Hi, I have various motherboards of that type, and two identical (more or less), the problem would be easily identifiable, the video card should be tested in another PC, if it behaves in the same way, it could have a problem, if instead it works, the problem could be in the MB.
At this point, I suggest you try an ISA or PCI type video card, both could confirm that there is a screen on the screen, so if you see the boot and BIOS on the screen, the motherboard could already be working, perhaps not 100%, but still with a good chance of repairing it, in case it has a problem in the AGP area.

I had trouble once with a P3B-F, and actually enabling JumperFree mode AND setting the whole dip switch block to the off position helped me out.
Also, disconnect power and leave the coin cell battery out for at least one minute.

Oh, and you sure about you had the 133 MHz version of the P3 600 back then? 440BX doesn't have official support for 133 FSB CPU's.
You could try to up the Vcore a bit.

Thanks for such a quick replays. Apparently the issue doesn’t let me sleep well, though I’ll be able to try some of solutions tomorrow only.

As for your suggestion PC@LIVE unfortunately this is my first machine and I know not so many (zero) fans of retro around. But idea with the second card for kind of the same - if two cards behave alike most likely problem wouldn’t lay within them but rather mobo/mono setup.
I will also presume cards working - for Elsa I got the video of its being tested on seller’s rig right before I got it, the second one was also sold as “tested”. But, for sure, there still a chance of super bad luck.

Nevertheless the idea of testing with PCI / ISA card makes total sense. But is brings another question then. Which of cards should i look for to be sure they’ll be compatible with the mobo. Sorry if it’s a dummy request, but maybe any suggestions from your experience?

Speaking about JumperFree and DIP switchers to answer PD2JK. I’ll double check but I’m pretty sure that I ended up having all dip off and jumperFree ON. Also it was like this in the very beginning and didn’t work.
One thing I didn’t try - I did not take out the BIOS battery.
Actually a side note to maybe shade some light. After PC doesn’t start I can’t restart it with power button. I have to switch of the power unit switcher to OFF for a least 20-30s. I find it weird a bit.

Regarding CPU. I checked marking and it says “600EB/256/133/1.65V S1”.

You have a 600EB which is 133 fsb bus. Not always you get a overclocking success with P3B, get a straight PIII-600 or 800 with 100MHz fsb.

Cheers,

133 MHz FSB on motherboards based on Intel 440BX/ZX chipset has some caveats:

• Needs higher quality PC133 SDRAM sticks, cheaper ones aren't up to the task.
• The AGP slot runs at 89 MHz, meaning that fewer video cards (mostly nVidia) can handle that speed.
• Northbridge may run hotter.

Thanks pentiumspeed, will try to find one. But meanwhile shall I give overclocking a try? Because what you are saying sounds to me like another way of setting up dip switchers.
In the MB manual list of default configs ends up at 100Mhz bus. So I guess I need to look for another combination.

As for card and stock Gmlb256. I have 133 stick, but not sure if it was a cheap one that day or a fancy performant one. Shouldn’t I also specify by jumpers set the memory frequency?
Regarding card - Elsa e-razor X is indeed running nVidia GeForce 256 nv10 chip on it.

ethreal wrote on 2023-11-23, 01:48:

As for card and stock Gmlb256. I have 133 stick, but not sure if it was a cheap one that day or a fancy performant one. Shouldn’t I also specify by jumpers set the memory frequency?
Regarding card - Elsa e-razor X is indeed running nVidia GeForce 256 nv10 chip on it.

The memory frequency is synced to the FSB speed, besides that there are the CAS settings on the BIOS setup. Also, try with another video card (preferably a PCI one just in case) if the motherboard doesn't perform POST with the GeForce 256.

ethreal wrote on 2023-11-23, 01:48:

[...] I have 133 stick, but not sure if it was a cheap one that day or a fancy performant one.

Look for 16Mx64 PC133 CL2 Sync SDRAM modules, Infineon is a really good brand. I have 4x128MB and it runs really well at 133MHz FSB with my VIA C3 CPU.

Hi again! So after I slept on it I have the following plan in my head.
Thanks everyone for answers and for help - I wouldn't manage it on my own.

First, I still have some hope and part of answers kind of implies that it might neither mobo or video card issue but a "compatibility - frequency - cpu - agp" thingy.
Which can be fixed with different jumpers set up.
So first that I'll do is:

1. Set jumperFree to off
2. Take another look at the manual and find a DIP setup which allows CPU bus to run at 133 Mhz
3. Try to figure out how to align it with AGP frequency
4. Remove BIOS battery (since I never did it)
5. Wait
6. Check

Maybe repeat a couple of time with different DIP sets.
This is something I already can do.

Then comes step 2 where I need more hardware.

1. PCI video card comes in play. Here it's still unclear for me which model should I use. I found this one on our local classifieds (sorry for german language). Will it work? Google says that "It is a basic 2D-graphics card from 1996". Which most probably means no games but at least a picture on the screen to see if mobo works? Or are there any other alternatives? ISA recommendations maybe?
2. CPU working at 100Mhz. Also an ad from local ebay. Any opinions on it?
3. Power Supply Unit. Actually I'm still in doubts if I can safely excluded PSU out of the equation. Can it be the case that it provides not enough power? It's a 300W unit with -5V white wire, 20pins connector if I'm not mistaken.
4. As a last resort I'll try to look for a new memory stick but not sure.

And after all of this of course I need to say that I was hoping someone coming with exactly the same issue - but bad luck this time.
Also as I mentioned I'll be trying out things in the evening, so more that open to any other opinions.

ethreal wrote on 2023-11-23, 09:43:

PCI video card comes in play. Here it's still unclear for me which model should I use. I found this one on our local classifieds (sorry for german language). Will it work? Google says that "It is a basic 2D-graphics card from 1996". Which most probably means no games but at least a picture on the screen to see if mobo works? Or are there any other alternatives? ISA recommendations maybe?

That's an ARK video card, which have decent compatibility and performance with 2D games.

The suggestion of an ISA/PCI video card is mainly for troubleshooting until you can get an AGP one that can handle 89 MHz (hint: GeForce2 GTS up to GeForce4 for that computer) or 100 MHz FSB is manually selected with the DIP switches.

CPU working at 100Mhz. Also an ad from local ebay. Any opinions on it?

It's a Katmai PIII-500, the L2 cache runs at half of the CPU frequency compared to the Coppermine PIII-600EB but it should work.

Power Supply Unit. Actually I'm still in doubts if I can safely excluded PSU out of the equation. Can it be the case that it provides not enough power? It's a 300W unit with -5V white wire, 20pins connector if I'm not mistaken.

Since you were able to make the computer perform POST without any video card, it can be safely excluded for now.

Older ATX PSUs focused on the +5V rail and 300W is good enough, the -5V rail isn't essential unless you need to use certain ISA cards.

In regards to GPU's, GeForce4 MX/Ti's work fantastic at 89MHz AGP speed.

First thing, please try 100MHz via the switch or jumpers. This will underclock the CPU to 450MHz.

Cheers,

I wouldn't waste money on a rated 100 mhz fsb cpu. Intel p2 and p3 has locked multiplier but you are free to use your 133 mhz cpu with 100 it will result in a lower clock speed.
To be precise your cpu will go at 450 mhz due to multiplier being locked at 4,5.

My first choice would also be jumpering the CPU to 100 MHz FSB to rule out issues with overclocked AGP (and still keep AGP speed selctor DIP switch at 2/3) Running jumperfree would most certainly autodetect 133 MHz FSB and setting accordingly.

Read https://www.anandtech.com/show/574/4

There the SBA (sideband addressing) option was identified as potential source of a problem with SOME AGP cards at 89MHz AGP clock (which is what Intel BX does at 133MHz FSB).
So like others said already, try running the system at 100MHz FSB with your AGP card(s), if it is OK then it likely has to do with this BX/AGP issue.
You could then opt for an intermediate FSB setting, something like 112MHz (I don't know the exact possibilities of your board) which will let your CPU run below it's stock speed.
Other option would be getting a 100MHz FSB CPU and let in run at 100MHz or something slightly above.

Morning everyone! Thanks for suggestions and help. Again - I wouldn't be able to navigate through by myself.
Things are getting more and more funny.

So yesterday I basically tried common recommendation to run CPU on 100Mhz with 4.5x multiplier and AGP on 2/3 of frequency.
I also tried both 3.5 and 3.65V voltage. Neither of those things worked out. I tried with my "original" AGP Elsa e-razor X and with 133Mhz memory stick.

Besides this I got some weird issues. For example the following sequence:
1. PSU's switcher is OFF
2. I adjust jumpers as I need
3. I turn PSU switcher ON
4. MOBO immediately starts up for 1 second

Also I noticed that it's a bit of a random. Sometimes PSU runs for less than 1s, sometimes for 2-3s (by gut feeling).
After shutting down there is no reaction on MB power switch. It always requires PSU switch to go OFF/ON go give one more try. Which doesn't make much sense to me.

After reading the thread (thanks to Nemo1985) I decided not to go with another CPU as long as I indeed have an option to downclock my.

So I actually got back to the idea which sparked in my head immediately after the first unsuccessful launch - that the issue lays within PSU.
I'll find and order another one and will give it a try once it arrive. All good, I never expected that from the very first try my setup will get up and running smoothly 😀

Such old systems doesn't have any particular requirement about the psu, you could go for something new) it would also be power efficient.

Doing an initial "Power up" for a second or so is not necessarily an indication of failure. Some boards just do that, when the power supply is powered up - like you describe - for a second or 2.

What kind of power supply are you using? Maybe it has short detection and it measures some kind of short circuit and turns off because of it.
It could be as simple as dust in your agp slot, causing shirts eigen the card is pushed in. In that case some compressed air may help, maybe some isopropyl alcohol. And look at all the smd components very closely to see if there are any bent legs.

I have the P3B-f running like crazy here, 140MHz bus (P3-933@980) with Ti4200 on the heavily overclocked AGP bus without trouble. It ran 150 bus with another graphics card but the Ti could not handle 100MHz agp bus :p
So I would not suspect the bus speed to be the main problem.

But as already stated: a pci graphics card may help you. These boards have the 1/4 pci divider so at 133 fsb the pci bus still runs in spec.