Troubles upgrading an SD11

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

Which revision of the SD11 do you have? Is it the PCB 1.8 (ECNE-O116)?
http://www.fic.com.tw/support/moth [...] d=9#qid329

--Alex



Tuner wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I'm attempting to get a little more life out of an old SlotA Athlon box.
> The MB is an FIC SD11, with 128 megs of pc100 and the current processor is a
> K7 600 with AMI bios, vNC610. The specs from FIC state that the board will
> support up to an Athlon950 with the NC611 bios (the most current). Some
> searching netted me an NOS Athlon 850 (from the web vendor StarMicro, fwiw)
> for the bargain price of $42.
>
> So, I download the 611 bios, flash without incident, swap out the 1 stick of
> 128 for 2 sticks of 256, and snap in the 850 processor.
>
> Sadly, no joy on power up. Power supply spins up, but no post beeps and the
> cpu fan doesn't spin, and no video signal to the monitor.
>
> Some trial & error prove that the new RAM works just fine with the old
> processor, (good post & bootup, with the cpu fan spinning fine & good
> video).
>
> Putting the 850 back in gets the same bad result, no post beep, the cpu fan
> doesn't spin, and there is no video (because it's not finishing the post).
>
> The processor heatsink was in place for all attempts, so I doubt there was
> any harm done by the few seconds of non-spinning cpu fan, it's just a dinky
> 4mm one in any event.
>
> BTW, there is no bios setting for the processor and no jumpers for that
> purpose on this board.
>
> FWIW, the stamped number from the processor that DOES work is:
>
> K7600MTR518 C
>
> the stamped number from the NOS processor that doesn't work is:
>
> K7850MPR52B A
>
> Have I just gotten a bad processor, or is there something else I should be
> trying?
>
> Thx!
>
> Tuner
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

Heh, lovely. I have been there myself, so I can relate.

--Alex


Tuner wrote:
> That could be the problem (one of many). I could not find any indication of
> the revision number on the board. I thought it was 1.8 the first time I
> looked at it (to get the specs to order the processor), but I couldn't find
> a number once I got the thing apart. To their credit, FIC's compatibility
> sheet clearly lists the requirement for a 1.8 revision.
>
> In any event, this project went down the path to upgrade hell. A
> bigger-than-supported hard disk was installed using WD's overlay software,
> and although it was running fine before, swapping the processor out (and
> back in again) corrupted the MBR. ("NTLDR is Missing" error) Because of the
> overlay, I could not get this working again despite herculean efforts (yes,
> I worked through the 3 or 4 MS KB articles).
>
> Sadly, I had only done a "copy off" backup, not an image, so the XP-Home
> installation (along with 8 user accounts) was not salvagable. In the end, I
> discovered wildly fluctuating voltages from the power supply, which I
> suspect was at the heart of the problems. Eventually, I wrote-off the MB,
> and ended up swapping the hard disk to another spare box (P3 700). The RAM
> transferred ok, so I reformatted and reinstalled. A fun weekend, let me tell
> you.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Tuner
>
> "Alex Zorrilla" <apz@zxeng.com> wrote in message
> news:csh41501lod@enews3.newsguy.com...
>
>>Which revision of the SD11 do you have? Is it the PCB 1.8 (ECNE-O116)?
>>http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/faq.aspx?model_id=9#qid329
>>
>>--Alex
>>
>>
>>
>>Tuner wrote:
>>
>>>Greetings,
>>>
>>>I'm attempting to get a little more life out of an old SlotA Athlon box.
>>>The MB is an FIC SD11, with 128 megs of pc100 and the current processor
>>>is a
>>>K7 600 with AMI bios, vNC610. The specs from FIC state that the board
>>>will
>>>support up to an Athlon950 with the NC611 bios (the most current). Some
>>>searching netted me an NOS Athlon 850 (from the web vendor StarMicro,
>>>fwiw)
>>>for the bargain price of $42.
>>>
>>>So, I download the 611 bios, flash without incident, swap out the 1 stick
>>>of
>>>128 for 2 sticks of 256, and snap in the 850 processor.
>>>
>>>Sadly, no joy on power up. Power supply spins up, but no post beeps and
>>>the
>>>cpu fan doesn't spin, and no video signal to the monitor.
>>>
>>>Some trial & error prove that the new RAM works just fine with the old
>>>processor, (good post & bootup, with the cpu fan spinning fine & good
>>>video).
>>>
>>>Putting the 850 back in gets the same bad result, no post beep, the cpu
>>>fan
>>>doesn't spin, and there is no video (because it's not finishing the
>>>post).
>>>
>>>The processor heatsink was in place for all attempts, so I doubt there
>>>was
>>>any harm done by the few seconds of non-spinning cpu fan, it's just a
>>>dinky
>>>4mm one in any event.
>>>
>>>BTW, there is no bios setting for the processor and no jumpers for that
>>>purpose on this board.
>>>
>>>FWIW, the stamped number from the processor that DOES work is:
>>>
>>> K7600MTR518 C
>>>
>>>the stamped number from the NOS processor that doesn't work is:
>>>
>>> K7850MPR52B A
>>>
>>>Have I just gotten a bad processor, or is there something else I should
>>>be
>>>trying?
>>>
>>>Thx!
>>>
>>>Tuner
>>>
>
>