VOGONS


First post, by PDXTony

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Hello awesome community!

I picked up a PCChips M530 from eBay and have been unable to get it to post. The board: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/pcchips-m530

The symptoms are no beep at power on. The UMC chip (UM8663BF) begins heating up abnormally hot (too hot to the touch). With my post card, in the PCI slot all the LEDs showing proper voltage appear, but no post codes appear on the display. In the ISA slot, only one of the LED lights come on, indicating a voltage problem to the ISA bus.

What I have tried:
- Removed all connections and components except for the power connection to the motherboard, the CPU, and the speaker connection. No change.
- Tried a different AT power supply. No change. Also verified voltage looked correct with my multi-meter.
- Tried different CPU jumper settings - it was set at 66mhz FSB and 3x multiplier (Pentium 200mhz MMX). No change.
- Tried a different CPU (Pentium 133mhz). No change.

Visually, the board looks immaculate and clean. No capacitors or other components appear damaged or out of sort.

Given the super-hot UMC chip, I am guessing there's a voltage issue with the board someplace.
My question for all of you is, what should I try next to troubleshoot? Is this a dead board?

Thank you!
Tony

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Reply 1 of 2, by Horun

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That chip is the super IO and should not get hot. Sounds like burned traces if some volts do not show on the diag card in ISA slot but do in PCI.
I would carefully use a voltmeter and check the ISA w/o the diag card. Curious...Are you trying to boot the board with no ram or cpu heatsink (as in the picture)?
added: pull the board out of the case and test on a cardboard box.....

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. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 2, by PDXTony

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Horun wrote on 2023-07-29, 18:55:

That chip is the super IO and should not get hot. Sounds like burned traces if some volts do not show on the diag card in ISA slot but do in PCI.
I would carefully use a voltmeter and check the ISA w/o the diag card. Curious...Are you trying to boot the board with no ram or cpu heatsink (as in the picture)?
added: pull the board out of the case and test on a cardboard box.....

I'll do that next, thank you!

No, I had the heatsink and memory out in that picture with the system powered on for about 5 seconds to look at voltages via the post card.