VOGONS


First post, by RetroSpector78

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Hi,

I have an Intel D845GEBV2 P4 motherboard that is no longer booting.
I got the PC a couple of days ago and played with it for a couple of days, installed windows XP, ran some benchmarks. No issues.

Caps seem to be in a good condition (visually). No bulging / leaking.

But now I get no video output anymore. But what does happen is that the floppy drive is constantly seeking (dunno how you call it), asking for a floppy disk it seems (every 5 seconds or so).
When I insert a floppy disk it seems to pick it up and there is some disk activity for a couple of seconds. But then it stops.

As far as hardware goes, I tried different RAM, GPU, PSU and also tried the components under test with another P4 motherboard. Those seem to work. So the culprit has to be the D845GEBV2.

I read the manual of the D845GEBV2 board, and there is a BIOS Setup Recovery mode, where "the BIOS recovers data from a recovery diskette in the event of a failed BIOS update". I thought perhaps the BIOS get screwed up and it ended up in this recovery mode.

Now I did create such a recovery disk (I think it is the correct one, I picked it up from here : https://drivers.eu/Mainboards/INTEL/D845GEBV2
It is a dos based archive that creates a bootable disk with an autoexec.bat that should do the bios upgrade.

The Intel manual also has a "Recovering the BIOS section" where it stats that in the event BIOS corruption occured, there is no video support and you will not see anything on the screen. Monitor the procedure by listening to the speakr and looking at the diskette drive LED.

But although it does seem to pick up the disk, and there is some disk activity for a couple of seconds, I don't have the impression it is actually doing something (as a test I put a beep.com in the autoexec.bat and didn't hear anything, where as on another computer it did).

I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. I could replace the caps but they look clean so I am not sure that is the issue. Fact that it goes into this floppy drive seek loop is strange. Under "normal" conditions you never hear the floppy as it is configured to boot from harddrive.

Before the motherboard failed I was testing a repair job on an FX5200 AGP videocard. A broken FX5200 videocard was showing weird artifacts on screen and I did boot with that card and the intel board a couple of times. Could that have corrupted something ?

Any thoughts ?

Reply 1 of 16, by Horun

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Yes if the FX5200 8x AGP is not a universal 1.5v/0.8v and runs at 0.8 volts only then you could have fried the card and the board, board specs say: AGP connector supporting 1x, 2x, 4x AGP cards (1.5v only)....
So you get no video off the 845G video out or any PCI or other AGP card ?

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 16, by aha2940

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Hi, I have that exact same motherboard working here, in case you need to test something. My suggestions would be the usual (maybe you already tried them):

- Reset BIOS to default values (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/suppo … top-boards.html)
- Try a different floppy drive, maybe current one is failing to read the recovery floppy
- Use a diagnostics card
- Try the onboard video card or a PCI video card

P.S: I really like your YT channel.

Reply 3 of 16, by RetroSpector78

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Horun wrote on 2021-07-24, 15:40:

Yes if the FX5200 8x AGP is not a universal 1.5v/0.8v and runs at 0.8 volts only then you could have fried the card and the board, board specs say: AGP connector supporting 1x, 2x, 4x AGP cards (1.5v only)....
So you get no video off the 845G video out or any PCI or other AGP card ?

There is no internal video on the motherboard. Tried different AGP and PCI cards. But its the first time it has gone into this floppy boot loop (before, event with setup defaults it didn’t do that and simply booted from the hard drive.

Wasn’t aware this card could fry the motherboard. Card is an HP part , MS-8917 VER:2.10

Reply 5 of 16, by RetroSpector78

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aha2940 wrote on 2021-07-24, 15:52:
Hi, I have that exact same motherboard working here, in case you need to test something. My suggestions would be the usual (mayb […]
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Hi, I have that exact same motherboard working here, in case you need to test something. My suggestions would be the usual (maybe you already tried them):

- Reset BIOS to default values (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/suppo … top-boards.html)
- Try a different floppy drive, maybe current one is failing to read the recovery floppy
- Use a diagnostics card
- Try the onboard video card or a PCI video card

P.S: I really like your YT channel.

Thx ! Appreciate it. I don’t have onboard video but tried different agp / pci cards.

Tried the bios recovery procedure since normal or configure mode don’t produce video output.

Will try a different floppy (didn’t think of that) and a diagnostics card.

Not really sure what else to debug at this point.

Reply 6 of 16, by Horun

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Hmmm, the Intel Tech Spec and Quick reference for the D845GEBV2 states onboard video and shows a VGA connector on back bottom next to the single serial port. Perhaps your board was an OEM version???
Nearly all the Intel 845G boards have onboard with a VGA output from all the Intel specs looked over (was checking in case it was a variant which could lead to some better help)...

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 7 of 16, by aha2940

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Horun wrote on 2021-07-24, 23:34:

Hmmm, the Intel Tech Spec and Quick reference for the D845GEBV2 states onboard video and shows a VGA connector on back bottom next to the single serial port. Perhaps your board was an OEM version???
Nearly all the Intel 845G boards have onboard with a VGA output from all the Intel specs looked over (was checking in case it was a variant which could lead to some better help)...

Correct, I just double checked and my motherboard has its onboard video. I do not use it (have a Geforce 2 in use) but it's there. I remember back in the day there were some intel boards that used custom BIOS and OEM logos (I remember Gateway and maybe Dell?), and had different hardware configurations than the OEM board they were based on.

Reply 8 of 16, by RetroSpector78

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Horun wrote on 2021-07-24, 23:34:

Hmmm, the Intel Tech Spec and Quick reference for the D845GEBV2 states onboard video and shows a VGA connector on back bottom next to the single serial port. Perhaps your board was an OEM version???
Nearly all the Intel 845G boards have onboard with a VGA output from all the Intel specs looked over (was checking in case it was a variant which could lead to some better help)...

On the silkscreen of the board it says Intel Desktop Board D845GEBV2/D845PESV

So I guess mine is the D845PESV (sorry about the confusion)

Looking at the manual now and think the only difference is the integrated graphics. There are through holes for the VGA port on the motherboard but the connector is not mounted.

Reply 9 of 16, by RetroSpector78

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aha2940 wrote on 2021-07-25, 03:05:

Correct, I just double checked and my motherboard has its onboard video. I do not use it (have a Geforce 2 in use) but it's there. I remember back in the day there were some intel boards that used custom BIOS and OEM logos (I remember Gateway and maybe Dell?), and had different hardware configurations than the OEM board they were based on.

Yeah mine seems to be a D845PESV (boards must be very similar as both model numbers are on the silkscreen). Hope this also explain why my bios recovery attempt didn’t work 😀

It is the real Intel deal and has a gorgeous Intel Pentium 4 Desktop Board splash screen 😀
For that reason alone I would like to revive the board 😀

Still hoping this is the issue and will try to recover the bios with the correct D845PESV version when I get back.

Reply 10 of 16, by RetroSpector78

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I did found this on the back of the motherboard so something probably failed.

2021-07-26 12.40.53.jpg
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I fixed the trace but same result ... black screen and floppy drive keeps asking for a floppy disk.

I tried the Intel d845pesv BIOS image (P09-0017.BIO) on a formatted floppy but didn't work either.

Reply 11 of 16, by aha2940

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RetroSpector78 wrote on 2021-07-26, 13:34:
I did found this on the back of the motherboard so something probably failed. […]
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I did found this on the back of the motherboard so something probably failed.

2021-07-26 12.40.53.jpg

I fixed the trace but same result ... black screen and floppy drive keeps asking for a floppy disk.

I tried the Intel d845pesv BIOS image (P09-0017.BIO) on a formatted floppy but didn't work either.

That looks bad. Have you followed the trace to see what points it communicates? that could give a clue about what went wrong, however with a broken trace in such way I'd bet on a short somewhere that might have damaged something more difficult to repair than a trace.

Reply 12 of 16, by RetroSpector78

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aha2940 wrote on 2021-07-26, 14:39:

That looks bad. Have you followed the trace to see what points it communicates? that could give a clue about what went wrong, however with a broken trace in such way I'd bet on a short somewhere that might have damaged something more difficult to repair than a trace.

Fixed the trace but I’m guessing it was already there before. (When the computer was still running)

But happy to report she is running again !

It was a BIOS issue that needed reflashing and either the intel instructions were incorrect, or I misunderstood them, or there was something wrong with my floppy disks. Will do the post mortem now 🙂

Reply 13 of 16, by Horun

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Good to hear and Good job !

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 14 of 16, by aha2940

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RetroSpector78 wrote on 2021-07-26, 21:37:
Fixed the trace but I’m guessing it was already there before. (When the computer was still running) […]
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aha2940 wrote on 2021-07-26, 14:39:

That looks bad. Have you followed the trace to see what points it communicates? that could give a clue about what went wrong, however with a broken trace in such way I'd bet on a short somewhere that might have damaged something more difficult to repair than a trace.

Fixed the trace but I’m guessing it was already there before. (When the computer was still running)

But happy to report she is running again !

It was a BIOS issue that needed reflashing and either the intel instructions were incorrect, or I misunderstood them, or there was something wrong with my floppy disks. Will do the post mortem now 🙂

Glad it is working now, congrats!

Reply 15 of 16, by RetroSpector78

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Horun wrote on 2021-07-27, 00:51:

Good to hear and Good job !

Thx. And also thx for pointing out that there are in fact 2 D845 boards (The D845GEBV2 with video and the D845PESV without video).

Reply 16 of 16, by RetroSpector78

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RetroSpector78 wrote on 2021-07-27, 11:17:
Horun wrote on 2021-07-27, 00:51:

Good to hear and Good job !

Thx. And also thx for pointing out that there are in fact 2 D845 boards (The D845GEBV2 with video and the D845PESV without video).

For those interested, I created a video about the problem (https://youtu.be/MpA_mSqa0r0) and the solution (https://youtu.be/0Z7LskUzFo8)