What model motherboard? Is it possible it's old enough that you are lacking 3.3 volts on the pci slots?

bertrammatrix wrote on 2025-10-12, 12:40:

What model motherboard? Is it possible it's old enough that you are lacking 3.3 volts on the pci slots?

Ooh. That's something I didn't consider. 😮 It's this motherboard - https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/abit-ab-be6-ii

The card not being detected is a sign for possible damage, so I'd at least test it for short circuits - with only the sound card plugged in and the PSU switched off, measure the resistance from the ATX connector's 3.3V and 5V pins to ground. Then pull the card out and measure again. You should be getting roughly the same values. Then with the PC turned on, measure the voltage of the ATX connector's 3.3V and 5V pins to see if they're stable.

Right now, none of the cards you have plugged in are being detected, so it might very well be the board. Do you have any other cards (preferrably ones you wouldn't mind dying) that you could test in it?

Did you reset the PCI bus from BIOS to "hardware enumeration" in the device manager (from your previous "issues with Geforce 4" thread)?

EEPROM may be damaged, сheck Subsystem ID:
Re: EEPROM corruption on Creative cards

asdf53 wrote on 2025-10-12, 13:41:

The card not being detected is a sign for possible damage, so I'd at least test it for short circuits - with only the sound card plugged in and the PSU switched off, measure the resistance from the ATX connector's 3.3V and 5V pins to ground. Then pull the card out and measure again. You should be getting roughly the same values. Then with the PC turned on, measure the voltage of the ATX connector's 3.3V and 5V pins to see if they're stable.

Right now, none of the cards you have plugged in are being detected, so it might very well be the board. Do you have any other cards (preferrably ones you wouldn't mind dying) that you could test in it?

Did you reset the PCI bus from BIOS to "hardware enumeration" in the device manager (from your previous "issues with Geforce 4" thread)?

I've gotta be honest, I really don't know what I'm doing. I have a multimeter, but I've not used it much. Only a bit when I was messing about with a laptop motherboard. I take it the ATX connector needs to be taken out first...? I tried checking an image on where to put the prongs, but I'm still use I'm doing it right. The areas I did check weren't getting any reading from the meter. But that probably means nothing if I'm doing it wrong. ^^;

And no, no other cards. I have my Riva TNT (suspected of being faulty now), my Geforce 4, which is faulty, this Sound Blaster, and then my ISA Yamaha card, which was working before. I tried putting things back the way they were, with the TNT and Yamaha cards, but it makes no difference. When I get my new GPU tomorrow, supposedly, I can't see things being any different. 🙁

And no, I did the hardware enumeration with the Riva TNT. The Geforce 4 was tested with a different memory test and that was faulty. I knew it was anyway. It was the TNT we were trying to figure out why the video memory test was listing errors. But no, I didn't set it back.

ott wrote on 2025-10-12, 13:48:

EEPROM may be damaged, сheck Subsystem ID:
Re: EEPROM corruption on Creative cards

Oh Christ, I really hope it's not that. If it is, then, like I suspected, I'd probably just get a new sound card. It'd be much easier. That sounds too complicated, time consuming, and stressful.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-10-12, 13:06:

bertrammatrix wrote on 2025-10-12, 12:40:

What model motherboard? Is it possible it's old enough that you are lacking 3.3 volts on the pci slots?

Ooh. That's something I didn't consider. 😮 It's this motherboard - https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/abit-ab-be6-ii

Right, that motherboard definitely supplies 3.3volts to the pci. Since you have another card that now appears to not work I'd recommend poking around just to verify those voltages are there and you didn't blow a fusible link

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-10-12, 14:43:

I've gotta be honest, I really don't know what I'm doing. I have a multimeter, but I've not used it much. Only a bit when I was messing about with a laptop motherboard. I take it the ATX connector needs to be taken out first...? I tried checking an image on where to put the prongs, but I'm still use I'm doing it right. The areas I did check weren't getting any reading from the meter. But that probably means nothing if I'm doing it wrong. ^^;

Here's the ATX connector pinout: https://www.smpspowersupply.com/connectors-pinouts.html

Edit: Sorry, I didn't realize that this pinout is for the underside view of the board. When you're viewing the connector from above, you have to flip the diagram vertically, or the pins won't match. Hope you weren't already wasting time and wondering why. I'll try to find a better picture, but I can't seem to find any in the correct orientation.

You can skip the resistance test, the voltage test is more telling. Double-check that the red lead of your multimeter is in the "V" terminal (not "A", dangerous!), switch the multimeter to voltage mode, and while the PC is running, stick the black probe into any COM hole of the ATX connector, and the red probe in any +3.3VDC or +5VDC hole. If your probe tips are thick, it can be a little difficult to get past the wires and hit the metal part inside.

It sounds as if there's basically 50% of your peripherals missing - GPU, sound card, USB, and more. If so many things are failing simultaneously, it's pointing to unstable voltages or a failing board (possibly southbridge, since that controls the PCI stuff). It's unlikely that both your sound card and GPU died at the same time.

And most likely, it will all end like in this topic.
Audigy 2 ZS Crackle Fix

shevalier wrote on 2025-10-12, 15:56:

And most likely, it will all end like in this topic.
Audigy 2 ZS Crackle Fix

If I'm lucky to get that far. ^^;

asdf53 wrote on 2025-10-12, 15:35:

Here's the ATX connector pinout: https://www.smpspowersupply.com/connectors-pinouts.html […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-10-12, 14:43:

I've gotta be honest, I really don't know what I'm doing. I have a multimeter, but I've not used it much. Only a bit when I was messing about with a laptop motherboard. I take it the ATX connector needs to be taken out first...? I tried checking an image on where to put the prongs, but I'm still use I'm doing it right. The areas I did check weren't getting any reading from the meter. But that probably means nothing if I'm doing it wrong. ^^;

Here's the ATX connector pinout: https://www.smpspowersupply.com/connectors-pinouts.html

Edit: Sorry, I didn't realize that this pinout is for the underside view of the board. When you're viewing the connector from above, you have to flip the diagram vertically, or the pins won't match. Hope you weren't already wasting time and wondering why. I'll try to find a better picture, but I can't seem to find any in the correct orientation.

You can skip the resistance test, the voltage test is more telling. Double-check that the red lead of your multimeter is in the "V" terminal (not "A", dangerous!), switch the multimeter to voltage mode, and while the PC is running, stick the black probe into any COM hole of the ATX connector, and the red probe in any +3.3VDC or +5VDC hole. If your probe tips are thick, it can be a little difficult to get past the wires and hit the metal part inside.

It sounds as if there's basically 50% of your peripherals missing - GPU, sound card, USB, and more. If so many things are failing simultaneously, it's pointing to unstable voltages or a failing board (possibly southbridge, since that controls the PCI stuff). It's unlikely that both your sound card and GPU died at the same time.

Still not getting it. 🙁 I'm really unsure if I'm doing it right or if there really is no reading from it. Or if the prongs are too thick to reach. When you say 'the PC is running', do you mean the ATX connector needs to be plugged back in, the PC powered on, and for me to put the prongs to the motherboard...? I don't see anything they can touch. If you mean, put the AC power cable back into the PSU and put the prongs inside the ATX connector, then yeah - I can't get any readings.

I believe the connector is the right orientation like in the diagram...

So ground would be the one in the bottom right...? If not, I think I did try a few of the others and got nothing.

Also, this is my multimeter:

The booklet shows diagrams of testing DC by turning the dial to the right side. Though isn't DC the one with the symbol showing the V, dash, and three dots below it? The Direct Current?

EDIT: Okay, I was actually looking at the wrong diagram. I was looking at the left 24 ATX connector when mine's the 20. So the ground is in a different place. ^^; But, sadly, even trying it where it supposedly should be - still no reading.

Yeah, sorry that was sloppy on my part. The pinout diagram, that's the view of the 20 pin ATX plug when you're looking into it - but when you connect it to the board, it's turned upside down, so everything is mirrored vertically. The +3.3V on the top left becomes the bottom left, and the +5VDC on the bottom right becomes the top right.

Connect the ATX connector to the board and turn it on, and then stick the probes into the holes of the ATX connector from above, right where the wires go in. The wires go into a metal crimp which you should just be able to touch from above. If the metal crimp is not exposed enough or the probes are too thick, that method won't work. If it's not working and you don't feel comfortable with it, skip it for now. It's rather unlikely that it's a power problem anyway.

asdf53 wrote on 2025-10-12, 17:30:

Yeah, sorry that was sloppy on my part. The pinout diagram, that's the view of the 20 pin ATX plug when you're looking into it - but when you connect it to the board, it's turned upside down, so everything is mirrored vertically. The +3.3V on the top left becomes the bottom left, and the +5VDC on the bottom right becomes the top right.

Connect the ATX connector to the board and turn it on, and then stick the probes into the holes of the ATX connector from above, right where the wires go in. The wires go into a metal crimp which you should just be able to touch from above. If the metal crimp is not exposed enough or the probes are too thick, that method won't work. If it's not working and you don't feel comfortable with it, skip it for now. It's rather unlikely that it's a power problem anyway.

Ahhhh, I see. Gotcha. Yeah, unfortunately, there's not very much exposed.

It still begs the question though, that if the card is fried and I need to get another, how do I get the PC back to normal? 🙁 I really hope I don't have to go down the reformat route again. I've already done it about three times now. ^^;

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-10-12, 17:44:

Ahhhh, I see. Gotcha. Yeah, unfortunately, there's not very much exposed.

It still begs the question though, that if the card is fried and I need to get another, how do I get the PC back to normal? 🙁 I really hope I don't have to go down the reformat route again. I've already done it about three times now. ^^;

You can stick a thin metal part (needle, paperclip, etc) between the crimp and the cable and then touch that with the probe. You'd only have to do that with the 3.3V pin (orange wires). The common pin (black) and the +5V pin (red) are also present on an unused 5.25" hard disk power connector, just stick the probes right into it. Also, you need to switch your multimeter to the 20 setting at the top left (meaning "up to 20V DC").

If by "getting the PC back to normal" you mean to re-detect the devices, you can reset the hardware registry by booting to safe mode, opening regedit, deleting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum, then rebooting and running the "Add new hardware" wizard 2-3 times. This will re-detect everything from scratch, but if the motherboard is malfunctioning, that won't help obviously, it will still not detect the missing hardware.

asdf53 wrote on 2025-10-12, 19:57:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-10-12, 17:44:

Ahhhh, I see. Gotcha. Yeah, unfortunately, there's not very much exposed.

It still begs the question though, that if the card is fried and I need to get another, how do I get the PC back to normal? 🙁 I really hope I don't have to go down the reformat route again. I've already done it about three times now. ^^;

You can stick a thin metal part (needle, paperclip, etc) between the crimp and the cable and then touch that with the probe. You'd only have to do that with the 3.3V pin (orange wires). The common pin (black) and the +5V pin (red) are also present on an unused 5.25" hard disk power connector, just stick the probes right into it. Also, you need to switch your multimeter to the 20 setting at the top left (meaning "up to 20V DC").

If by "getting the PC back to normal" you mean to re-detect the devices, you can reset the hardware registry by booting to safe mode, opening regedit, deleting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum, then rebooting and running the "Add new hardware" wizard 2-3 times. This will re-detect everything from scratch, but if the motherboard is malfunctioning, that won't help obviously, it will still not detect the missing hardware.

Ohhh, thank you! 😄 Here's hoping that works. And that there isn't an issue with the motherboard. That would certainly complicate matters further. I should have some paperclips somewhere, so I'll give that a try a bit later.

Nah. I don't have any paperclips, but I tried using a couple of safety pins, but I can't get them to stay in place.

EDIT: And nope. Deleting the Emum file hasn't worked. Figured it wouldn't. 🙁 It tries to go through the New Hardware anyway, but I forgot that it also gives me a detection error about an INF file being missing.

EDIT 2: No, scratch that. I think it has! 😁 It started rebuilding the databases, which I don't think it did before whenever it tried to run the New Hardware wizard. After a reboot it now lists a VGA adapter. 😀

Okay, all hardware devices have had their drivers re-installed, including the GPU. For some reason it did list the Riva TNT, but also the a Standard VGA Adapter. After a bit of tweaking I managed to get it only use/have the TNT. Drivers re-installed and everything working as it should. 😁 So yeah, definitely not the motherboard, graphics card, or voltage. Thank God.

However, putting the Creative card back in, all I get is a black screen when booting. After a few moments it switches itself off. Tried it with all PCI slots. Same issue. Even taking the card out, I now only get a blank screen.

DustyShinigami wrote on Yesterday, 00:27:

However, putting the Creative card back in, all I get is a black screen when booting. After a few moments it switches itself off. Tried it with all PCI slots. Same issue. Even taking the card out, I now only get a blank screen.

With the card being out, does resetting the BIOS by using the motherboard's jumper fix the black screen?

Since it was mentioned in the thread linked by shevalier, you could also test the output voltages at the card's regulators (the IC's labeled AMS1117 and LD33 at the bottom right of the card). Place the red probe on the center tab (output) and the black probe on the right pin (ground) as shown in the photo while the card is installed and running. The output should be 1.8V and 3.3V, respectively. Only do this when you feel comfortable that you can cleanly touch the pins without accidentally bridging them with the probe - that would create a potentially damaging short-circuit. Touch the right pin coming from the right side to avoid touching any others.

This would also be a convenient spot to test the 5V and 3.3V voltages that come from the PSU. The left pin of the AMS1117 should be at 3.3V, and the left pin of the LD33 should be at 5V.

asdf53 wrote on Yesterday, 01:39:

With the card being out, does resetting the BIOS by using the motherboard's jumper fix the black screen? […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on Yesterday, 00:27:

However, putting the Creative card back in, all I get is a black screen when booting. After a few moments it switches itself off. Tried it with all PCI slots. Same issue. Even taking the card out, I now only get a blank screen.

With the card being out, does resetting the BIOS by using the motherboard's jumper fix the black screen?

Since it was mentioned in the thread linked by shevalier, you could also test the output voltages at the card's regulators (the IC's labeled AMS1117 and LD33 at the bottom right of the card). Place the red probe on the center tab (output) and the black probe on the right pin (ground) as shown in the photo while the card is installed and running. The output should be 1.8V and 3.3V, respectively. Only do this when you feel comfortable that you can cleanly touch the pins without accidentally bridging them with the probe - that would create a potentially damaging short-circuit. Touch the right pin coming from the right side to avoid touching any others.

This would also be a convenient spot to test the 5V and 3.3V voltages that come from the PSU. The left pin of the AMS1117 should be at 3.3V, and the left pin of the LD33 should be at 5V.

I was able to get it back by taking out all cards, turning the machine on and then off, and then putting the GPU back in. Thankfully, it hasn't messed things up like it did before, so it's back to a useable state again. 😀 Perfect really as I have my Geforce 4 Ti arriving soon. But for further tests, I'll give the motherboard's jumper a try. RE - avoiding bridging the pins. Do I need to put the ground (black) down first, then the red, and then remove the red?

But I'll look and see if I can successfully test the voltages for it. It might prove a bit easier from the card rather than the ATX connector. Especially as that would involve putting my hand in further whilst it's powered on.