First post, by RayeR
- Rank
- Oldbie
Hi,
I'm playing with this nice board. A have plugged in CPU Alpha 21064 at 275MHz , 48MB of RAM, no cache module. I jumeped to disable cache. I have attached serial terminal at COM1 because until I made cable for KBD it doesn't display to VGA but serial console only. I also have ISA POST card to see what it's doing and it sends some POST codes like normal x86 PC. The RTC battery in soldered DS12887 is dead so it always boots to Debug Monitor by defalt. Then I switch to NT FW via bootopt 1 command (with VGA and KBD connected) and short reset jumper to reboot. I can see VGA BIOS gets initilaized and after some seconds it displays "BIOS Emulation V1.15, Copyright..." message but then nothing else and nothing output on serial console. The POST code sequence is different that when booting Debug Monitor (last code FBh) so it does something. The last POST code with NT FW where it hangs is 77h and previous 78h.
But once previously I played with it it booted to NT FW after several minutes of waiting. I don't remember the last POST code. There was menu where I can install OS and other stuff. But then I disassembled the setup and assembled again later and cannot boot it. I also tried more VGA cards (PCI and ISA). BTW I found one suspicious behavior when in Debug Monitor I use romlist command, when there's no PCI VGA or ISA VGA is used then I got list of firmware images as expected:
ROM image header found at offset: 0x000000
Header Size......... 0x38 (56) bytes
Image Checksum...... 0x6bc2 (27586)
Memory Image Size... 0x2EB10 (191248 = 186 KB)
Compression Type.... 0
Image Destination... 0x0000000000300000
Header Version...... 2
Firmware ID......... 0 - Alpha Evaluation Board Debug Monitor
ROM Image Size...... 0x2EB10 (191248 = 186 KB)
Firmware ID (Opt.).. 0200009601181619 ........
ROM offset.......... 0x00000000
Header Checksum..... 0x666f
ROM image header found at offset: 0x030000
Header Size......... 0x34 (52) bytes
Image Checksum...... 0x7ce2 (31970)
Memory Image Size... 0x42B78 (273272 = 266 KB)
Compression Type.... 0
Image Destination... 0x0000000000300000
Header Version...... 1
Firmware ID......... 1 - Windows NT Firmware
ROM Image Size...... 0x42B78 (273272 = 266 KB)
Firmware ID (Opt.).. 0442009511091409 .....B.
Header Checksum..... 0xbafb
But when a PCI VGA card is plugged in (tried different ones and different PCI slots) then the command displays that no images was found and also romboot command doesn't work. Is it normal behavior? I can't remember if it bahaves same when NT FW booted before. I didn't any FW update or manipulation with flashchip.
Does someone have Alpha PC64 or similar system who could help?
What is the POST code sequence of successfull NT FW boot?
How long does it boot on your system?
Does it need to attach other peripherals as floppy/HDD? Maybe it's trying to init them but I didn't have attached it yet and it booted NT FW at least one time before...
Gigabyte GA-P67-DS3-B3, Core i7-2600K @4,5GHz, 8GB DDR3, 128GB SSD, GTX970(GF7900GT), SB Audigy + YMF724F + DreamBlaster combo + LPC2ISA