[FaD]Pushed it a little too hard!

[vserlnv]

Sucks. Was messing 'round in the BIOS of my NF7-S rev 2.0, and corrupted the BIOS. This issue has NOT been fixed, it just doesn't happen as much as with the earlier NF2 boards, apparently.

I'd had a DLT3C wk 10 1700 JIUHB humming along nicely at 220 x 10 ( 2205 MHz ), and thought it was time to see what the machine would do.
So I went to 223 x 10. OK.
Then 223 x 11 for 245something. It was ok there.
So I figured I'd try 228 x 10.5. NOT! Whoops.

But this time no amount of Insert key, clearing CMOS, powering down, powering up or any combination of those would work. The machine would not boot up. Not even clicking my heels!

Just ordered a BIOS Survival kit from excaliberpc, so until that gets here, that is one cruncher down. Damn.

I have 8 NF2 boards here, from 3 different manufacturers and that is the first BIOS I lost. Guess the odds finally caught up with me. Still sucks.

Scott

[FalcomPSX]

overclocking shouldn't corrupt your bios...have you tried putting another cpu in it to force it to run at the standard settings? sometimes this works, then you can go into the bios, save and exit and go back to your old cpu and it should work again...

[vserlnv]

Kind of a known issue with NF2 boards. Just the first I personally have run into it. There is a supposed work around of using a 100MHz AMD chip, putting that in and booting up with that to get it running, but all I have is 133 MHz chips here.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

If you turn it on, does it try to access a floppy? if so, there is an easy way to recover the BIOS, however I've never heard of a BIOS corrupting from overclocking....

I've not heard of this issue, but I don't run my FSB at anything but 166Mhz (on a 133 chip)

[vserlnv]

It's a NF2-only related issue, WoO. I'd heard about it, but had never had to deal w it before ( and I push them hard ).

It is supposed to have been fixed, but hasn't been.

ref- http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8250
( not the best source in the world, but the only one I could come up with quickly )

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

My main rig is an 8RDA+ (NF2) Guess yres uses the newer BIOS chips that are very hard to "hotswap" since shorting is so easy if not careful. Try loading the BIOS file onto a floppy and holding ALT-F2 when you turn the power on, keep holding and see if it loads from the floppy.

That might be an EPOX only thing, however there are different keyboard combo's for different board manufacturers.

Ahh, never mind, I see the problem now, it's not a corrupt BIOS, rather one that doesn't reset the FSB to something bootable. Wonder if just changing to a different processor all together would help (one with a different multiplier)

[nukes]

I think you have to call it AMIBOOT.ROM or something.
Wasn't the problem somthing to do with a jumper that none of the board manufacturers bothered with, despite it being on the reference design?

[vserlnv]

Yes, there is supposed to be a jumper to choose between 100MHz and 133MHz. The reference design called for it, but almost all manufacturers but one ( maybe two ) chose to leave it off the finished product.

Hopefully, I'll have it up in a day or three. It is a sweet machine.

[nukes]

I lost a PIII to fad, but that was my own fault for overclocking it from 500 to 650mhz with awful cooling in an even worse case. I was surprised that my PC100 ram would do 133 though.

[vserlnv]

update - well, the new BIOS came and that doesn't revive it.

So now I'm wondering what it is. CPU, RAM? CPU?

The board lights will come on so I know there is power coming through. The fans, including CPU fan ( it is on a 4 pin connector) run. There is no boot activity, though the CD-Rom lights will flash shortly after I push the power on button. Other than that, it just sits there.

Kinda stumped.

It is a NF7-S rev 2.0 , 1700+ DUT3C JIUHB-stepping TBred, 2 x 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200.


Scott

Edit-
What is my next step in troubleshooting this?