Before u try flashing the BIOS,
What graphics card have u used? Do they have the 5v pci connector or the universal connector?
It looks like you've got a 430TX motherboard or a 430 variant of it. Are u using a graphics card with a universal pci connector (see the pic attached)?
I myself use a Jamicon 430TX motherboard with 5v pci slots. I bought an Ati Rage XL 8MB pci graphics card off amazon and inserted it into the motherboard.

Upon turning it on it just gave me error beep codes that indicated that the video card was not found. After extensive searching i found out that even though the Rage XL uses the universal 3.3v and 5v connector it still used only 3.3v.
So it didnt work with the 5v slot on my motherboard and therefore gave me the error codes. So i threw in my oldddd Sis 6215 crappy video card which used the normal 5v slot and the pc booted right up!!

Could be the same problem in your case

Where are you located? I may be able to help.

Btw, you may just want to keep trying different cards..

Best pci 2.1 non sse video card?

ATI Rage 128 Pro Won't Post

aarondavid47 wrote on 2021-02-28, 09:09:

Before u try flashing the BIOS, What graphics card have u used? Do they have the 5v pci connector or the universal connector? It […]
Show full quote

Before u try flashing the BIOS,
What graphics card have u used? Do they have the 5v pci connector or the universal connector?
It looks like you've got a 430TX motherboard or a 430 variant of it. Are u using a graphics card with a universal pci connector (see the pic attached)?
I myself use a Jamicon 430TX motherboard with 5v pci slots. I bought an Ati Rage XL 8MB pci graphics card off amazon and inserted it into the motherboard.

Upon turning it on it just gave me error beep codes that indicated that the video card was not found. After extensive searching i found out that even though the Rage XL uses the universal 3.3v and 5v connector it still used only 3.3v.
So it didnt work with the 5v slot on my motherboard and therefore gave me the error codes. So i threw in my oldddd Sis 6215 crappy video card which used the normal 5v slot and the pc booted right up!!

Could be the same problem in your case

Hey , yeah thanks for replying , as far as i know it should be a card with 5V , it's a S3 Trio 64v+
Also im not getting any beeps at all , the fan on the cpu spins and it is geting power but it seems like nothing of the actual board logic is kicking in.

Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-28, 09:55:

Where are you located? I may be able. To help.

Btw, you may just want to keep trying different cards..

Best pci 2.1 non sse video card?

I'm in Melbourne in Australia.
Not sure how far away that is from you xD

AppleSauce wrote on 2021-02-28, 09:57:

Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-28, 09:55:

Where are you located? I may be able. To help.

Btw, you may just want to keep trying different cards..

Best pci 2.1 non sse video card?

I'm in Melbourne in Australia.
Not sure how far away that is from you xD

Little far..

Tl866 II plus

Buy one on ebay. One with adapters would be nice. But not needed for that chip

I just went through this crap and regret not just buying the thing in the first place. It’s so easy to use it’s unreal.

Btw see edited prev reply for extra link

Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-28, 10:00:

Little far.. […]
Show full quote

AppleSauce wrote on 2021-02-28, 09:57:

Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-28, 09:55:

Where are you located? I may be able. To help.

Btw, you may just want to keep trying different cards..

Best pci 2.1 non sse video card?

I'm in Melbourne in Australia.
Not sure how far away that is from you xD

Little far..

Tl866 II plus

Buy one on ebay. One with adapters would be nice. But not needed for that chip

I just went through this crap and regret not just buying the thing in the first place. It’s so easy to use it’s unreal.

Btw see edited prev reply for extra link

It looks like most of them are about 100 dollarydoos oouf.
Good thing I ended up buying a second motherboard just in case.

I just figured it would be worth salvaging this one considering it wasn't that cheap.

Are there any other cheaper flashers?
Maybe something for like 20 AUD?

If you can't afford a programmer and have a motherboard from the same era, you can try the "hotswap" technique. You need a software named "uniflash", a working motherboard and a the ROM chip to flash and the rom file.
You turn on the motherboard with its original rom, then while it's on you put the blank rom and you start uniflash and then tell it to flash the rom.

Then put each rom back to their place and test 😀

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-28, 10:20:

If you can't afford a programmer and have a motherboard from the same era, you can try the "hotswap" technique. You need a software named "uniflash", a working motherboard and a the ROM chip to flash and the rom file.
You turn on the motherboard with its original rom, then while it's on you put the blank rom and you start uniflash and then tell it to flash the rom.

Then put each rom back to their place and test 😀

Alright , I'm possibly willing to give it a go , as long as its safe and wont fry anything.

Why not consider having a reliable flash-service get the job done for a quid?

majestyk wrote on 2021-02-28, 10:56:

Why not consider having a reliable flash-service get the job done for a quid?

I mean I would if I knew where.

Would something Like this do the trick?

Some old NICs can also be used. Quite affordable and maybe you already have some of these around somewhere?
I've only tested it for reading, but it should work for writing too.

EDIT: However, the number one suspect for the defunct mobos of this era...CAPS.

AppleSauce wrote on 2021-02-28, 10:29:

.. as long as its safe and wont fry anything.

Pay close attention to the chip orientation. If you install it in the wrong direction, it will be fried.
Mobo perhaps will survive that, but you will need a new chip.

For flashing nothing beats tl866ii

That's being said. I think ROM don't get easily corrupted on their own (unless you happen to screw up BIOS flashing or something like that).

It i just one of many things that can be wrong and unless you have some clear indication that it is the BIOS that's wrong I'd start with other things. Like swapping parts, post diagnostic card, close inspection of the board, etc.

Also Socket 7 stuff isn't that expensive so unless you really want it might be cheaper to buy a perfect board rather than diagnostic/repair gear.

AppleSauce wrote on 2021-02-28, 11:07:

Would something Like this do the trick?

No, that one is only for PIC microcontrollers.

the cheap TL866CS, TL866A, TL866II+ are cheaply available, and the latest T56 seems to have the best options of all three.
though any of the previous version will suffice for you for now.
https://xgecu.aliexpress.com/store/4805043

mpe wrote on 2021-02-28, 11:51:

That's being said. I think ROM don't get easily corrupted on their own (unless you happen to screw up BIOS flashing or something like that).

It i just one of many things that can be wrong and unless you have some clear indication that it is the BIOS that's wrong I'd start with other things. Like swapping parts, post diagnostic card, close inspection of the board, etc.

Also Socket 7 stuff isn't that expensive so unless you really want it might be cheaper to buy a perfect board rather than diagnostic/repair gear.

While this is true, op should make more checks before trying to flash the bios (getting a POST card could help a lot), BIOS can die sometimes. I've had it happening to me twice. Once the chip was simply toasted. I was about to trash the board when I tried this and it came to life. The other time the chip was dying in my hands. I wanted to update the bios and some bits started to not update properly anymore. This wasn't a bad flash, this was literally the chip falling appart. I replaced it with a new one and no more problems.

^^ This. If you get POST codes then at least some BIOS code is run. And maybe you get some hint about what exactly goes wrong.
OTOH if you get no POST code at all that doesn't necessarily indicate a faulty BIOS chip.

I have the same board, and used the hotflash method, it's a god board, very compatible with sdram and stable at 75mhz bus, and the mentioned cheap ragexl works. For me the hard part was to find a compatible eeprom. I even polimoded it.

AppleSauce wrote on 2021-02-28, 10:29:

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-28, 10:20:

If you can't afford a programmer and have a motherboard from the same era, you can try the "hostwap" technique. You need a software named "uniflash", a working motherboard and a the ROM chip to flash and the rom file.
You turn on the motherboard with its original rom, then while it's on you put the blank rom and you start uniflash and then tell it to flash the rom.

Then put each rom back to their place and test 😀

Alright , I'm possibly willing to give it a go , as long as its safe and wont fry anything.

This is what I am saying. I tried all this, even tried a network card in the end it didn’t work and I was lucky to not fry anything I regretted not getting the programmer in the first place

Thanks for all the help so far guys.
After going through all the posts I'm leaning towards biting the bullet and getting the proper Tl866 II plus programmer.