Post pictures of memory modules please.

Cheers,

How does it behave with all of the drives disconnected?

Hi everyone!

This is a little embarrassing and I still don't know what happened but the system is now working.

First, I removed the IDE cables from the motherboard and I kept getting long beeps indicating a DRAM error.
Then I removed the RAM and put in a little 128 Mb DDR 133 stick that came with the board. Same DRAM error.
The following afternoon (today) I reinstalled the 2 sticks of PC2700 RAM and again, the noise. I started moving the sticks around and notice that one of the sticks worked if I used the third DIMM slot. So I tried again, reseating the RAM on slots 1-2 and then noticed the case fan wasn't spinning. I checked the connection and noticed the extension wasn't properly connected to the low-noise adaptor. I fixed that and tried again and voilá, the motherboard booted with the 2 sticks I originally installed, but sans any drives.
So, now, I connected the CD-ROM unit only on the secondary IDE interface and it was detected and it booted off the Windows XP disk. Then I connected the primary interface cable that is connected to the IDE2SAT2 card and miraculously it worked now. Unfortunately, the Windows XP installation froze. I again reset it but now I configured the "HDD" to be LBA but with a UDMA speed of 2 instead of 5 and now the drive is working, already formatted the install partition. I thought the install would be much faster but it's taking almost 2 hours.

I hope that's normal for a SATA3 drive through an IDE2SATA converter. I already ordered a proper shielded cable to use UDMA mode in the future.

Edit: nope, there’s something wrong here, install is barely at 5% after 30 minutes of “copying files”.

pentiumspeed wrote on 2022-07-17, 21:55:

Post pictures of memory modules please.

Cheers,

These are the modules:

One of these is 2GB and other one is 1GB. That's the problem.

I read the manual for this motherboard, only accept 1GB modules. Up to 3GB total using three 1GB modules.

Cheers,

The stick you're referring to is part of a 2 Gb kit.
I'll try with just one stick and report back.

The weirdness continues.

I removed one of the sticks and cleared CMOS. Booted up and motherboard complains with memory error beeps.
I take out my POST card and remove all PCI cards.
Reboot and POST card reports C3 error: OEM-specific- Test to size on-board memory.

While I was looking up the error code, beeping stopped and error changed to a code without description but beeping changed to keyboard controller error. Plugged in USB keyboard and rebooted. Same keyboard error through beeps but no error code on POST card.

I removed the POST card, re-inserted my AGP card and rebooted.

Worked. BIOS asking for processor speed. Motherboard detects 1 Gb RAM. Left everything IDE to Auto. Rebooted. Frozen again.
Cleared CMOS again, rebooted and back in BIOS. This time I changed IDE devices to Primary= User defined HDD, auto detected size, PIO 4, UDMA 2.
Secondary= CD ROM, PIO 4, UDMA 2.
Rebooted. Boots into WinXP install CD, fails with “ntldr is missing” error. Reboot.

Now goes into install program, install fails with “There is a syntax error in the .SIF file that setup uses at line 283.”

Takes out CD, CD surface is pristine, no scratches at all.

Reboots. Same error.

Help 😩

Yes, I stand behind what I said;

I know the kingston part numbers well.

Anything after "/" is size. You have /1G and /2G, which is 1GB and 2GB.

Try to get 16 chips 1GB module instead? Also can use DDR400 in your board. I like Micron, Hynix and Samsung, Infineon. Even Kingston is good but I most prefer OEM brands best.

For example, Micron;

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/185214885395?epid=223 … -AAAOSwEflhuRuS

Cheers,

Just to be sure, have you had a careful look at the capacitors for any sign of failure?
I still like to run Memtest86 from a floppy disk, but there are many different ways; I think you should pick one and give it a try: https://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-07-20, 00:14:

Just to be sure, have you had a careful look at the capacitors for any sign of failure?
I still like to run Memtest86 from a floppy disk, but there are many different ways; I think you should pick one and give it a try: https://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Oh, I agree, let have a good photo of your motherboard around the CPU and memory slots to show the capacitors in that area?

Cheers,

pentiumspeed wrote on 2022-07-19, 23:25:

Yes, I stand behind what I said; […]
Show full quote

Yes, I stand behind what I said;

I know the kingston part numbers well.

Anything after "/" is size. You have /1G and /2G, which is 1GB and 2GB.

Try to get 16 chips 1GB module instead? Also can use DDR400 in your board. I like Micron, Hynix and Samsung, Infineon. Even Kingston is good but I most prefer OEM brands best.

For example, Micron;

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/185214885395?epid=223 … -AAAOSwEflhuRuS

Cheers,

I have a pair of DDR400, 512 Mb set, I'll try with that one.

pentiumspeed wrote on 2022-07-20, 00:27:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-07-20, 00:14:

Just to be sure, have you had a careful look at the capacitors for any sign of failure?
I still like to run Memtest86 from a floppy disk, but there are many different ways; I think you should pick one and give it a try: https://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Oh, I agree, let have a good photo of your motherboard around the CPU and memory slots to show the capacitors in that area?

Cheers,

Sure:

I think I know what happened now.
I changed the memory to PC3200 512 Mb. Kept getting memory error beeps.
Cold booted again. No beeping, straight to BIOS boot. There’s a BIOS warning that the system halted because of a CPU speed error. I lowered the speed from 1533 MHz to 1150 MHz and the FSB lowered from 133 to 100, effectively lowering RAM speed to 266. Also changed HDD from PIO 4 to PIO 0.
I just installed Windows XP without any issues.

Why is this motherboard unstable at 1533 MHz?

How strong is the + five volt on the power supply you're using? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efK7mw8eYiE

I'm not familiar with this chipset, so I don't know how hot the northbridge chip runs, but it couldn't hurt anything to remove the heatsink from it and apply fresh thermal paste. I make sure to do that with any older motherboard I use, but especially on the ones where I know that chip runs on the hotter side; after twenty+ years the original thermal paste is little better than chalk.

The PSU is an Antec TrueBlue 480 with 38A on the +5v rail.

I haven’t thought of applying paste to the chipset heatsink, I’ll definitely try it.

Is your heatsink on the right way round? Typically the push down side of the clip is opposite to the thick side of the socket where it says "Socket A" but it appears to be on that thick side. Bad HSF install means overheat crashes. It was not really a standard, but the majority of heatsinks I've had would install the opposite way round to way you have yours so double check install instructions for that one if you believe you have it the right way round.

I positioned the heat sink according to the manual, with the larger edge facing the opposite side from the port side of the motherboard. The idle temperature of the processor is 40 Celsius. I think it’s not possible for this motherboard to install it backwards, since the capacitors get in the way.

Hard to say where that idle temp falls without running the board myself, socket A were all over the place, some I'd have at 26 or 27 idle and 35-40 load, some would go 40 idle 55 load.

I just checked the heatsink again, I placed the fixed tab on the side close to the ports and the push-down tab on the side next to the DIMM slots and where the Socket A writing is.

Like in this video: https://youtu.be/K5s6-CAKiV0?t=247