Need help with a couple of socket 8 motherboards... \ VOGONS

Need help with a couple of socket 8 motherboards...

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First post, by Socket3

Posted on 2025-06-03, 17:29

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Hi guys. In the last 18 months I managed to snag a couple of socket 8 motherboards - unfortunatly I can't seem to get them working.

One is an Intel Desktop Board:

The attachment WhatsApp Image 2025-06-03 at 20.21.41_b51f0150.jpg is no longer available

....that will not power on. It seems to be in good shape, I combed over it several times and couldn't find any missing components, shorts or any other kind of damage really - despite this, it refuses to power on. I mean it will not react to the power button whatsoever.

The other one is a DELL OEM board:

The attachment WhatsApp Image 2025-06-03 at 20.21.41_f188bbcc.jpg is no longer available

...witch PcBytes pointed out uses a different PSU pinout - so, after reading some material on the matter, material he provided, and comparing the Intel board with the Dell, I soldered an ATX connector in the top position, checked all the pins with my multimeter (to see if every pin corresponds to what it should in the pinout diagram) aaand! Nothing. Same as the Intel board. Dead. No reaction to the power button. No magic smoke either.

The attachment WhatsApp Image 2025-06-03 at 20.15.55_d84d4833.jpg is no longer available

The dell board on the other hand seems to have been worked on before, so maybe there's little hope of getting it going - but the Intel board seems pristine...

anybody got any ideas? Can I summon @Luckybob?

Last edited by Socket3 on 2025-06-04, 11:47. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 7, by Dorunkāku

Posted on 2025-06-03, 20:30

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Socket3 wrote on 2025-06-03, 17:29:
No reaction to the power button. No magic smoke either.

I had a simular issue with a Dell PPro motherboard. After forcing the ATX powersupply on by grounding the green wire it started working.

Reply 2 of 7, by Ydee

Posted on 2025-06-04, 12:07

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@Socket3:
Have you tried it with an embedded (CR2430 IIRC) battery or without?

Reply 3 of 7, by appiah4

Posted on 2025-06-04, 12:40

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Have you tried the boards with a different Socket 8 CPU? The issue could very well be the CPU itself.

Reply 4 of 7, by Archer57

Posted on 2025-06-04, 16:21

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In case of no reaction to the power button - check for shorts (if you did not already) on voltage rails coming from psu - mainly +5, +3.3 and +12, but also 5vsb.

Reply 5 of 7, by maxtherabbit

Posted on 2025-06-04, 18:06

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well the one thing you may have in your favor is that they are actually both the same motherboard, a VS440FX

Reply 6 of 7, by Horun

Posted on 2025-06-04, 23:13

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Yep ! Need a good coin cell battery for them. They should work with a 200mhz 256k cache, nearly all BIOS for VS440 supported it (The 150, 180 and 200 256k's all came out same time)
What PSU are you using ?
Those old ATX boards may not like some newer PSU's due to changes in atx specs....I have one and think I fired mine up with a newer EVGA 650 BQ psu but can't find the notes right now....

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 7 of 7, by luckybob

Posted on 2025-06-05, 03:04

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The attachment eae5d625f15196eb93b7c7f34b58b357.jpg is no longer available

Butt seriously, I have a job and sometimes I just miss my daily search of new threads.

If I had 2 boards, and both of them acted the same way - I would look at other things being the issue. Whenever a board doesn't respond to the pwr-on signal I'd first swap the PSU and make sure tis in working order. I'd then check for shorts on the +5vsb line. followed by forcing power on via plugging the board into the psu and shorting pwr-on directly to ground. but the fact that both are exhibiting the same issue suggests a non-motherboard issue.

Now if the power supply flashes on and turns off immediately - that's sounds like a mobo short.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

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