PC Partners Mainboard....

[Garak]

batteries cost about £3 in the uk.. not much - hopefully i can get this board up and running

[freddy]

hows yer tonge ?

battery ,,,,,Pt No cr2032 ,,,from watch shop or local asian corner shop , or maplin , Pt No ZB74R (CR2032) price:£1.99 inc vat, £1.694 plus vat.

FtF

[Garak]

tongue is fine freddy,

i have to go to maplins tomorrow anyhow - thanks...

[freddy]

i,ve sussed maplins out , check there web site , then ring them up to check stock ,,,they say "give us yer credit card" that will be £XXX for postage ,,,,say No ,,,ring local shop (i,m in preston) give em part No ,,it arrives morn after ,,,they ring u ,,u collect NO postage + it arrives quicker !!!!

ps got a crackin k/board + mouse cordless a couple of weeks ago £29 the pair ,,

[Garak]

I need the fresh air Freddy, so i'll pay them a visit, its a nice walk from Jarrow to Newcastle anyhow..

[Garak]

well i did it, i even rebooted and got the AWARD BIOS up,
rebooted to boot from floppy and the machine hung and died

MAJOR EDIT

problem was PSU wasnt powerful enought ot handle a HDD lol - but machine won't boot to floppy, hangs on DMI update sucessfull,

Thanks.

Garak.

[Ruslan]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Garak:
problem was PSU wasnt powerful enought ot handle a HDD lol - but machine won't boot to floppy, hangs on DMI update sucessfull,

---

Have You replaced the battery?
You have said, what You have another chip - does that chip also works this way now, after replacing the PSU?

By the way - few days ago I was having exactly the same problem (NVRAM problem). It was another motherboard (ZIDA), though, but also with AMI BIOS. Motherboard had a bad BIOS chip, so, I reflashed another one using my BIOS recovery methods.
Motherboard booted fine exept for that "NVRAM error" message appeared every time I rebooted PC.

I solved that problem - turned out BIOS chip type MX28F1000P (12V programming voltage) wasn't fully compatible with that particular chipset, what motherboard had.
So,I reflashed another spare chip (Winbond 29EE011, 5V),and error message disappeared!
It was just only incompatibility issue - now that MX28F1000P chip is perfectly working in another motherboard...

My another question - what chip type is?
It could't be MX28FXXX or Intel28FXXX 12V chip?
If so, You definately have to play with jumpers what setting up correct flash IC type and voltage - it's very important thing (remember,-it was JP8 and JP15).
May be, what You need another chip
(better - without bootblock like Winbond 29EE010,011 or SST 29EE011,or Atmel 29C010 - they are less problematic chips).

[Garak]

Replacing battery soon - funds are low and i need to eat lol....

How do I tell what kind of IC chip it is?

thanks Ruslan
also - you have a PM waiting...
Garak.

[Ruslan]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Garak:
How do I tell what kind of IC chip it is?

---

IC type can be found under AWARD/AMI logo sticker covered the chip (in case if You can't run flash utility - usually all the flash utilites reports it).
It can look like,for example:

MX (it's manufacturer's logo)
28F2000TPC-12C4
M2152B
Taiwan

where MX logo - Macronix corp.
28 - means 12V programming flash chip (29,39,49 - 5V programming flash chip),
F - usually means - "boot block is present",
2000 - 2Mbit capacity (020 - also, 1000 or 010,011 means 1 Mbit flash),
12 - means access time (in this case 120 ns)

Using chip type and search engine You get detailed information about the chip.

[Garak]

Thanks Ruslan, will check it out..

[Ruslan]

And...?

[freddy]

he,s going thru a P4 stage at the moment......

[Garak]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ruslan:
And...?

---

Sorry Ruslan, heres the details..

p28f00l
bxt120
u75109j2
(c)1990 1993

not sure what that means..

[Ruslan]

Intel 28F001BXT-120

It is:
1Mbit, 12V programming flash with two boot-blocks,
120 ns access time.

From this info I can assume, what You probably have incorrectly installed programming voltage (5V instead of 12V), and, as result, motherboard can't update DMI data and freeze...
May be type of flash IC is also incorrectly installed (remember jumpers ? ) - PCPartner motherboards are picky about that... From my experience (I have sold them quite a few) that motherboard was usually coming with 5V flash IC (Winbond 29EE011 or SST29EE010). So, I would assume, what someone replaced the chip ... may be - no,though...but who knows...
If You're having spare mentioned Winbond or SST 1 Mbit chip (may be taken out from faulty socket 7 motherboard), I would try to reflash that chip, and try that chip instead... I usually do it this way... It doesn't mean, what You have bad chip - no, but exactly that chip type may be not supported by that particular motherboard's chipset. I've seen it a lot...

[Garak]

i don't have any winbond IC's only a couple of intel ones pulled from PC Parter boards...