my ancient p2b board -wondering why it's semi-dead

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 14:31:28 GMT, "Homer" wrote:

Hard drive reformatted over and over... to fat32

First did you reinstall windows 98 over a previous install or did you format
the drive and install windows. If you reinstall windows over a non working
version most of the time it will not work. You have to start with a clean
drive. As to the problem with xp not shutting off the computer that is an
easy fix. Go into the control panel, power options, select APM tab and tick
the box enable advance power management and the system will power off.

Good

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:28:14 -0500, (Paul) wrote:

Reflashed BIOS back to 1012 from 1014.003

surface scanned Hard drive. perfect.

swapped memory several times.

treated it like a new board from scratch. hangs at 13 minutes before
end in win98 instal when it is "setting up hardware and plug and play
devices".

mouse arrow can be moved, but the magnifying glass in the little
monitor has stopped making circular movements and the install more or
less stops there.

eric


No idea what the symptoms mean - just for kicks, reflash the BIOS
to the latest, using a DOS floppy and the flash utility for the board.
Archive the current BIOS onto the floppy, then flash with a newer
BIOS. If the flash fails, revert to the old image immediately.
As boards age, there is a small chance that the flash chip can
get "bit rot".

Next step would be memtest86 testing.

Has the disk been surface scanned recently ?

I'd treat the thing like it was a new board, and run through the
usual routine.

HTH,
Paul

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 16:44:03 -0600, "m.marien" mm AT RiverCityCanada
DOT com wrote:

Try clearing the CMOS memory with the jumper. I've fixed a few boards that
way.


Done that. Still the same hang at 13 minutes setting up hardware and
plug and play devices. Running with just a video card floppy and HD.
The mobo is definitely screwed, but I knew that. Was hoping to hear
some interesting suggestions of what the problem was.

eric

wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 16:44:03 -0600, "m.marien" mm AT RiverCityCanada
DOT com wrote:

Try clearing the CMOS memory with the jumper. I've fixed a few boards
that
way.


Done that. Still the same hang at 13 minutes setting up hardware and
plug and play devices. Running with just a video card floppy and HD.
The mobo is definitely screwed, but I knew that. Was hoping to hear
some interesting suggestions of what the problem was.
What have you got on the IDE connectors?.
There was a problem some time ago, with the P2B, and (I think), a particular
BIOS version, that it would hang during IDE detection in the OS, with some
combinations of devices on the IDE connectors.

Best Wishes

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 14:16:51 +0100, "Roger Hamlett"

hey roger,

This is something that happened a couple of years ago one bright
morning on boot-up when the desktop just froze. Mouse moved but had no
effct on anything. At the time I reformatted and re-installed to no
avail.

The mobo has been on the shelf since then. Every now and then I take
it down and try different configs to breath life into it. Or use the
bios chip to hot flash some other board.

But alas, I think it has a genuine hardware defect with no solution in
sight

eric


What have you got on the IDE connectors?.
There was a problem some time ago, with the P2B, and (I think), a particular
BIOS version, that it would hang during IDE detection in the OS, with some
combinations of devices on the IDE connectors.

Best Wishes

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 14:16:51 +0100, "Roger Hamlett"
wrote:


Another funny thing is that I was able to install win95 on the board.
Must be something to do with lack of hardware checking during the
install process. Left a lot of yellow question marks in device driver,
but this may have been due to lack of chipset recognition.

eric

There was a problem some time ago, with the P2B, and (I think), a particular
BIOS version, that it would hang during IDE detection in the OS, with some
combinations of devices on the IDE connectors.

Best Wishes

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 14:16:51 +0100, "Roger Hamlett"

hey roger,

This is something that happened a couple of years ago one bright
morning on boot-up when the desktop just froze. Mouse moved but had no
effct on anything. At the time I reformatted and re-installed to no
avail.

The mobo has been on the shelf since then. Every now and then I take
it down and try different configs to breath life into it. Or use the
bios chip to hot flash some other board.

But alas, I think it has a genuine hardware defect with no solution in
sight

eric
The obvious solution, it just to use an IDE card, instead of the motherboard
port(s). It sounds as though you have a problem when the IDE controller
switches to using DMA, rather than PIO.

What have you got on the IDE connectors?.
There was a problem some time ago, with the P2B, and (I think), a
particular
BIOS version, that it would hang during IDE detection in the OS, with
some
combinations of devices on the IDE connectors.

Best Wishes

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 15:30:56 +0100, "Roger Hamlett"
wrote:


The obvious solution, it just to use an IDE card, instead of the motherboard
port(s). It sounds as though you have a problem when the IDE controller
switches to using DMA, rather than PIO.

I'm on it right now...


eric

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 15:30:56 +0100, "Roger Hamlett"
wrote:


wrote in message
news:aq8l70
eric
The obvious solution, it just to use an IDE card, instead of the motherboard
port(s). It sounds as though you have a problem when the IDE controller
switches to using DMA, rather than PIO.

Used a sigg controller card for the hard drive. If I plugged in the
cd-rom as well to the controller card, then win98 bootdisk can't find
the hd. So I put the cd-rom on IDE1.

Anyway the long and the short of it is that the same thing happened on
the win98 install. A freeze at 14 minutes before time while setting up
hardware and plug and play devices.

thanks,. eric .

writes:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 16:44:03 -0600, "m.marien" mm AT RiverCityCanada
DOT com wrote:

Try clearing the CMOS memory with the jumper. I've fixed a few boards that
way.


Done that. Still the same hang at 13 minutes setting up hardware and
plug and play devices. Running with just a video card floppy and HD.
The mobo is definitely screwed, but I knew that. Was hoping to hear
some interesting suggestions of what the problem was.

Just for the heck of it, try reflashing the BIOS. I had what I swore
were hardware problems with detecting my onboard SCSI controller and
tore my hair out for weeks until I reflashed my BIOS as a last resort
and everything cleared right up! Perhaps the P2B series got a flaky
batch of EEPROMs.

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