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No Video on AST Century City 100 - would redoing BIOS help?

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 4:24 am
by bluescreencomputer
I acquired a used AST Century City computer and don't get any video on bootup. The hard disk and CD drive sound like they work fine, but without any video, I got no clue as to what's happening.

This computer is a compact shoebox-size PC, and has the video port on the motherboard. Someone suggested to me that the board may not be bad, it may just be the BIOS needs refreshing or wiping. Does this sound plausible to any of you in the know?

If it does, maybe someone could suggest a place I could get the BIOS for this thing. I've done some searching, and haven't found it yet. Without video, I don't know what the BIOS string looks like, I just have number from the back and inside of the box: SN# RB01T94703555, IMGS94600940 AA A04205-302. It has an Intel OEM motherboard, GS810 I believe.

Thanks for any advice on this,
Jesse

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 4:07 pm
by soupy
Try putting in an ISA video card and see if you get video.

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 4:47 pm
by bluescreencomputer
Oops, sorry, I didn't mention this: this thing is so compact, it *doesn't have* any ISA or PCI slots. All it's got it onboard video, the smallest modem you ever seen and USB ports. It doesn't even have a floppy drive, just a CD drive.

Extra info:
The flash chip is soldered to the board. I could possibly buy a whole new board for $100 from the manufacturer. I could also ship it off to some place for BIOS repair for $35 plus labor charges... :(

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 9:55 pm
by Rainbow
If it's Intel board, it should have BIOS Recovery jumper. You will need floppy for that.

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 9:59 pm
by bluescreencomputer
Sounds promising - thanks! I can get a USB floppy drive, but what do need on that floppy?

Intel has already told me that since it's an OEM board, they don't offer any support or bios files for it. I should go to AST, they say. But AST has nothing, they're outta business or something.

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 10:22 pm
by NickS
soupy wrote:Try putting in an ISA video card and see if you get video.
Yes, I was going to suggest that - then I found out what this thing was ! Designed by Palo Alto Products inc (RIP), supported (by some outfit called InteliSol which picked up all the post-Jan 1999 AST stuff) for a fee out of www.ast.com while www.ari-service.com do an excellent support website for pre-Feb 1999... I couldn't find a thing for it publicly, maybe InteliSol have it all locked down.

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 1:48 am
by Rainbow
Does the board have floppy connector? I don't think that USB drive will work...

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 2:43 am
by bluescreencomputer
Dunno what to say about the floppy drive myself, but I probably want a floppy drive on there sooner or later. USB would be my only choice.

'evasive' on motherboards.org suggested i try this bios:

ftp://ftp.viglen.co.uk/files/VIGLEN/PCI ... S810V5.zip

and said that Viglen is using this board too:
http://www.viglen.co.uk/support/Manuals ... /GS810.asp

I'll give it try, see if I can make a bootable CD or something. if I hit gold, I'll post back to y'all.

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 8:28 am
by Rainbow
So there's recovery jumper. But how to use it - there's no floppy connector!

[edit]
Now I see: ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherb ... 712902.pdf
The recovery feature works with IDE LS-120 drive (with standard 1.44MB floppy) or IDE CD-ROM drive (don't know how).