BIOS Setup Hangs

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Spleeph

I'm trying to run a Supermicro P6SBM motherboard with a Pentium III 500 MHz
processor, but when I enter the BIOS setup the system hangs if I'm in there
for too long.

Other symptoms:

At boot the system will intermittently hang during the memory test. No
beeps. It just stops and must be power cycled. I've tried other DIMMS with
the same result. If I bypass the memory tests the system will hang while
booting Windows 98. The same thing happens if I boot to DOS from a floppy.
It gets to the DOS prompt and everything seems fine, but then after about 30
seconds it hangs and must be power cycled.

The processor has an FSB of 100 MHz, but if the motherboard is jumpered to
run at 100 MHz it will hang quicker than if it is jumpered to run at 66 MHz.
The memory is rated at PC100, so I don't believe it to be the problem. I've
also tried another Pentium III processor and get the same results.

Before I trash this motherboard I would like to see if anyone has had any
experience with this hardware and can maybe give me some advice.
 
Spleeph said:
I'm trying to run a Supermicro P6SBM motherboard with a Pentium III
500 MHz processor, but when I enter the BIOS setup the system hangs
if I'm in there for too long.

Other symptoms:

At boot the system will intermittently hang during the memory test. No
beeps. It just stops and must be power cycled. I've tried other DIMMS
with the same result. If I bypass the memory tests the system will
hang while booting Windows 98. The same thing happens if I boot to
DOS from a floppy. It gets to the DOS prompt and everything seems
fine, but then after about 30 seconds it hangs and must be power
cycled.

The processor has an FSB of 100 MHz, but if the motherboard is
jumpered to run at 100 MHz it will hang quicker than if it is
jumpered to run at 66 MHz. The memory is rated at PC100, so I don't
believe it to be the problem. I've also tried another Pentium III
processor and get the same results.

Before I trash this motherboard I would like to see if anyone has had
any experience with this hardware and can maybe give me some advice.
Click to expand...

I solved my own problem. After reading some of the posts in this group I
decided to check the CPU heat sink and found that I wasn't installing it
properly. After a few adjustments the system comes up fine. I had a feeling
the problem was something stupid, only I didn't count on that something
stupid being me. D'oh!
 
"Spleeph" said in news:[email protected]:
I'm trying to run a Supermicro P6SBM motherboard with a Pentium III
500 MHz processor, but when I enter the BIOS setup the system hangs
if I'm in there for too long.

Other symptoms:

At boot the system will intermittently hang during the memory test. No
beeps. It just stops and must be power cycled. I've tried other DIMMS
with the same result. If I bypass the memory tests the system will
hang while booting Windows 98. The same thing happens if I boot to
DOS from a floppy. It gets to the DOS prompt and everything seems
fine, but then after about 30 seconds it hangs and must be power
cycled.

The processor has an FSB of 100 MHz, but if the motherboard is
jumpered to run at 100 MHz it will hang quicker than if it is
jumpered to run at 66 MHz. The memory is rated at PC100, so I don't
believe it to be the problem. I've also tried another Pentium III
processor and get the same results.

Before I trash this motherboard I would like to see if anyone has had
any experience with this hardware and can maybe give me some advice.
Click to expand...

Could be a memory problem (you can get memtest86 to test it) but it almost sounds like you have a temperature problem in that once the power is up then something heats up until it fails.

Have you checked the fans are spinning (CPU, video, northbridge)? Sometimes even the case fan not spinning with cause a shutdown if it is sensored and not spinning. Have you checked the heatsink hasn't come off the CPU? Neaten up the innards by repositioning ribbon cables to be out of the way of the airflow or inline with it instead of blocking it. Make sure they don't block airflow over the CPU or memory. If there is a fan on the video card, don't abut it against another card in the adjacent slot, if possible (i.e., leave the PCI slot open next to the video card).

Unplug the hard drives to see if you can then boot and keep it running. If so, run memtest86. Could be you are too close to the max power that your power supply can deliver. Some good power supplies can actually deliver more than their rated power (visit www.tomshardware.com to see articles; Antec, Enermax, Fortron, and a couple others are good). Many, however, are generic wannabe power supplies that both inflate how much power they can provide and also lie in totalling up the individual currents without noting that some voltages are tied together and will limit each other (i.e., you get less total amps across the two voltages). By removing the hard drives, maybe you can reduce the current load so the power supply is still within its real operating range and the system will stay up by booting using a floppy or just entering and sitting in BIOS.
 
"Spleeph" said in news:[email protected]:
I solved my own problem. After reading some of the posts in this
group I decided to check the CPU heat sink and found that I wasn't
installing it properly. After a few adjustments the system comes up
fine. I had a feeling the problem was something stupid, only I didn't
count on that something stupid being me. D'oh!
Click to expand...

Oh, well, then ignore my other reply post.
 
*Vanguard* said:
"Spleeph" said in news:[email protected]:

Could be a memory problem (you can get memtest86 to test it) but it
almost sounds like you have a temperature problem in that once the
power is up then something heats up until it fails.

Have you checked the fans are spinning (CPU, video, northbridge)?
Sometimes even the case fan not spinning with cause a shutdown if it
is sensored and not spinning. Have you checked the heatsink hasn't
come off the CPU? Neaten up the innards by repositioning ribbon
cables to be out of the way of the airflow or inline with it instead
of blocking it. Make sure they don't block airflow over the CPU or
memory. If there is a fan on the video card, don't abut it against
another card in the adjacent slot, if possible (i.e., leave the PCI
slot open next to the video card).

Unplug the hard drives to see if you can then boot and keep it
running. If so, run memtest86. Could be you are too close to the
max power that your power supply can deliver. Some good power
supplies can actually deliver more than their rated power (visit
www.tomshardware.com to see articles; Antec, Enermax, Fortron, and a
couple others are good). Many, however, are generic wannabe power
supplies that both inflate how much power they can provide and also
lie in totalling up the individual currents without noting that some
voltages are tied together and will limit each other (i.e., you get
less total amps across the two voltages). By removing the hard
drives, maybe you can reduce the current load so the power supply is
still within its real operating range and the system will stay up by
booting using a floppy or just entering and sitting in BIOS.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the effort *Vanguard*. That's great advice. As you already know
I've solved the problem. It turns out I wasn't attaching the heat sink to
the CPUs tight enough. I'm just glad that the Pentium III shuts itself down
instead of frying.

Perhaps you can help me with this problem:

It's a Soyo SY-6IBM motherboard. When turned on it makes clicking sounds
like a key is stuck on the keyboard. The boot process is halted and the
message on the screen is "Keyboard error or keyboard not present." The
clicking continues. No lights are lit and they don't flash on the keyboard
in the boot process. It's a known good keyboard.
 
"Spleeph" said in news:[email protected]:
Thanks for the effort *Vanguard*. That's great advice. As you already
know I've solved the problem. It turns out I wasn't attaching the
heat sink to the CPUs tight enough. I'm just glad that the Pentium
III shuts itself down instead of frying.

Perhaps you can help me with this problem:

It's a Soyo SY-6IBM motherboard. When turned on it makes clicking
sounds like a key is stuck on the keyboard. The boot process is
halted and the message on the screen is "Keyboard error or keyboard
not present." The clicking continues. No lights are lit and they
don't flash on the keyboard in the boot process. It's a known good
keyboard.
Click to expand...

When building a home computer, I'll use AMD or Pentium. If I use an AMD, I use Artic Silver paste, I'm almost to the point of lapping the heatsink and CPU plate to make sure they mate well (but that'll be if I get into overclocking), making sure no cables restrict airflow, it has the heatsink clip that slides over 3 tabs on the socket to hold it in place instead of just one, and load a monitor on startup to watch the AMD for quite awhile after setting up a new system. At work, I only use Pentiums because of its on-die protection to reduce its duty cycle to prevent it from overheating. The AMDs will self-destruct without external circuitry to protect it. You might not be at the computer when the AMD decides to fry and take your motherboard with it.

For a video on how fast the AMD will burn up and how the Pentium protects itself, see Tom's Hardware article at:

article - http://snipurl.com/5fon
video - http://snipurl.com/5fom

A bit dated but still applicable. The video requires the DivX decoder, so you might as well as download and install the latest one (if you want to watch the video). Hopefully yours didn't get too damaged.
 
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