Don't give up, that's a realky nice board you have there!

Change the battery, reseat the memory or tymry other sticks.
Reseat the CPU or CPUs, test with an older PII400 e.g. There's still a lot you can test before giving up on such a nice board.

I have an attachment to this computer. It was my first IT job back around of the turn of 2000s and my first experience with Netware. So, yeah....it has some value to me.

I have reseated the CPUs and I don't have any memory installed yet. This board is unique because it takes a specific power supply. It has two power connectors....one main connector and one secondary. If I hit the power switch it will not turn on. So I am thinking because of the power connector on the board it is not getting enough power.

The secondary power connected is not needed for booting the bare board. Without ram the board will not boot though...

Suppose it could be an issue with a solder joint on the 20 pin atx connector but seems doubtful. Maybe more likely an issue with caps on the power side - my board from May 2000 still has its original Sanyo caps in good nick but even so, check for signs of blown tops or popping bases. As @flupke11 says, you don't need the secondary 6 pin aux connector for booting, even with a basic dual setup (and yes, memory will definitely help 😀 ). If you're only planning single processor atm, Supermicro recommend using the slot 1 nearest the memory.

Thanks for the responses. I was thinking it was something with the soldering joints which connect the connector to the board. None of the caps appear burnt or expanded in size or swollen. The tops look ok. I will try the memory thing and see if that is helpful or not. A computer still can boot without memory though.

Suppose it depends how you're defining 'booting' - in this instance, with no memory you'll get no video or POST screen and no other board response save for spin-up on any connected processor or case fans.

Pictures, pictures, pictures...

I have that same motherboard and I only use the 20 pin atx power connector. I'm running dual p3 850's and 1 gig of ram and it's been a flawless system since I put it together back in 2006. Once you get it fixed it'll be a great system once again.

Just an update. Lets start at the beginning. When I take the power connector and connect it to the board. I connect it and make sure it is pushed down all the way. Normally, I would see a steady green light on this particular board. In this situation, I am not getting a green light on the board. If I raise the power connector a little bit or jiggle it then the green light will come on but flicker. Right there that tells me the board is not getting enough power.

Next, I put in a stick of ram and two CPUs connected....no video and CPU fans don't spin....which still leads me to believe the board isn't getting enough power. Next, I tried one CPU...closes to the memory.... and nothing. Then I tried swapping the CPUs and still nothing.

All of this brings me back to the original thought....not enough power to the board OR something else is going on.

Change power supply. I suggest seasonic 550W bronze 80.

Or buy a cheap motherboard with good power supply connector and have a electronic repair shop replace the supermicro's defective connector?

Cheers,

Nice board ! Similar to an Asus P2B-DS. If using a newer ATX PSU you need a big 5v main, my 500w from about 2000 has a 30A 3.3v, 50A 5v and 25A 12v with a Max of 175W off the 3.3v+5v combined... most newer ATX have only 100-120W on the combined.

I did try another power supply and got the same result. I really would like to get this board up and running so I was thinking of getting the main power connector on the board repaired...if it is pointing to that as the source of the problem. There is no visual signs that there is anything wrong with the board.

facecard wrote on 2020-07-19, 00:06:

I did try another power supply and got the same result. I really would like to get this board up and running so I was thinking of getting the main power connector on the board repaired...if it is pointing to that as the source of the problem. There is no visual signs that there is anything wrong with the board.

Can you take a good picture of the connector including the caps around the connector, both front and back of board ?

Given the OPs minimal test setup, pretty sure this is a board rather than a PSU issue. For comparison my board is currently running stable on the bench with -

- dual 1000/256/133 (OC'd from 7.5 x 100 to 7.5 x 133)
- 2GB (2 x 1GB) of PC133R
- Matrox G400 32MB
- 40GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8
- LiteOn DVD ROM
- 200w TFX PSU from 2003

so I'd assume it's either a faulty ATX connector on the board (solder joint or pin damage) or component issues further in.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2020-07-19, 01:04:

Given the OPs minimal test setup, pretty sure this is a board rather than a PSU issue. For comparison my board is currently running stable on the bench with -
- 200w TFX PSU from 2003
so I'd assume it's either a faulty ATX connector on the board (solder joint or pin damage) or component issues further in.

I agree but always good to rule out a PSU. Even your 200w has a 190w combined on 3.3, 5 and 12. Most all of these boards like Socket A and Slot A do not use much 12v or 3.3. Most of the cpu, ram and AGP use the 5v rail through onboard regulation for those things. Is also why we need pictures ! It might show bad solder, mis-colored Tants or other details.

Just to clarify something. This computer was built by someone back around late 90s and I am guessing they had installed Netware 4.11 as well. After I was hired, this computer was working and continued to work years later. It was used as a Netware file server. After a few years, the computer was going to be replaced and I took ownership of it.

The originally components of this computer:

Cena Systems 386 case
Supermicro P6dgu
Powerman FSP power supply

The original power supply died and I replaced it with a duplicate or very close replica. So, I bought a Powerman FSP 300-BT60 model thinking it was adequate in power. Now, I am starting to think maybe 300 watt is not enough power and maybe 350w is better. I don't recall if the original power supply was 300 or 350w.

Unfortunately I don't have a 350w power supply that I can rule out my thinking or my thoughts on it.

Anyways, attached are pictures of the board. Obviously, looking at the board it appears normal and nothing unusual. Maybe someone will see something else.

On an initial look I dont see anything obvious component-wise when compared to my board (also REV 1.1 but about 16 months newer from May 2000) - I'll make a more detailed comparison later.

What I do see however is that in jumper on JBT1 is set to pins 2-3 which is 'clear cmos' when by default it should be set to 1-2 which is 'normal' so as you look at this zoomed in shot the jumper should be top & middle pins rather than middle & bottom pins.

Also, with the Front-side Bus jumper JP11 set to 'Auto' (pins 1-2) and the CPU Core/Bus Ratio jumpers JB4, JB3, JB2, JB1 set to 'On', 'On', 'Off', 'Off' for a x3.5 ratio (so 3.5 x front-side bus) can you list the detailed specs of both the cpu and memory your using.

@PC Hoarder. Nice call man. That did the trick.

Now I have power and the computer turns on. Next I have to figure out two things.

- No video (maybe, bad video card)
-No HD and power status lights come on

I have to figure the jumper settings for the status lights on the board.

Excellent!

Cheers,