Award Bios & monitor display
I have been given an old intel 133 but when I switch it on there is no monitor display. The PSU's fan wasn't working. I changed the PSU and now when I switch the PC on, I hear one long beep with three short beeps one after another. The hard disk sounds as if it is working and the processor heats up (testing it by touching the top). I have checked the vdu card and the monitor on another PC and both works. The Bios is Award (586) and since the bios diplay does not show at atart up i think that it is the bios that is failing. Any idea how i can resolve this problem. It would be useful to use this PC as a server/firewall instead of chucking it out.
IIRC, the beeps mean that it is not detecting any display card. Try clearing CMOS in case the display adapter type is set to monochrome; then try replacing the display card. As a last resort (I assume a board that old has ISA) try an ISA display card.
Tested patched BIOSes. Untested patched BIOSes.
Emails *will* be ignored unless the subject line starts "Wim's BIOS forum"
Emails *will* be ignored unless the subject line starts "Wim's BIOS forum"
I'm not sure the board would only have ISA slots. Every Pentium supporting board I have come across includes at least a few PCI slots and a friend has a 486 board with three PCI slots.
I agree though the board is not recognising the video card. Question is why - I agree on this also. I would check the connection to the slot and the monitor. Since card works on another PC likely not faulty but since there could be an incompatibility between the video card and main board I would try another video card. If this fails I would think the main board is either faulty such that it is not recognising the video card (try another PCI/ISA slot also) or that there is some other configuration problem or cabling problem on the main-board that requires resolving before you can get video.
Keep in mind that if you have been given this PC - and especially also the age of the PC, the previous owner may have done so because of a fault such as this that they were either unwilling or unable to resolve.
I agree though the board is not recognising the video card. Question is why - I agree on this also. I would check the connection to the slot and the monitor. Since card works on another PC likely not faulty but since there could be an incompatibility between the video card and main board I would try another video card. If this fails I would think the main board is either faulty such that it is not recognising the video card (try another PCI/ISA slot also) or that there is some other configuration problem or cabling problem on the main-board that requires resolving before you can get video.
Keep in mind that if you have been given this PC - and especially also the age of the PC, the previous owner may have done so because of a fault such as this that they were either unwilling or unable to resolve.
@Ritchie:Ritchie wrote:I'm not sure the board would only have ISA slots. Every Pentium supporting board I have come across includes at least a few PCI slots and a friend has a 486 board with three PCI slots.
1. Show me where I said "only ISA slots".
2. ISA peripherals are sometimes the only way you'll get sense out of a board (which may even have an AGP slot, like the M577 downstairs which I recovered with the aid of ISA peripherals) if the BIOS has an old boot block which only supports ISA devices.
Tested patched BIOSes. Untested patched BIOSes.
Emails *will* be ignored unless the subject line starts "Wim's BIOS forum"
Emails *will* be ignored unless the subject line starts "Wim's BIOS forum"
The BIOS itself is not limited to ISA, but the bootblock recovery routines may be on some earlier boards (the PC-Chips M577 is 1996-97).
Tested patched BIOSes. Untested patched BIOSes.
Emails *will* be ignored unless the subject line starts "Wim's BIOS forum"
Emails *will* be ignored unless the subject line starts "Wim's BIOS forum"
Thank you verymuch for your help. I managed to get the PC working. It was a PCI video card that could not be fully inserted into the slot dur to the deformed holding metal strip that is fixed to the back of the card. this is the one that fixes the card to the PC case. I used an ISA video card and realised that it is not fully penetrating the ISA slot. I removed the metal strip and inserted the card which sat fully in the ISA slot and found the PC booting OK. I did the same with the PCI card and found the cause to be not fully inserting the card. May be the motherboard has not been properly fixed to the case and hence the cards do not fully sit in their slots. I will investigate later. but once again much obliged for the info.
