Troubles upgrading an SD11

[tuner]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

Greetings,

I'm attempting to get a little more life out of an old SlotA Athlon box.
The MB is an FIC SD11, with 128 megs of pc100 and the current processor is a
K7 600 with AMI bios, vNC610. The specs from FIC state that the board will
support up to an Athlon950 with the NC611 bios (the most current). Some
searching netted me an NOS Athlon 850 (from the web vendor StarMicro, fwiw)
for the bargain price of $42.

So, I download the 611 bios, flash without incident, swap out the 1 stick of
128 for 2 sticks of 256, and snap in the 850 processor.

Sadly, no joy on power up. Power supply spins up, but no post beeps and the
cpu fan doesn't spin, and no video signal to the monitor.

Some trial & error prove that the new RAM works just fine with the old
processor, (good post & bootup, with the cpu fan spinning fine & good
video).

Putting the 850 back in gets the same bad result, no post beep, the cpu fan
doesn't spin, and there is no video (because it's not finishing the post).

The processor heatsink was in place for all attempts, so I doubt there was
any harm done by the few seconds of non-spinning cpu fan, it's just a dinky
4mm one in any event.

BTW, there is no bios setting for the processor and no jumpers for that
purpose on this board.

FWIW, the stamped number from the processor that DOES work is:

K7600MTR518 C

the stamped number from the NOS processor that doesn't work is:

K7850MPR52B A

Have I just gotten a bad processor, or is there something else I should be
trying?

Thx!

Tuner

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

Which revision of the SD11 do you have? Is it the PCB 1.8 (ECNE-O116)?
http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/faq.aspx?model_id=9#qid329

--Alex



Tuner wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I'm attempting to get a little more life out of an old SlotA Athlon box.
> The MB is an FIC SD11, with 128 megs of pc100 and the current processor is a
> K7 600 with AMI bios, vNC610. The specs from FIC state that the board will
> support up to an Athlon950 with the NC611 bios (the most current). Some
> searching netted me an NOS Athlon 850 (from the web vendor StarMicro, fwiw)
> for the bargain price of $42.
>
> So, I download the 611 bios, flash without incident, swap out the 1 stick of
> 128 for 2 sticks of 256, and snap in the 850 processor.
>
> Sadly, no joy on power up. Power supply spins up, but no post beeps and the
> cpu fan doesn't spin, and no video signal to the monitor.
>
> Some trial & error prove that the new RAM works just fine with the old
> processor, (good post & bootup, with the cpu fan spinning fine & good
> video).
>
> Putting the 850 back in gets the same bad result, no post beep, the cpu fan
> doesn't spin, and there is no video (because it's not finishing the post).
>
> The processor heatsink was in place for all attempts, so I doubt there was
> any harm done by the few seconds of non-spinning cpu fan, it's just a dinky
> 4mm one in any event.
>
> BTW, there is no bios setting for the processor and no jumpers for that
> purpose on this board.
>
> FWIW, the stamped number from the processor that DOES work is:
>
> K7600MTR518 C
>
> the stamped number from the NOS processor that doesn't work is:
>
> K7850MPR52B A
>
> Have I just gotten a bad processor, or is there something else I should be
> trying?
>
> Thx!
>
> Tuner
>
>

 

[tuner]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

That could be the problem (one of many). I could not find any indication of
the revision number on the board. I thought it was 1.8 the first time I
looked at it (to get the specs to order the processor), but I couldn't find
a number once I got the thing apart. To their credit, FIC's compatibility
sheet clearly lists the requirement for a 1.8 revision.

In any event, this project went down the path to upgrade hell. A
bigger-than-supported hard disk was installed using WD's overlay software,
and although it was running fine before, swapping the processor out (and
back in again) corrupted the MBR. ("NTLDR is Missing" error) Because of the
overlay, I could not get this working again despite herculean efforts (yes,
I worked through the 3 or 4 MS KB articles).

Sadly, I had only done a "copy off" backup, not an image, so the XP-Home
installation (along with 8 user accounts) was not salvagable. In the end, I
discovered wildly fluctuating voltages from the power supply, which I
suspect was at the heart of the problems. Eventually, I wrote-off the MB,
and ended up swapping the hard disk to another spare box (P3 700). The RAM
transferred ok, so I reformatted and reinstalled. A fun weekend, let me tell
you.

Thanks!

Tuner

"Alex Zorrilla" <apz@zxeng.com> wrote in message
news:csh41501lod@enews3.newsguy.com...
> Which revision of the SD11 do you have? Is it the PCB 1.8 (ECNE-O116)?
> http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/faq.aspx?model_id=9#qid329
>
> --Alex
>
>
>
> Tuner wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I'm attempting to get a little more life out of an old SlotA Athlon box.
>> The MB is an FIC SD11, with 128 megs of pc100 and the current processor
>> is a
>> K7 600 with AMI bios, vNC610. The specs from FIC state that the board
>> will
>> support up to an Athlon950 with the NC611 bios (the most current). Some
>> searching netted me an NOS Athlon 850 (from the web vendor StarMicro,
>> fwiw)
>> for the bargain price of $42.
>>
>> So, I download the 611 bios, flash without incident, swap out the 1 stick
>> of
>> 128 for 2 sticks of 256, and snap in the 850 processor.
>>
>> Sadly, no joy on power up. Power supply spins up, but no post beeps and
>> the
>> cpu fan doesn't spin, and no video signal to the monitor.
>>
>> Some trial & error prove that the new RAM works just fine with the old
>> processor, (good post & bootup, with the cpu fan spinning fine & good
>> video).
>>
>> Putting the 850 back in gets the same bad result, no post beep, the cpu
>> fan
>> doesn't spin, and there is no video (because it's not finishing the
>> post).
>>
>> The processor heatsink was in place for all attempts, so I doubt there
>> was
>> any harm done by the few seconds of non-spinning cpu fan, it's just a
>> dinky
>> 4mm one in any event.
>>
>> BTW, there is no bios setting for the processor and no jumpers for that
>> purpose on this board.
>>
>> FWIW, the stamped number from the processor that DOES work is:
>>
>> K7600MTR518 C
>>
>> the stamped number from the NOS processor that doesn't work is:
>>
>> K7850MPR52B A
>>
>> Have I just gotten a bad processor, or is there something else I should
>> be
>> trying?
>>
>> Thx!
>>
>> Tuner
>>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

Heh, lovely. I have been there myself, so I can relate.

--Alex


Tuner wrote:
> That could be the problem (one of many). I could not find any indication of
> the revision number on the board. I thought it was 1.8 the first time I
> looked at it (to get the specs to order the processor), but I couldn't find
> a number once I got the thing apart. To their credit, FIC's compatibility
> sheet clearly lists the requirement for a 1.8 revision.
>
> In any event, this project went down the path to upgrade hell. A
> bigger-than-supported hard disk was installed using WD's overlay software,
> and although it was running fine before, swapping the processor out (and
> back in again) corrupted the MBR. ("NTLDR is Missing" error) Because of the
> overlay, I could not get this working again despite herculean efforts (yes,
> I worked through the 3 or 4 MS KB articles).
>
> Sadly, I had only done a "copy off" backup, not an image, so the XP-Home
> installation (along with 8 user accounts) was not salvagable. In the end, I
> discovered wildly fluctuating voltages from the power supply, which I
> suspect was at the heart of the problems. Eventually, I wrote-off the MB,
> and ended up swapping the hard disk to another spare box (P3 700). The RAM
> transferred ok, so I reformatted and reinstalled. A fun weekend, let me tell
> you.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Tuner
>
> "Alex Zorrilla" <apz@zxeng.com> wrote in message
> news:csh41501lod@enews3.newsguy.com...
>
>>Which revision of the SD11 do you have? Is it the PCB 1.8 (ECNE-O116)?
>>http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/faq.aspx?model_id=9#qid329
>>
>>--Alex
>>
>>
>>
>>Tuner wrote:
>>
>>>Greetings,
>>>
>>>I'm attempting to get a little more life out of an old SlotA Athlon box.
>>>The MB is an FIC SD11, with 128 megs of pc100 and the current processor
>>>is a
>>>K7 600 with AMI bios, vNC610. The specs from FIC state that the board
>>>will
>>>support up to an Athlon950 with the NC611 bios (the most current). Some
>>>searching netted me an NOS Athlon 850 (from the web vendor StarMicro,
>>>fwiw)
>>>for the bargain price of $42.
>>>
>>>So, I download the 611 bios, flash without incident, swap out the 1 stick
>>>of
>>>128 for 2 sticks of 256, and snap in the 850 processor.
>>>
>>>Sadly, no joy on power up. Power supply spins up, but no post beeps and
>>>the
>>>cpu fan doesn't spin, and no video signal to the monitor.
>>>
>>>Some trial & error prove that the new RAM works just fine with the old
>>>processor, (good post & bootup, with the cpu fan spinning fine & good
>>>video).
>>>
>>>Putting the 850 back in gets the same bad result, no post beep, the cpu
>>>fan
>>>doesn't spin, and there is no video (because it's not finishing the
>>>post).
>>>
>>>The processor heatsink was in place for all attempts, so I doubt there
>>>was
>>>any harm done by the few seconds of non-spinning cpu fan, it's just a
>>>dinky
>>>4mm one in any event.
>>>
>>>BTW, there is no bios setting for the processor and no jumpers for that
>>>purpose on this board.
>>>
>>>FWIW, the stamped number from the processor that DOES work is:
>>>
>>> K7600MTR518 C
>>>
>>>the stamped number from the NOS processor that doesn't work is:
>>>
>>> K7850MPR52B A
>>>
>>>Have I just gotten a bad processor, or is there something else I should
>>>be
>>>trying?
>>>
>>>Thx!
>>>
>>>Tuner
>>>
>
>