Trouble starting up new BP6

[Tim_K]

I just got a BP6, version 1.0 . I looked at the capacitors very carefully, and they seem to be in good shape. But it doesn't quite boot up right.

I have it running on 1 Celeron 466 right now. No internet line is hooked up yet.

I already had a 3 GB hard drive loaded with 2000 Pro and some Abit drivers for this motherboard specifically.

I do get the HPT366 BIOS version 1.21 screen.

After clearing the CMOS and setting all the BIOS values to correct specs, including the processor specs, I went to boot it up.

It'll give the POST beep, and identify the CPU and memory, and it'll be fine until it gets to the black and white 2000 screen that has the bar graph across the bottom, filling up from left to right, and it says hit F8 for advanced setup something. I don't remember the exact words right now.

Here's the problem - once the bar graph fills up and it SHOULD then open up 2000, the monitor light changes from green to orange, I get the POST beep again, and the process starts over. If I leave it alone it'll keep repeating this cycle.

I tried booting in Safe mode and that didn't help.

And which is CPU 0 and which is CPU 1? I didn't see CPU0 and CPU1 printed on the MB anywhere.

I might throw a new CMOS battery in it. Who knows how old this one is.

AND, last question, where can I get a wiring diagram to show where the wiring connectors for the power on and hard drive active lights go? I got the rest of the wires plugged in, but am not sure where to put the others.

[InactiveX]

I already had a 3 GB hard drive loaded with 2000 Pro and some Abit drivers for this motherboard specifically.

Always best to install Windows with the motherboard you want to use it with. In particular, if you install it on a single CPU board then you will not be able to SMP it.

AND, last question, where can I get a wiring diagram to show where the wiring connectors for the power on and hard drive active lights go? I got the rest of the wires plugged in, but am not sure where to put the others.

Have a look at the manual.

[Tim_K]

Okay, but even with only 1 CPU it wasn't starting up completely.

[InactiveX]

I would still recommend a fresh install on the BP6.

[Tim_K]

Well, I'll try that. Damn, I had it all set up and tuned, too.

I wonder if I can do a repair install and get away with that? Probably not with my luck.

I have the computer running right now, but with no speakers or monitor or ethernet cable or keyboard / mouse connected to the MB. It goes about 30 seconds between POST beeps. Over and over. About 8 times in a row now.

And I saw in the manual where CPU 1 and 2 are placed. I thought they'd be numbered 0 and 1 instead of 1 and 2.

[Tim_K]

The damn thing won't work. I did a quick reformat of the hard drive using my XP Home CD, then put in my 98 CD to start it up on 98, and then it would be upgraded to 2000. This proceedure has worked several times for me.

But with the CD set as primary IDE it won't load the 98 CD to the hard drive, and with the CD set as secondary, it never gets past the "Verifying DMI pool data" thing.

Starting to get pissed here......

[Tim_K]

Now that stupid 3 GB drive won't work at all. I came real close to smashing it with a hammer for revenge. I may still do that.

I went to a computer repair store and picked up a 6 GB Seagate drive for $10.

But I can't get ANY of my operating systems to install on it. Every time I try to boot it off the CD, the computer gives an error message about <Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll not being found.

I searched for this hardware abstraction layer stuff on the internet, and those methods didn't work either.

Looks like this hard drive is junk also.

I'm not happy.

[davd_bob]

Um...I didn't know the WIN98 cd was bootable. I always keep a WIN98 floppy startup diskette handy just for installing OSs that aren't bootable(NT4 WIN95).

I hate to say it especially after you already checked the caps, but it sounds like bad caps. What brand are they? If you are sure its not them then try a diff PSU if one is available.

[Dave Rave]

the caps may be not much good, even if they look good.

I had all 13 caps out of two bpoards at the repair shop, and i put them in three piles,
good, going, blown

most of the good ones were still well below 1500uf or even 0uf. (bummer)

try the ram slots,....
take out ram, carefully clean gold strips, clean over board with soft paint brush and vacuum cleaner ( I know, it might kill it, i ain't lost one yet)
try a different ram slot.

[Tim_K]

I got the BP6 running, although definitely the hard way.

I connected the hard drive as a slave, and started up the computer on a bootable CD of Knoppix 3.6.

It's running on 1 466 Celeron right now, with a 128 MB memory stick.

A little slow, but it works.

The tall caps around the CPUs are a green/blue color with gold stripes and words, the brand on them is "Tayeh".

The other shorter caps are black with gold stripes and lettering, brand name Jackon.

I've done electronics work before, so I can change the caps if I need to. Is there any set value I should use, or do I only need to find replacement caps that have the same or higher voltage and microfarad ratings? Or do the voltage / microfarad ratings need to be exact replacements?

It's working, so I'm guessing the caps aren't the problem, at least not entirely. For all I know the CMOS battery is dead, I haven't tested it yet. I may get a new one tomorrow.

Hopefully like this I can get the hard drive reformatted / fdisked, and install some BP6 drivers on it, then get back on Windows 2000.

[hyperspace]

I've done electronics work before, so I can change the caps if I need to. Is there any set value I should use, or do I only need to find replacement caps that have the same or higher voltage and microfarad ratings? Or do the voltage / microfarad ratings need to be exact replacements?

You want to use high-quality, low ESR, aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Here is one link that describes the type and manufacturers used for repairing mainboards.

http://www.motherboardrepair.com/index.php?sec=partinfo

I think 1200µF to 1500µF and 6.3V to 10V should work. Remember, higher voltages and/or µF will mean larger capacitors.

Have you been trying to run the BP6 with a CDROM on IDE3 or IDE4?

[Tim_K]

No, when using the Knoppix 3.6 CD I had the CD on IDE 1 and the hard drive on IDE 2.

Where should they be, and set as master / slave? I had the BIOS boot sequence set to CDROM, C, and something else I don't remember at the moment.

It'll work on Knoppix 3.6, but I really don't like it, and besides that, I can't get it to download any drivers or files to the hard drive AND be able to actually access the files if they do make it to the hard drive.

I tried again today with my Windows XP (Home and Pro) CDs.

They'll start the loading sequence and load their files and format the disk, but when the first restart comes, I have a choice of hitting F1 to continue, or Delete to go to setup. At that point, all it can do is restart the loading process which it already has done.

And this damn HPT366 driver deal is most of the problem, I think. Why couldn't Abit just use a regular driver? Does XP Pro have this driver in it?

I wonder if getting a PCI slot drive controller will help. But then it'll probably have a driver CD, so how do you get THAT loaded to an empty hard drive, or load it at all when the Knoppix CD is in the CD drive, etc, etc.

I could install the hard drive in my Abit NF7 main desktop system and load XP Pro to it, but I've been told that you can't use that OS on the BP6 chipset afterwards.

What about loading 98 on the hard drive on my NF7 desktop, adding the special drivers, then switching the hard drive to the BP6 and upgrading to 2000? Would that work?

[davd_bob]

My board operated fine when I got it but about half the Jackson caps were bulging or leaking. The system temp was often 10deg above the cpu temps.
I emailed Jackson and they sent me enough(free)caps to replace all of both Jacksons and Tayeh. I only replaced 8 Jackson caps in the "4pack" groups because they were the ones that looked bad and the board was fine after that. It is now a little flakey so I will replace the rest or do the ABIT(free)RMA thing.
jackcon@ms14.hinet.net
Log on to the Jackson link and you will find a way to e-mail them. State you have a BP6 with bad caps. They will reply asking for a shipping address. You will reply with that address and with a week you will have the correct size and ratted caps.

good luck,
David

[Tim_K]

I got the BP6 working with a multi-step process.

When the 3 GB drive seemed to quit on me, I went to a local computer shop and got a Seagate 6 GB drive for $10. While I was there, I was talking to the hardware expert (about 20 a year old kid), and he told me that loading 2000 on my NF7 system and then trying to swap the hard drive to the BP6 would not work. Some file with hardware profiles or something would not get rewritten with the BP6. He said only older operating systems, like 95 and 98 could make a switch like that.

So I got to thinking. Here's what I did:

I put the 6 GB drive in my NF7 system, and formatted it with my XP Home CD (let the XP Home installation run until just after the format) and loaded Windows 98 on it. Then I went on the internet and found a variety of Abit drivers, including that HPT366 one and loaded them into 98 in a seperate folder on C:.

Then I switched the 6 GB drive over to the BP6 system, got it running (which it did), and did an upgrade installation of Windows 2000 on the BP6. And it worked!

Now I have to get all my antivirus software in place and get a hardware monitor running, and it should be ready to go.

I'll email them about the Jackcon caps.

[davd_bob]

Tim,
I just checked out www dot loudmouthtim dot com.
Although the video content was kinda below current "today's world" exptations it did get better as time passed. I loved the site anyway. I think the best on the site was the audio file "Busted" and the video of "Train Idiot".