What motherboard is this

How-to identify your motherboard ?
Rainbow
The UniFlasher
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I'd try flashing the Award BIOS for your board.
Patched and tested BIOSes are at http://wims.rainbow-software.org
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
JEN
BIOS Rookie
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I can't, my floppy disk drive has stopped working :(
edwin
The Hardware Archivist
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replace floppy drive.
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
NickS
BIOS Bodhisattva
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Do you have an old ISA multi-I/O card you can try ?
JEN
BIOS Rookie
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I tried another floppy drive but that didnt work, I tried the faulty floppy drive in my other computer and it worked perfectly???

I dont think its a faulty drive, I think its a faulty motherboard. The motherboard recognises the floppy, CD,and hard drives, but cant seem to access them later on
JEN
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Sorry, I was supposed to add the last line to the post above this :)

I tried another floppy drive but that didnt work, I tried the faulty floppy drive in my other computer and it worked perfectly???

I dont think its a faulty drive, I think its a faulty motherboard. The motherboard recognises the floppy, CD,and hard drives, but cant seem to access them later on

I dont have a muli I/O card, I wish I did!
NickS
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Unfortunately, it looks like the end of the line....maybe creeping death from electrostatic damage.... save the BIOS chip when you bin the motherboard. :(
Tested patched BIOSes. Untested patched BIOSes.
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Rainbow
The UniFlasher
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I'd try hotflashing the Award BIOS or getting ISA floppy controller somewhere.
Patched and tested BIOSes are at http://wims.rainbow-software.org
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
JEN
BIOS Rookie
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How do you hotflash, iv never heard of this before ???
JEN
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Hi

OK, I have 2 PC, 1 works and the other doesnt. Let call the PC thats works "PC1" and the 1 which doesnt "PC2"

PC2, displays the FDD, HDD, and CDD in the POST as all recognised! However, when I try to install as OS or try to FDISK the HDD, the HDD is not recognised?

So:
I tested the PC2 HDD on PC1, it works,
I tested the PC2 IDE cable in PC1, it works,
I tested a new IDE cable in PC1, it doesnt work,
I purposely corrupted the BIOS so I could restore it using the BOOTBLOCK, HDD still doesnt work
I tried using the AWARD bios instead, if doesnt work,
I installed MSDOS6.22 successfully, but doesnt recognises the HDD once booted again,

The bios still freezes!

Is my motherboard dead?

@NickS - Why save the BIOS chip ???
JEN
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I dont have another BIOS chip to hotflash with, as I dont want to mess around the my main PC which is working perfectly (touch wood!)
NickS
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JEN wrote:@NickS - Why save the BIOS chip ???
Some time, somebody may need a spare. Maybe you !
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Ritchie
BIOS Guru
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Hi Jen

I am surprised no-one mentioned this, unless I missed something, but since the floppy drive works in one PC but not another this often suggests that the ribbon cable is misaligned with the pins or rotated 180deg at one end. Ie: Red line on cable, which is pin 1, should align with pin 1 on the drive and mainboard connector. Occassionally older cables have a blue line.

Be careful - I have found on a few odd floppy drives that pin 1 is not where it is marked to be. And on many older floppy drives and probably some current ones pin1 is the furtherst from the power connector, as opposed to closest to the power connector that matches with layout on hard and optical drives. Also, to confuse the issue, on a well designed mainboard, as well as the little plastic shrowds to help guide the cable connector into place, the connectors for floppy, ide and other ribbon cables have pin 1 aligned at the same end, but on badly designed layouts, the pin1 for floppy is at the opposite end of the connector for that to ide, so be careful here also. Sometimes a rectangle with an identation at one end shows where pin 1 should be - othertimes you have to look for the 1 printed on the board.


As for the post where you started describing PC1 & PC2, it is a little suspicious that one of two IDE cables didn't work, especially since one was a new cable. Perhaps if the new cable is a CSEL (cable select) cable and the old one is different it may require jumpering differently. Or maybe there is another problem with the way the cable is connected or jumpered. However, if we assume the cable simply does not work, then as long as that cable works in another PC I would think that there is a problem with the main board, which may explain the floppy problem also.

Hope this helps.
NickS
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Jen:
- you now have PC2 working as far as recognising the FDD and booting MS-DOS 6.22 ?
- the problem now is that it doesn't recognise the HDD and hangs entering CMOS - even with the HDD disconnected ?
Tested patched BIOSes. Untested patched BIOSes.
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horta
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i have the some board and the same problem!!
I resolved the problem changing the batery onboard for a new one!
Now works perfectly for me!!
Now one question! Is it possible to make a hard disk with more than 8.4GB work in this boad and bios!! In the manual it says that 8.4 GB is the limit...
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