fa22c

🤣

tayyare wrote:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/OPEN-SMART-Fle … 51-b567ab6fa22c […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote:

konc wrote:

I understand it seems completely illogical, but once I had a similar issue with exactly the same CF adapter and card: on a specific motherboard, plugging the adapter directly to the IDE connector caused beeping as there's no VGA installed. I solved it by using a HDD cable and connecting a different (male) adapter to it, one of those that go to the slots and make the card accessible from outside the case. Yeah I know it makes no sense but still it's true 😀

Whaat? That would require a female to male IDE ribbon cable though, wouldn't it? Where did you sorce this sorcery? I would be totally baffled if this were the case.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/OPEN-SMART-Fle … 51-b567ab6fa22c

🤣

Fantastic. Ordered. 😎

appiah4 wrote:

Fantastic. Ordered. 😎

You maybe could just use one of these and a regular IDE cable:
https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_65090/merkma … ?setLanguage=en

I used those to connect a DOM to IDE cables because I wanted to use more than one (those DOMs had master/slave switches but of course were still intended to be directly connected to the motherboard's IDE connector).

appiah4 wrote:

Fantastic. Ordered. 😎

I use them regularly as extenders when IDE cables' length is not enough. Back panel CF adapters and CDs on the same channel/cable is challenging even in an AT minitower midget case. 34-pin (floppy) version is also available.

There is also this:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5-pcs-0-100-2- … .1ec64c4dUlMmvo

and this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/LY-214-IDC-CR … .2efe3c00AF9Xxz

...and as a lazy but flexible alternative:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Dupont-Line-40 … .1ec64c4dUlMmvo