I've the same board with the same issue! I replaced 2 swollen caps thinking it would definitely get it going but no! I did try a known good S3 PCI graphics card too but still no joy and several PSU's plus loads of different CPU's and RAM. I'm considering replacing the rest of the caps now but not sure I have the motivation!

That doesn’t bode well. That would suggest that there is something inherently wrong with these board as they age.

I wonder if the chipsets start to micro-crack and need a reballing or similar.

It's a nice little micro ATX board, quite unusual for slot 1 they're mainly full ATX. Lack of AGP slot makes it unloved by most though! There is a similar version with onboard 3DFX GPU too. I hope to fix it one day hopefully it's repairable 🤞

CC-Adam wrote on 2025-07-07, 20:32:

It's a nice little micro ATX board, quite unusual for slot 1 they're mainly full ATX. Lack of AGP slot makes it unloved by most though! There is a similar version with onboard 3DFX GPU too. I hope to fix it one day hopefully it's repairable 🤞

I was actually happy that it had the built in Rage and only PCI/ISA as I was hoping to make a nice analog for my childhood Compaq Presario 5170, which itself was a MATX Slot 1 machine with an onboard ATI Rage.

I’ll try replacing the rest of the caps this weekend, though I’m not holding my breath that it’ll make a difference.

Here’s a couple of pics to provide me with motivation. I really do like the system as a whole.

The old caps:

The new caps:

1. Try an PII. Never ran PIII's on the MS616x boards, only an PIII 450mHz on an MS6151.
2. Caps aren't going to be the issue. What LED's light up on the POST card? Is RESET stuck high?
3. What's the orgin of this board? Scrapyard or private seller that had it in his own collection? If it's the first one inspect the board carefully and apply pressure to the NB/SB.
4. Measure the Vcore on the CPU. Also check if NB/SB get their respective voltages.
5. If you have an oscilloscope measure the CLK, RESET and data pins on the BIOS chip and CPU.

Interesting thing from your pictures, my visibly bad caps (very bulged at tops) were the two taller caps next to the ATX connector, the 4 next to the CPU look good on mine, probably will find that all caps are bad, definitely worth a go replacing them I think if you have the time.

Thanks for the extra tips kotel, I did try a couple of P2 chips with no luck on my board but will try your other ideas when I next dig mine out.

I wanted to build this in a small modern chassis with glass side window to show off the awesome slot CPU. I've got too many big towers taking up space it's easier for me if some are smaller! 🤣

Then I guess you could try an celeron on there. It's odd how these die so much. I would expect s478 to die, but slot 1? Only dead one I had was an ECS p6bat-a+ and an half-dead Acer v65xa with an broken SIO (and an dead EEPROM).

With regards to the history of my board, it came to me already in the case, I collected it from a private seller, so in theory at least it should be free from the physical perils associated with ewatse piles.

Reset LED briefly comes on then goes off, as expected.

Well, I’ve replaced the caps that I had decent replacements for, which is all the caps near the ATX connector and the large one down near the front panel connector as that looked a little bulged.

No dice.

I’ve had a good look at the board whilst it was out of the case and have found some surface damage to some traces on the rear, but they all tone out ok on the multimeter in continuity mode.

Oh man that's a shame! Traces look intact so probably not that although I guess the board hasn't had quite the easy life you hoped.

I would re-tin the damaged traces, make sure to add flux to prevent shorts, and then clean it afterwards. Copper damaged like this is always suspect, it might measure fine in DC with low current but be a problem for faster signals.

paradigital wrote on 2025-07-07, 17:36:

POST test card shows 0000.

Did you try without CPU? Does the POST card show 0000 or ----? Also what slot did you put that card into, PCI or ISA? Try the opposite, just in case it has issues capturing the I/O transactions.

Is the CPU slotted correctly (not at an angle)? Sometimes these slot 1 CPUs can be slotted at an angle which causes not all pins to make contactn

Deunan wrote on 2025-07-09, 11:40:

I would re-tin the damaged traces, make sure to add flux to prevent shorts, and then clean it afterwards. Copper damaged like this is always suspect, it might measure fine in DC with low current but be a problem for faster signals.

paradigital wrote on 2025-07-07, 17:36:

POST test card shows 0000.

Did you try without CPU? Does the POST card show 0000 or ----? Also what slot did you put that card into, PCI or ISA? Try the opposite, just in case it has issues capturing the I/O transactions.

0000 is what’s shown. Plugging into ISA the card doesn’t even light up, which is odd.

Not tried without a CPU at all, I will tonight, but not expecting much.

kotel wrote on 2025-07-09, 13:10:

Is the CPU slotted correctly (not at an angle)? Sometimes these slot 1 CPUs can be slotted at an angle which causes not all pins to make contactn

Definitely in properly, reseated multiple times also. I’ve also lathered the slot with contact cleaner to no avail.

paradigital wrote on 2025-07-09, 13:22:

Plugging into ISA the card doesn’t even light up, which is odd.

Somebody just made that mistake so I'm going to ask, did you plug it in correctly? There should be a "REAR ->" printed near the ISA connector on the card, that arrow must point to the rear edge of the mobo. ISA and PCI cards are reversed and have the parts on different side of the PCB. Plugging that card wrong way around puts 12V on pins that should never see that high voltage, and it can cause damage - both to the card and the mobo. That being said I think I've made that mistake twice and once it just tripped the PSU right away (I think it was -12V being mostly shorted that did that) and the other time I just got away with it after spotting my mistake pretty quickly. So it's not always damage done.

Fortunately I’m not daft 😉

Yes, it was the right way.

I’ve found my old (better) POST test card, so I’m going to try that one. I don’t trust this newer one I bought (when I couldn’t find the old one).

IT LIVES!

Tried another PIII 450MHz CPU that I had lying in a box with no heatsink on it. Quickly swapped the heatsink over from my 650MHz Coppermine and it posted.

The odd thing is that ALL the CPUs I've tried so far work just fine in my Asus P3B-F.

It's not all roses though, currently I can't get the board to detect my SSD that's connected via a SATA to IDE adapter (Startech pata2sata3). The adapter works fine on other similar vintage boards (all of my SLOT-A board for example). And if I leave the board to detect the FSB then my 450MHz PIII supposedly runs at 308MHz (which makes no sense). Running fine at 112MHz FSB though (504MHz CPU clock).

Also, my older POST test card works fine in both the ISA and PCI slots. This more recent one I picked up must be junk.

Nice! Well done, plus you have given me motivation to dig mine out again soon maybe they're just really fussy with regards to CPU. Hope you get the drive sorted 🤞

What OS are you planning for this build?