Intermittent boot failures w/ P3 Abit VL6 \ VOGONS

Intermittent boot failures w/ P3 Abit VL6

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First post, by ispb88

Posted on 2022-08-23, 01:20

ispb88 Offline

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Posts: 7
Joined: 2022-02-07, 10:49

Got an Abit VL6 on ebay. Had some CMOS issues but cleared those up by updating the BIOS to the latest.

I'm now having intermittent boot failures. The computer will post fine. However, when it reaches the second screen (see photo) it fails to boot most of the time.

I can't seem to reliably replicate this. Removed all PCI cards, swapped video card, CPU, RAM, drives, sometimes it seems to help but I can't tell if it's just coincidence. When it does work, the second reboot afterwards usually doesn't work.

I've attached a photo of where it hangs.

Reply 1 of 2, by Horun

Posted on 2022-08-23, 01:51

Horun Offline

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Hmm I have a board that halts or goes black screen with a long beeep about same time, have not figured it out yet but have a few suggestions...
First look the board over carefully around the cpu socket at the capacitors, if any are bulging or have a tan/brown residue they need replaced.
Second disconnect the HD and cdrom. See if it will boot to floppy. (you can just pull the IDE cables off the drives and let them hang)
Third if you have a POST Diag card put it in a PCI slot and see what the code is when it halts.

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 ispb88

Posted on 2022-08-23, 02:03

ispb88 Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2022-02-07, 10:49

Horun wrote on 2022-08-23, 01:51:
Hmm I have a board that halts or goes black screen with a long beeep about same time, have not figured it out yet but have a few […]
Show full quote

Hmm I have a board that halts or goes black screen with a long beeep about same time, have not figured it out yet but have a few suggestions...
First look the board over carefully around the cpu socket at the capacitors, if any are bulging or have a tan/brown residue they need replaced.
Second disconnect the HD and cdrom. See if it will boot to floppy. (you can just pull the IDE cables off the drives and let them hang)
Third if you have a POST Diag card put it in a PCI slot and see what the code is when it halts.

I've tried pretty much every combo of drives. When it works, it tries anything I have plugged in order (floppy, cd, hd), when it doesn't work, it won't boot anything no matter what I have plugged in.

I never get any beeps for what it's worth.

Just looked over the capacitors though, one looks bad to me (some residue around the base). Guess that's the most likely explanation.

Probably will just send it back, I'm more likely to kill the board than fix it if I take a soldering iron to it.

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