VOGONS


First post, by Skip94

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Hi all
Picked up a pair of IBM PS/1s yesterday, a 2121 and a 2011. The 2121 works, despite having been filled with mouse poo, however the 2011 doesn't. Upon powering on, I get one long and two short beeps, which seems to indicate video error. It is producing a video signal as when connected to my LCD monitor, it wakes it up, but I only get a black screen.
Nothing is socketed, except for the Dallas 1287 clock chip. I have swapped in a working one from my Pentium 166, but that hasn't made any difference.
Other than that, I'm not really sure where to start with diagnostics, with no parts to swap and no ISA slots to put a POST card in.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Skip

Reply 1 of 5, by whaka

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Hi,

start by checking the connector itself, if not heavy corrosion.
then maybe check solder joint on the video chip itself and video ram.
thoses machines are a bit complicated when problem come from motherboard, as mostly all part of the chipset use custom gate arrays.

Reply 3 of 5, by Skip94

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Thanks.
I'll admit I didn't check the voltages, not sure why! I'll get that done ASAP.
All the solder joints look good, but I'll have a closer inspection. Will also test the Model 2121 I have, see if that complains about not having a monitor. If not, then I guess that rules out a bad connection on the VGA port.
Andrew

Reply 4 of 5, by Skip94

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Sorry it's taken so long, life has got in the way a little!
However, I can now confirm that the voltages are all present and correct and that visually, all the solder joints look fine.
Does anyone have any further ideas, or am I just looking at having to find a replacement motherboard?
Cheers
Andrew

Reply 5 of 5, by SteveC

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I'd normally do something a bit Neanderthal now like pressing and holding down ICs one by one when you turn it on to see if behaviour changes which could indicate a fine solder joint failure that you can't see (like TubeTime and CuriosMarc's PS/2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsLpe4lLhbo) . Or blow hot air onto different ICs to heat them up and turn on to see if that does anything (it did for my old AST)

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