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Strange lock-up problem.



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 12th 04, 12:35 AM
~misfit~
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Strange lock-up problem.

Ok, I've built a strange system from parts. It's an Atrend 6310M mobo. It's
an AT, Slot 1 board. I was quite pleased to get it as I have a lot of AT
stuff (cases, PSUs etc) that I've been loathe to throw away. I welcomed the
chance to use some with this board.

I Googled the board and found a manual in .pdf format. It says that the
board supports up to a PII450Mhz and 128MB SDRAM in each of it's two slots.
Great thinks I, I can make a decent machine out of my AT stuff before I
finally biff it (The back room is half-full of AT stuff, including two boxes
of working PSUs).

So I put it together with one 128MB module, 10/100 3Com NIC (I'm on a LAN
here), 8MB AGP card (S3 but it's adequate for it's purpose), ISA
Soundblaster 16, ISA Rockwell 56k modem and a two-port PCI-USB card. There
are pins on the board for a USB header but I don't have the header and there
are pins for a PS/2 header. I *do* have a header for a PS/2 mouse but it
just has four wires in a row and I've tried fitting it either way to the
pins on the mobo and it doesn't seem to work. I don't have a schematic for
the board or a PS/2 port to work out how to/if I can successfully connect
it.

So, the PCI-USB card is there for a mouse (at the moment). I have a couple
of serial mice but they are horrible to use, I want to make this PC
reasonable to use as I have a person in mind for it, I can give them a
monitor with it (14" unfortunately but it's all I have spare and I'm gonna
give it away).

I installed 98SE and it all went perfectly once I'd downloaded a few drivers
I needed. It works great, is snappy and responsive. But.....

I always run SETI CLI on machines I build (as well as Prime95 and, if Prime
fails, Memtest86) as a torture-test. I give a few older machines away or
build machines for friends at no or nearly no profit so I don't want to be
plagued with 'support' calls any more than I can avoid. (I always make it
clear that I will only respond to hardware problems, unless, if they have a
proggy they want installed, they bring it here for me to install)

Ok, the problem. This machine runs Prime95 for 24 hours no problem. It runs
SETI CLI sweet *but*, I have the monitor set to turn off after 10 minutes,
no screen saver. If the machine has completed a SETI WU and it's got the
monitor turned off it locks up. No mouse movement or pounding of keyboard
will wake it. A hard re-set is needed. This has happened three times and
every time the first thing the PC does when it starts is complete the last
10 seconds of a SETI WU and then connect to get another one. It's connecting
through my LAN at the moment.

At any other time I can just move the mouse slightly and the monitor springs
to life, it's only at the conclusion of a SETI WU that this problem occurs
*So far*. Ok, the person I'm gonna give it to isn't going to run SETI but
this could be indicitive of a larger problem. Any Ideas? I was wondering if
it's maybe happening as a consequence of the machine trying to access the
network while the monitor is off? I don't know. The NIC is fine, (3Com) I
pulled it form a machine that it's been functioning in perfectly. In fact,
I'll probably pull the NIC when I part with the machine (although I like to
leave NICs in machines I give away/build for others so I can easilly connect
to me LAN if I need to troubleshoot at any stage).

Any thoughts folks? TIA.
--
~misfit~


  #2  
Old September 12th 04, 05:19 AM
kony
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 11:35:28 +1200, "~misfit~"
wrote:

Ok, I've built a strange system from parts. It's an Atrend 6310M mobo. It's
an AT, Slot 1 board. I was quite pleased to get it as I have a lot of AT
stuff (cases, PSUs etc) that I've been loathe to throw away. I welcomed the
chance to use some with this board.

I Googled the board and found a manual in .pdf format. It says that the
board supports up to a PII450Mhz and 128MB SDRAM in each of it's two slots.
Great thinks I, I can make a decent machine out of my AT stuff before I
finally biff it (The back room is half-full of AT stuff, including two boxes
of working PSUs).


Something is wrong there, any box that can run a PII450 will
accept at least 256MB (low-density) modules, 512MB or more
total capacity.



So I put it together with one 128MB module, 10/100 3Com NIC (I'm on a LAN
here), 8MB AGP card (S3 but it's adequate for it's purpose), ISA
Soundblaster 16, ISA Rockwell 56k modem and a two-port PCI-USB card. There
are pins on the board for a USB header but I don't have the header and there
are pins for a PS/2 header. I *do* have a header for a PS/2 mouse but it
just has four wires in a row and I've tried fitting it either way to the
pins on the mobo and it doesn't seem to work. I don't have a schematic for
the board or a PS/2 port to work out how to/if I can successfully connect
it.


Being AT, it's going to have the 5V line connected to PSU
main 5V rail, you could check continuity between any/all
pins to 5V, and same for ground, and have two of the 4
figured out. The other two, try one way and if it won't
work, swap the two's pin-positions and retry... just be sure
the 5V and ground are right, an ohm reading would be a good
followup to the initial continuity check.

snip

Ok, the problem. This machine runs Prime95 for 24 hours no problem. It runs
SETI CLI sweet *but*, I have the monitor set to turn off after 10 minutes,
no screen saver. If the machine has completed a SETI WU and it's got the
monitor turned off it locks up. No mouse movement or pounding of keyboard
will wake it. A hard re-set is needed. This has happened three times and
every time the first thing the PC does when it starts is complete the last
10 seconds of a SETI WU and then connect to get another one. It's connecting
through my LAN at the moment.


You might see if the NIC driver properties has different
settings for power management, and see if any bios settings
seem related and enable them... hard to say on an old
lower-end board like that.

Some boards with power management wakeup problems, benefit
from bios update.


At any other time I can just move the mouse slightly and the monitor springs
to life, it's only at the conclusion of a SETI WU that this problem occurs
*So far*.


You might try running SETI locally instead of across lan and
see if problem persists... I'd wondering if the NIC isn't
responding.


Ok, the person I'm gonna give it to isn't going to run SETI but
this could be indicitive of a larger problem. Any Ideas? I was wondering if
it's maybe happening as a consequence of the machine trying to access the
network while the monitor is off?


LOL, i should read ahead more often.

I don't know. The NIC is fine, (3Com) I
pulled it form a machine that it's been functioning in perfectly. In fact,
I'll probably pull the NIC when I part with the machine (although I like to
leave NICs in machines I give away/build for others so I can easilly connect
to me LAN if I need to troubleshoot at any stage).

Any thoughts folks? TIA.


I'd probably use/leave a cheaper NIC in it, presuming the
3COM 10/100 is PCI, not ISA, since it'd be better used for
NAS box than an old AT box. Something else I now wonder is
if the system has 3.3V for the NIC at all, you might
actually be better off with an older NIC. Since I have old
10Mb 3COM ISA NICs I can't reuse in modern boxes, that's
what i'd try & leave in it, for free at least, if NIC was
part of a system requirement then perhaps a better (faster)
NIC.

You might see if the board can be identified in a PCChips et
al flavor, or links followed produce the pinouts for similar
boards,
http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q3998142/pcchips/
  #3  
Old September 13th 04, 01:52 AM
~misfit~
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

kony wrote:
On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 11:35:28 +1200, "~misfit~"
wrote:

Ok, I've built a strange system from parts. It's an Atrend 6310M
mobo. It's an AT, Slot 1 board. I was quite pleased to get it as I
have a lot of AT stuff (cases, PSUs etc) that I've been loathe to
throw away. I welcomed the chance to use some with this board.

I Googled the board and found a manual in .pdf format. It says that
the board supports up to a PII450Mhz and 128MB SDRAM in each of it's
two slots. Great thinks I, I can make a decent machine out of my AT
stuff before I finally biff it (The back room is half-full of AT
stuff, including two boxes of working PSUs).


Something is wrong there, any box that can run a PII450 will
accept at least 256MB (low-density) modules, 512MB or more
total capacity.


I'm not sure about this one. All I know is it's a strange and uncommon
board. It didn't have a SECC retainer fitted and hadn't had one when I got
it. Just the slot. From what I remember it was only very early boards that
were like this. It's a VX chipset and, until I found the manual, wouldn't
have dreamed of trying a Deschutes CPU in it, I originally set it up with a
Klamath, then found the manual on-line so put the 450 in.

So I put it together with one 128MB module, 10/100 3Com NIC (I'm on
a LAN here), 8MB AGP card (S3 but it's adequate for it's purpose),
ISA Soundblaster 16, ISA Rockwell 56k modem and a two-port PCI-USB
card. There are pins on the board for a USB header but I don't have
the header and there are pins for a PS/2 header. I *do* have a
header for a PS/2 mouse but it just has four wires in a row and I've
tried fitting it either way to the pins on the mobo and it doesn't
seem to work. I don't have a schematic for the board or a PS/2 port
to work out how to/if I can successfully connect it.


Being AT, it's going to have the 5V line connected to PSU
main 5V rail, you could check continuity between any/all
pins to 5V, and same for ground, and have two of the 4
figured out. The other two, try one way and if it won't
work, swap the two's pin-positions and retry... just be sure
the 5V and ground are right, an ohm reading would be a good
followup to the initial continuity check.


Cheers, my multimeter is a very basic model. I may have a play and see what
I can do.

Ok, the problem. This machine runs Prime95 for 24 hours no problem.
It runs SETI CLI sweet *but*, I have the monitor set to turn off
after 10 minutes, no screen saver. If the machine has completed a
SETI WU and it's got the monitor turned off it locks up. No mouse
movement or pounding of keyboard will wake it. A hard re-set is
needed. This has happened three times and every time the first thing
the PC does when it starts is complete the last 10 seconds of a SETI
WU and then connect to get another one. It's connecting through my
LAN at the moment.


You might see if the NIC driver properties has different
settings for power management, and see if any bios settings
seem related and enable them... hard to say on an old
lower-end board like that.


I can't find anything relevant.

Some boards with power management wakeup problems, benefit
from bios update.


I can't find a BIOS update for it. It doesn't have a very large
web-presence.

I got the manual from he

www.elhvb.com/mboards/ a-trend/manuals/

Atrend 6310M

At any other time I can just move the mouse slightly and the monitor
springs to life, it's only at the conclusion of a SETI WU that this
problem occurs *So far*.


You might try running SETI locally instead of across lan and
see if problem persists... I'd wondering if the NIC isn't
responding.


It's running locally, it just needs the NIC when it want's to get a new WU
from Berkeley.

Ok, the person I'm gonna give it to isn't going to run SETI but
this could be indicitive of a larger problem. Any Ideas? I was
wondering if it's maybe happening as a consequence of the machine
trying to access the network while the monitor is off?


LOL, i should read ahead more often.


g

I don't know. The NIC is fine, (3Com) I
pulled it form a machine that it's been functioning in perfectly. In
fact, I'll probably pull the NIC when I part with the machine
(although I like to leave NICs in machines I give away/build for
others so I can easilly connect to me LAN if I need to troubleshoot
at any stage).

Any thoughts folks? TIA.


I'd probably use/leave a cheaper NIC in it, presuming the
3COM 10/100 is PCI, not ISA, since it'd be better used for
NAS box than an old AT box. Something else I now wonder is
if the system has 3.3V for the NIC at all, you might
actually be better off with an older NIC. Since I have old
10Mb 3COM ISA NICs I can't reuse in modern boxes, that's
what i'd try & leave in it, for free at least, if NIC was
part of a system requirement then perhaps a better (faster)
NIC.


I don't have a spare ISA slot in it but I do have one or two 10/Base-T PCI
cards. I'll put one of those in.

You might see if the board can be identified in a PCChips et
al flavor, or links followed produce the pinouts for similar
boards,
http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q3998142/pcchips/


You know, it's *almost* this board:

http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q39...cpics/m726.gif

Linked from that page except mine has an Intel chipset, the third SDRAM slot
nearest the AGP slot is missing (but there is allowance for it) and the FDD
connection on mine is over by the serial/parallel connectors (which are also
oriented at 90° to the ones on that board.

At first glance I thought that was it.

Thanks for your input Dave.
--
~misfit~


  #4  
Old September 13th 04, 04:55 AM
~misfit~
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

~misfit~ wrote:
kony wrote:
On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 11:35:28 +1200, "~misfit~"
wrote:

Ok, I've built a strange system from parts. It's an Atrend 6310M
mobo. It's an AT, Slot 1 board. I was quite pleased to get it as I
have a lot of AT stuff (cases, PSUs etc) that I've been loathe to
throw away. I welcomed the chance to use some with this board.

I Googled the board and found a manual in .pdf format. It says that
the board supports up to a PII450Mhz and 128MB SDRAM in each of it's
two slots. Great thinks I, I can make a decent machine out of my AT
stuff before I finally biff it (The back room is half-full of AT
stuff, including two boxes of working PSUs).


Something is wrong there, any box that can run a PII450 will
accept at least 256MB (low-density) modules, 512MB or more
total capacity.


I'm not sure about this one. All I know is it's a strange and uncommon
board. It didn't have a SECC retainer fitted and hadn't had one when
I got it. Just the slot. From what I remember it was only very early
boards that were like this. It's a VX chipset


My bad, it's a ZX chipset.

and, until I found the
manual, wouldn't have dreamed of trying a Deschutes CPU in it, I
originally set it up with a Klamath, then found the manual on-line so
put the 450 in.

So I put it together with one 128MB module, 10/100 3Com NIC (I'm on
a LAN here), 8MB AGP card (S3 but it's adequate for it's purpose),
ISA Soundblaster 16, ISA Rockwell 56k modem and a two-port PCI-USB
card. There are pins on the board for a USB header but I don't have
the header and there are pins for a PS/2 header. I *do* have a
header for a PS/2 mouse but it just has four wires in a row and I've
tried fitting it either way to the pins on the mobo and it doesn't
seem to work. I don't have a schematic for the board or a PS/2 port
to work out how to/if I can successfully connect it.


Being AT, it's going to have the 5V line connected to PSU
main 5V rail, you could check continuity between any/all
pins to 5V, and same for ground, and have two of the 4
figured out. The other two, try one way and if it won't
work, swap the two's pin-positions and retry... just be sure
the 5V and ground are right, an ohm reading would be a good
followup to the initial continuity check.


Cheers, my multimeter is a very basic model. I may have a play and
see what I can do.

Ok, the problem. This machine runs Prime95 for 24 hours no problem.
It runs SETI CLI sweet *but*, I have the monitor set to turn off
after 10 minutes, no screen saver. If the machine has completed a
SETI WU and it's got the monitor turned off it locks up. No mouse
movement or pounding of keyboard will wake it. A hard re-set is
needed. This has happened three times and every time the first thing
the PC does when it starts is complete the last 10 seconds of a SETI
WU and then connect to get another one. It's connecting through my
LAN at the moment.


You might see if the NIC driver properties has different
settings for power management, and see if any bios settings
seem related and enable them... hard to say on an old
lower-end board like that.


I can't find anything relevant.

Some boards with power management wakeup problems, benefit
from bios update.


I can't find a BIOS update for it. It doesn't have a very large
web-presence.

I got the manual from he

www.elhvb.com/mboards/ a-trend/manuals/

Atrend 6310M

At any other time I can just move the mouse slightly and the monitor
springs to life, it's only at the conclusion of a SETI WU that this
problem occurs *So far*.


You might try running SETI locally instead of across lan and
see if problem persists... I'd wondering if the NIC isn't
responding.


It's running locally, it just needs the NIC when it want's to get a
new WU from Berkeley.

Ok, the person I'm gonna give it to isn't going to run SETI but
this could be indicitive of a larger problem. Any Ideas? I was
wondering if it's maybe happening as a consequence of the machine
trying to access the network while the monitor is off?


LOL, i should read ahead more often.


g

I don't know. The NIC is fine, (3Com) I
pulled it form a machine that it's been functioning in perfectly. In
fact, I'll probably pull the NIC when I part with the machine
(although I like to leave NICs in machines I give away/build for
others so I can easilly connect to me LAN if I need to troubleshoot
at any stage).

Any thoughts folks? TIA.


I'd probably use/leave a cheaper NIC in it, presuming the
3COM 10/100 is PCI, not ISA, since it'd be better used for
NAS box than an old AT box. Something else I now wonder is
if the system has 3.3V for the NIC at all, you might
actually be better off with an older NIC. Since I have old
10Mb 3COM ISA NICs I can't reuse in modern boxes, that's
what i'd try & leave in it, for free at least, if NIC was
part of a system requirement then perhaps a better (faster)
NIC.


I don't have a spare ISA slot in it but I do have one or two
10/Base-T PCI cards. I'll put one of those in.

You might see if the board can be identified in a PCChips et
al flavor, or links followed produce the pinouts for similar
boards,
http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q3998142/pcchips/


You know, it's *almost* this board:

http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q39...cpics/m726.gif

Linked from that page except mine has an Intel chipset, the third
SDRAM slot nearest the AGP slot is missing (but there is allowance
for it) and the FDD connection on mine is over by the serial/parallel
connectors (which are also oriented at 90° to the ones on that board.

At first glance I thought that was it.

Thanks for your input Dave.



  #5  
Old September 13th 04, 07:30 AM
kony
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 12:52:38 +1200, "~misfit~"
wrote:


Something is wrong there, any box that can run a PII450 will
accept at least 256MB (low-density) modules, 512MB or more
total capacity.


I'm not sure about this one. All I know is it's a strange and uncommon
board. It didn't have a SECC retainer fitted and hadn't had one when I got
it. Just the slot. From what I remember it was only very early boards that
were like this. It's a VX chipset and, until I found the manual, wouldn't
have dreamed of trying a Deschutes CPU in it, I originally set it up with a
Klamath, then found the manual on-line so put the 450 in.


It may even support a Coppermine with the right slotket,
maybe even Tualatin same as typical BX chipset board would,
except that's probably beyond the capabilities of the
voltage regulator circuit, especially extended use at near
full load, like SETI/etc would cause.

ZX should support low-density 256MB modules, but stability
of *anything* on such a low-end, aged board, could be harder
to attain.

Ok, the problem. This machine runs Prime95 for 24 hours no problem.
It runs SETI CLI sweet *but*, I have the monitor set to turn off
after 10 minutes, no screen saver. If the machine has completed a
SETI WU and it's got the monitor turned off it locks up. No mouse
movement or pounding of keyboard will wake it. A hard re-set is
needed. This has happened three times and every time the first thing
the PC does when it starts is complete the last 10 seconds of a SETI
WU and then connect to get another one. It's connecting through my
LAN at the moment.


You might see if the NIC driver properties has different
settings for power management, and see if any bios settings
seem related and enable them... hard to say on an old
lower-end board like that.


I can't find anything relevant.



Maybe just leaving the monitor disconnected & off, then
never allowing OS to shut it off would suffice?


Some boards with power management wakeup problems, benefit
from bios update.


I can't find a BIOS update for it. It doesn't have a very large
web-presence.

I got the manual from he

www.elhvb.com/mboards/ a-trend/manuals/

Atrend 6310M


You might find that other PCChips et al boards' bios would
work, providing the I/O chip and chipset are same (or
perhaps one with BX chipset would work too, unsure about
this. I do think the board was designed to accomodate
either chip, hence the missing 3rd dimm slot when ZX is
used... don't recall the other limitations of ZX vs BX at
the moment.



You know, it's *almost* this board:

http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q39...cpics/m726.gif

Linked from that page except mine has an Intel chipset, the third SDRAM slot
nearest the AGP slot is missing (but there is allowance for it) and the FDD
connection on mine is over by the serial/parallel connectors (which are also
oriented at 90° to the ones on that board.

At first glance I thought that was it.

Thanks for your input Dave.


I'm pretty much out of ideas, beyond looking at power
management and trying a different NIC and/or NIC driver.
I'd probably just turn off monitor manually and disable all
power management except HDD spin-down, if access to the
drive can be delayed long enough... if not then perhaps a
ramdrive for storage, any file I/O happening that would
otherwise keep HDD spinning. Then again I vaguely recall
that there's some sort of diskless client potential for
SETI, if you set up boxes like that it wouldn't need the
HDD, monitor, etc.
  #6  
Old September 13th 04, 10:59 AM
~misfit~
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

kony wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 12:52:38 +1200, "~misfit~"
wrote:


Something is wrong there, any box that can run a PII450 will
accept at least 256MB (low-density) modules, 512MB or more
total capacity.


I'm not sure about this one. All I know is it's a strange and
uncommon board. It didn't have a SECC retainer fitted and hadn't had
one when I got it. Just the slot. From what I remember it was only
very early boards that were like this. It's a VX chipset and, until
I found the manual, wouldn't have dreamed of trying a Deschutes CPU
in it, I originally set it up with a Klamath, then found the manual
on-line so put the 450 in.


It may even support a Coppermine with the right slotket,
maybe even Tualatin same as typical BX chipset board would,
except that's probably beyond the capabilities of the
voltage regulator circuit, especially extended use at near
full load, like SETI/etc would cause.


I have a couple of Tualatin's running in Slot-T's in BX boards already.
Great combo.

ZX should support low-density 256MB modules, but stability
of *anything* on such a low-end, aged board, could be harder
to attain.


I was given this, the CPU was sitting around, IMO it's a 98 machine anyway
and 128MB is fine for 98. With these Tualatins I'm running in BX boards I'm
actually getting a little low on SDRAM anyway. Especially as a 256MB module
I had been given a while ago but hadn't tested turned out to be stuffed when
I tried it last month.

Ok, the problem. This machine runs Prime95 for 24 hours no problem.
It runs SETI CLI sweet *but*, I have the monitor set to turn off
after 10 minutes, no screen saver. If the machine has completed a
SETI WU and it's got the monitor turned off it locks up. No mouse
movement or pounding of keyboard will wake it. A hard re-set is
needed. This has happened three times and every time the first
thing the PC does when it starts is complete the last 10 seconds
of a SETI WU and then connect to get another one. It's connecting
through my LAN at the moment.

You might see if the NIC driver properties has different
settings for power management, and see if any bios settings
seem related and enable them... hard to say on an old
lower-end board like that.


I can't find anything relevant.



Maybe just leaving the monitor disconnected & off, then
never allowing OS to shut it off would suffice?


Yeah. I was thinking about giving this to a PC-less family and wanted it to
be as stable as possible.

Some boards with power management wakeup problems, benefit
from bios update.


I can't find a BIOS update for it. It doesn't have a very large
web-presence.

I got the manual from he

www.elhvb.com/mboards/ a-trend/manuals/

Atrend 6310M


You might find that other PCChips et al boards' bios would
work, providing the I/O chip and chipset are same (or
perhaps one with BX chipset would work too, unsure about
this. I do think the board was designed to accomodate
either chip, hence the missing 3rd dimm slot when ZX is
used... don't recall the other limitations of ZX vs BX at
the moment.


I take it that PCChips and Atrend are one and the same from this line of
discussion? I know little about them other than to avoid them (or so I'm
told). The one PCChips board I had ran a P200MMX at 250Mhz rock-solid for
ages. I've never had an Atrend before.

You know, it's *almost* this board:

http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q39...cpics/m726.gif

Linked from that page except mine has an Intel chipset, the third
SDRAM slot nearest the AGP slot is missing (but there is allowance
for it) and the FDD connection on mine is over by the
serial/parallel connectors (which are also oriented at 90° to the
ones on that board.

At first glance I thought that was it.

Thanks for your input Dave.


I'm pretty much out of ideas, beyond looking at power
management and trying a different NIC and/or NIC driver.


I've put a 10/base-T PCI Realtek card in it for now. I'll see how it goes
when the next SETI unit is finished. LOL, that's the difficulty with trying
to troubleshoot this, I have to wait 10 hours or so for it to complete a
SETI unit and attempt to connect (at least I think that's the trigger for
the problem) to the LAN while the monitor is off in power-saving mode to
reproduce the fault.

I'd probably just turn off monitor manually and disable all
power management except HDD spin-down, if access to the
drive can be delayed long enough... if not then perhaps a
ramdrive for storage, any file I/O happening that would
otherwise keep HDD spinning. Then again I vaguely recall
that there's some sort of diskless client potential for
SETI, if you set up boxes like that it wouldn't need the
HDD, monitor, etc.


Cheers Dave,
--
~misfit~


  #7  
Old September 13th 04, 01:10 PM
kony
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 21:59:15 +1200, "~misfit~"
wrote:


It may even support a Coppermine with the right slotket,
maybe even Tualatin same as typical BX chipset board would,
except that's probably beyond the capabilities of the
voltage regulator circuit, especially extended use at near
full load, like SETI/etc would cause.


I have a couple of Tualatin's running in Slot-T's in BX boards already.
Great combo.


Yep, it's just that this particular board you have may be
less robustly engineered.



Maybe just leaving the monitor disconnected & off, then
never allowing OS to shut it off would suffice?


Yeah. I was thinking about giving this to a PC-less family and wanted it to
be as stable as possible.


You might see if it's using ACPI power management, and if
so, revert to APM management, which may require OS reinstall
in addition to whatever other measures needed... don't
remember.



You might find that other PCChips et al boards' bios would
work, providing the I/O chip and chipset are same (or
perhaps one with BX chipset would work too, unsure about
this. I do think the board was designed to accomodate
either chip, hence the missing 3rd dimm slot when ZX is
used... don't recall the other limitations of ZX vs BX at
the moment.


I take it that PCChips and Atrend are one and the same from this line of
discussion? I know little about them other than to avoid them (or so I'm
told). The one PCChips board I had ran a P200MMX at 250Mhz rock-solid for
ages. I've never had an Atrend before.


I think they're loosely related at a minimum, if not rolling
off a parallel line in same factory, just a different name
on them. Of course there's a distinct possibility the board
wouldn't work with a different bios, but i suspect you have
enough spare boards lying around that you could find a way
to reflash the bios prom if necessary.


  #8  
Old September 15th 04, 01:08 AM
~misfit~
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

kony wrote:
On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 21:59:15 +1200, "~misfit~"
wrote:


It may even support a Coppermine with the right slotket,
maybe even Tualatin same as typical BX chipset board would,
except that's probably beyond the capabilities of the
voltage regulator circuit, especially extended use at near
full load, like SETI/etc would cause.


I have a couple of Tualatin's running in Slot-T's in BX boards
already. Great combo.


Yep, it's just that this particular board you have may be
less robustly engineered.


I have no intention of running anything other than the PII 450 in this
board, it was a surprise windfall, I'm happy to have something other than a
socket 7 board as a spare/giveaway.

Maybe just leaving the monitor disconnected & off, then
never allowing OS to shut it off would suffice?


Yeah. I was thinking about giving this to a PC-less family and
wanted it to be as stable as possible.


You might see if it's using ACPI power management, and if
so, revert to APM management, which may require OS reinstall
in addition to whatever other measures needed... don't
remember.


I'll check, I have power management set to user define (from memory) and
everything set to 'never' or 'disabled'.

You might find that other PCChips et al boards' bios would
work, providing the I/O chip and chipset are same (or
perhaps one with BX chipset would work too, unsure about
this. I do think the board was designed to accomodate
either chip, hence the missing 3rd dimm slot when ZX is
used... don't recall the other limitations of ZX vs BX at
the moment.


I take it that PCChips and Atrend are one and the same from this
line of discussion? I know little about them other than to avoid
them (or so I'm told). The one PCChips board I had ran a P200MMX at
250Mhz rock-solid for ages. I've never had an Atrend before.


I think they're loosely related at a minimum, if not rolling
off a parallel line in same factory, just a different name
on them. Of course there's a distinct possibility the board
wouldn't work with a different bios, but i suspect you have
enough spare boards lying around that you could find a way
to reflash the bios prom if necessary.


I don't have any spare working Slot 1 boards. BTW, I tried a different NIC
and it's still the same. I still haven't been able to find a serial mouse to
try so I can pull the USB card. I have one but my parts room, especially for
older parts like that, is *very* disorganised and I have a chronic back
problem, I can't spend long moving boxes etc, before I have to sit down.

I'd like to leave the USB card in though really, a PC without USB isn't much
use these days if one wants to buy a new printer or scanner. (Both cheap
enough to not mess around with second-hand stuff, also second-hand scanners
are quite scarce or over-priced IME).

Cheers mate,
--
~misfit~


 




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