Amptron PM9800 motherboard dead, looking for revival
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 3:05 am
The tale of woe:
The motherboard is Amptron PM9800 ver 3.6 socket 7 from 1997
It didn't recognize a 30GB hard drive, so I wanted to update the AMI BIOS.
Amptron's website is gone, and I found only one BIOS online here: http://files.mpoli.fi/hardware/ROM/OTHER/
The plan was to use the supplied flash program to make a backup of the existing BIOS, since I had no backup, and the then proceed with flashing to the new BIOS. What happened was the flash program executed and *did something* after which the board was dead.
Next, I tried the method suggested here for AMI BIOS recovery: Rename the downloaded file to AMIBOOT.ROM. Copy to floppy. Power on. Press Home key to force, if necessary. Result: no drive activity.
Next, I hired a BIOS recovery service to copy the BIOS from the site linked above to a new DIP. Result: the system attempts to POST, but hangs at POST code 2A. Rearrangement of memory modules and/or video card in various PCI slots resulted in no difference.
Therefore, I think this BIOS may be incorrect for this motherboard.
I am out of things to try, unless someone has another idea?
The motherboard is Amptron PM9800 ver 3.6 socket 7 from 1997
It didn't recognize a 30GB hard drive, so I wanted to update the AMI BIOS.
Amptron's website is gone, and I found only one BIOS online here: http://files.mpoli.fi/hardware/ROM/OTHER/
The plan was to use the supplied flash program to make a backup of the existing BIOS, since I had no backup, and the then proceed with flashing to the new BIOS. What happened was the flash program executed and *did something* after which the board was dead.
Next, I tried the method suggested here for AMI BIOS recovery: Rename the downloaded file to AMIBOOT.ROM. Copy to floppy. Power on. Press Home key to force, if necessary. Result: no drive activity.
Next, I hired a BIOS recovery service to copy the BIOS from the site linked above to a new DIP. Result: the system attempts to POST, but hangs at POST code 2A. Rearrangement of memory modules and/or video card in various PCI slots resulted in no difference.
Therefore, I think this BIOS may be incorrect for this motherboard.
I am out of things to try, unless someone has another idea?