I suspect a malfunctioninmg mobo... has the battery leaked ?

keropi wrote:

I suspect a malfunctioninmg mobo... has the battery leaked ?

The battery seems fine - in fact I changed it. It's just a button battery - no leaks that I can see. It's a bit loose in it's slot though, but I think it's OK.

I tried a few basic jumper changes - a few settings didn't look right to me. I also changed the RAM and CPU, just to see if that made any difference. No joy. 🙁

retro games 100 wrote:

keropi wrote:

I suspect a malfunctioninmg mobo... has the battery leaked ?

The battery seems fine - in fact I changed it. It's just a button battery - no leaks that I can see. It's a bit loose in it's slot though, but I think it's OK.

I tried a few basic jumper changes - a few settings didn't look right to me. I also changed the RAM and CPU, just to see if that made any difference. No joy. 🙁

I hope its not my old asus mobo?
I have a soyo mobo with the same fault

Amigaz wrote:

retro games 100 wrote:

keropi wrote:

I suspect a malfunctioninmg mobo... has the battery leaked ?

The battery seems fine - in fact I changed it. It's just a button battery - no leaks that I can see. It's a bit loose in it's slot though, but I think it's OK.

I tried a few basic jumper changes - a few settings didn't look right to me. I also changed the RAM and CPU, just to see if that made any difference. No joy. 🙁

I hope its not my old asus mobo?

Nope! 😅 😀

Amigaz wrote:

I have a soyo mobo with the same fault

Ah, I remember! You mentioned that mobo in a PM. Funny how I'm having the same problem with this Asus 1.2 board! 😮 (Please note, your old Asus was a 1.22)

retro games 100 wrote:

Nope! :sweatdrop: :happy: […]
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Amigaz wrote:

retro games 100 wrote:

The battery seems fine - in fact I changed it. It's just a button battery - no leaks that I can see. It's a bit loose in it's slot though, but I think it's OK.

I tried a few basic jumper changes - a few settings didn't look right to me. I also changed the RAM and CPU, just to see if that made any difference. No joy. 🙁

I hope its not my old asus mobo?

Nope! 😅 😀

Amigaz wrote:

I have a soyo mobo with the same fault

Ah, I remember! You mentioned that mobo in a PM. Funny how I'm having the same problem with this Asus 1.2 board! 😮 (Please note, your old Asus was a 1.22)

Yeah, you're right

Maybe rev 1.22 is higher than rev 1.8 since we have über-later chipset on our boards?

I suggest pressing F1 to continue. /smartass

There isn't a jumper on the keylock is there?

Moogle! wrote:

I suggest pressing F1 to continue. /smartass

There isn't a jumper on the keylock is there?

No, there aren't any jumpers on that cluster of pins, one of which being the Keylock. I wonder if this "keyboard error" is not an accurate error message, but instead, something (more serious perhaps) which has gone wrong with the BIOS? I wonder if either flashing or physically replacing it might help?

I dont think that this error message means anything other then the keyboard I/O error.

Sometimes its just defective keyboard jack. If that's the case, you are out of luck. You might try plugging in a PCI usb controler and connecting the keyboard to it, but the odds that this will do the trick are pretty low.

You can also try clearing CMOS, but I honestly think this is going to be just as futile 🙁 So in the end, solution comes down to this.

When you turn on the board initialy, do the three lights on the keyboard flash?

When the mobo is powered on, I see all 3 lights on the keyboard briefly flash once. After this has occured, no matter what keys I press on the keyboard (such as CAPS or NUM LOCK, etc), I get no further response from the keyboard - it seems to be completely lifeless. (I've tried two working keyboards - both exhibit the same behaviour.)

I'm beginning to fear the worst. The problem is that this mobo came shipped with another 486 mobo. They were supplied to me by a very trustworthy and honest seller. I'm perfectly happy to assume that when they were shipped out to me, they were both working. But this other mobo doesn't work either. It doesn't even POST. I wonder if something happened to them during international transit? Perhaps my parcel was put through some nasty x-ray machine (or some other contraption) which has kind of "knocked them both out" or something?

🙁

If the keyboard controller is socketed you can try to replace it with one from another keyboard - one with the same BIOS brand preferrably.

Multiple things could be keeping the other board from posting. Have you tried both Fast Page and EDO RAM? Not mixed. Are -all- jumpers correct?

Sometimes, equipment just dies with no warning, or sign it has happened. Resistors go bad, caps dry out, ect. Much of this equipment is reaching the age where caps die, and other problems begin to show.

I've tried a number of tests on the other board: 5 sticks of RAM (one at a time), 2 keyboards, 2 CPUs, and 2 graphics cards. And I tried clearing the CMOS twice. No joy. Perhaps their half-way-around-the-world shipping journey "finished them off"?

Let's see now. What can I do? I know!

Dear Asus,

Please can you make another 486 board? Oh go on! 😀

Yours faithfully,
Retro games 100.

@elfuego,

Unfortunately, I don't know how to clear the CMOS on this board. I've checked the "stason org" website (link in the original post), and also the manual (ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock5/486sp3 ...), but neither mention where or how to clear the CMOS.

You're probably right about the cause of the problem - a keyboard I/O error. (I don't have a PCI USB card to test a USB keyboard.)

@h-a-l-9000,

Unfortunately, I don't possess any tools (or skill for that matter) to remove and replace a socketed keyboard connector.

Controller, not connector. Black rectangular IC with 40 pins.

there should be a halt on keyboard error setting in the bios set it to false it may or may not then work when the o/s is loaded

Davros wrote:

there should be a halt on keyboard error setting in the bios set it to false it may or may not then work when the o/s is loaded

Unfortunately, the keyboard is completely lifeless as soon as the mobo receives power. Therefore, I am unable to press the DEL key to gain access to the BIOS. 🙁

@h-a-l-9000,

40 pins = IDE connector?

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are suggesting. 😕

is it ps2 or 5pin din ?

Davros wrote:

is it ps2 or 5pin din ?

It's one of those old large chunky 5pin din type keyboard sockets - the type found on a lot of 486 mobos, and even a few old early Pentiums.