Oh yeah, I was able to force it to power up by shorting the green ATX wire, but there was no POST. I couldn't tell that it was doing anything. Should I get one of those PCI debug cards?

It will not post by shorting the psu green wire, this must be front panel pinout: https://www.elhvb.com/ctechinfo/model/aspen/a … frontpanel.html

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/fic-sd11 matches perfectly, only difference I can see is one dimm slot not populated
looks very prototype/first attempt with those pals/gals and through hole diodes, plus AMD 750 wasnt all that well regarded, wasnt AMD-751 build using outdated socket7 technology licensed from VIA? Not something I would use to get rid of problems 😀

I dont see any external chips that would handle powergood, so power button handling is directly controlled by VT82C686A southbridge.

Karbist wrote on 2023-06-10, 18:49:

It will not post by shorting the psu green wire, this must be front panel pinout: https://www.elhvb.com/ctechinfo/model/aspen/a … frontpanel.html

The motherboard has PWR silkscreened on it next to one pin, but that is different from the diagram you linked to. I tried shorting the PWR pin on the board to ground and I also tried shorting the one in the diagram on the link. Nothing happens in either case.

Any other ideas?

These very first Athlon boards were very much AMD development/reference boards released to the public, they are unnecessarily big for what they do.

Did you put a fresh CR2032 battery, as some boards are known not to boot without a working one.

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-06-10, 19:09:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/fic-sd11 matches perfectly, only difference I can see is one dimm slot not populated
looks very prototype/first attempt with those pals/gals and through hole diodes, plus AMD 750 wasnt all that well regarded, wasnt AMD-751 build using outdated socket7 technology licensed from VIA? Not something I would use to get rid of problems 😀

I dont see any external chips that would handle powergood, so power button handling is directly controlled by VT82C686A southbridge.

The front panel pinout is different than the SD11. The ASPEN2 board is missing some pins compared to the SD11.

Do you think there could be something wrong with the southbridge? Is there anything I can do to try to diagnose it?

I am used to the 751 chipset. I've been using it in this machine for a long time. I'm just trying to get my Slot A machine working again.

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2023-06-10, 19:20:

These very first Athlon boards were very much AMD development/reference boards released to the public, they are unnecessarily big for what they do.

Did you put a fresh CR2032 battery, as some boards are known not to boot without a working one.

Yes I'm using a fresh battery. It came out of the pack and I verified it with a multimeter.

boggsman wrote on 2023-06-10, 19:22:

The front panel pinout is different than the SD11. The ASPEN2 board is missing some pins compared to the SD11.

looks the same to me https://theretroweb.com/motherboard/image/oem … 5d517438222.jpg

boggsman wrote on 2023-06-10, 19:22:

Do you think there could be something wrong with the southbridge? Is there anything I can do to try to diagnose it?

no idea, first thing first. PWR silkskreen is for "Power led". Real power button appears to be what that link describes as
>8 - BTsolderblob on third character
"solderblob" hehe, its clearly BTN - this is the real power button. Measure voltage on this pin. Try shorting it to ground.
make sure clear cmos jumper is in normal position

I re-flowed the southbridge and now it comes on!!!! Success!! Thank you guys so much! Saved a Slot A board from the trash 😁

😁

Ah nice, congratulations. Reflowing a BGA chip is a bit extreme, what made you think it was the culprit?

Everything I read was pointing toward a problem with the south bridge. I couldn't think of anything else it could be. A friend of mine has a reflow machine so I went for it.