Horun wrote on 2022-11-06, 03:49:
Curious why you are not test booting from a floppy drive. Booting from HD or CD would be a much later test for me for first testing an old motherboard... just saying 😀
The first thing I do is boot into UBCD.
Memtest86+, HWiNFO, System Speed Test, SeaTools...
It got almost all the DOS tools I need. Very convenient.
BitWrangler wrote on 2022-11-06, 04:42:
Though the 2006 does support it, but not as default option, has to be specifically enabled...
"Boot SequenceAllows the system BIOS to first try to boot the operating system from theselected disk drive.The options are: A, C (Default); C, A; C, CDROM, A;CDROM, C, A." in the BIOS Features menu.
That's standard for old boards. The first thing I do, after a newly acquired board POSTs, is to check the boot sequence in BIOS.
Had to do the same with my two working P55T2P4 and my GA-586HX.
Maybe the BIOS is too old? Does anyone have a trustworthy source for the latest PT-2006 BIOS? I don't want to flash the P55T2p4 as long as it so unstable. Luckily I now have three of them and can transplant the BIOS onto a stable one and flash it there.
What about the fact, that the P55T2P4 (my 3rd one) needs a break, before it can be powered on again? I know this is usually caused by faulty capacitors. Can a weak Dallas battery also cause this? Another thing I noticed about the Dallas: It remembers the time, but doesn't continue to count once power is shut down. Clock was stuck in November 2021.
Just noticed that the Asus 486SP3 has a socketed Dallas chip. Nice! I'm gonna borrow the Dallas from a modified P55T2P4. Sadly the newly acquired P55T2P4 has the Dallas soldered on.
Also noticed that the 486SP3 had L2 cache activated, although there is no L2 cache present. I think the original owner moved his RAM and cache from Socket 3 to Socket 5 and then moved CPU + RAM to Socket 7.