Homemade computer bootup problem

[gjwilson]

I recently picked up a homemade 486 (cheap) that won`t boot past the System Config. screen. The curser flashes after the phrase "updating ESCD...". The system has an AMD processor marked;Am5X86-p75 AMD-X5-133 ADW and is overclocked at 133mhz.It`s using an Award BIOS v1.0A. I suspect an overclocking problem but have no clue what the jumper code should be. The mother board is marked MB-8433UUD-Ver:3.1. What do you think?

[LJE2]

I think you have an IRQ conflict, pull out all your cards except your video card and see what happens. By the way 133 MHz is default for that chip it is really a 486 running at 133 MHz but AMD rated these at P75 meaning it was like a pentium 75, most of these chips would overclock to 160 MHz with nothing more than a heatsink and fan.

[This message has been edited by LJE2 (edited 07-03-99).]

[gjwilson]

I pulled all cards except the video card and got the same response. What next?

[LJE2]

Will it boot to an A prompt, from a boot disk?

[gjwilson]

Thanks for replying,LJE2. I tried the boot disc and still got the same response.Plan C?

[LJE2]

Do you have it set in the BIOS to "Seek floppy on boot" and the boot sequence as "A, C", if you have the BIOS configured as above and it will not boot to the floppy drive, I would think that if the chip, motherboard and RAM are good, that the jumpers are not configured correctly, for more information on the chip go here http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/5x86/5x86.html for more information on the motherboard, (it is a Biostar) go here http://www.biostar-usa.com/pd/486/uud/84uud.htm there is a BIOS update on that page and the manual.

[Dash800]

Dont know if this is what you meant LJE, but if the Floppy is not connected and powered, and the bootup goes A,C,*, then its going to freeze up there. Try changing sequence to like C,A. Hope this helps, my 2 cents

[LJE2]

If the BIOS is set to recognize a 1.44 floppy drive and you have seek floppy on boot enabled, and you have it set to the sequence A,C and the floppy is not connected or powered up it will not hang there, you will get a "Floppy disk error", You needs to set the BIOS as above, and make sure the floppy drive is connected and powered, if it will not boot to a boot disk in drive A, then you needs to check all the jumpers, the manual can be found on the page in the post above for the Biostar motherboard, you can get the voltage settings for the chip and multiplier and bus settings on the page above for the AMD chip. I'm not sure of the voltage but the Bus should be set to 33MHz and the multiplier to 4, (you can overclock this real easy to 4 X 40 MHz, but you need to get it to boot first)

[gjwilson]

I`ve been studying furiously over the weekend on this and have tried everything mentioned. All settings seem to be in order, however, I do believe my boot disc is garbage. Any ideas where to download one?

[Bob-NB]

Try this website for your readymade bootdisk...I'm sure you will find it helpful. www.bootdisk.com

[philipg]

If your looking to download a boot disk. My question is why??

Take a blank disk and put it in the computer you are using to do your message post and create one with that computer. If you are at work and are useing NT then find a computer with win9x on it and do it.

Another thing you may want to consider is that if the drive has Ez-Bios on it if you formated the drive from a dos disk you will get errors on boot-up even system hangs.

[This message has been edited by philipg (edited 07-06-99).]

[gjwilson]

Thanks everyone for your help...new boot disc..same message.Won`t boot to floppy so I`ll have to keep digging....maybe this is why he sold it so cheap?

[Jin Vitas]

Go into bios.. and disable the quick boot option.. also go into PNP configuration and change that setting from what it is now. (prob pnp bios is set now) try pnp os

[gjwilson]

Well....I can`t find a quick boot option in my bios nor is there a pnp option anywhere. ????????

[gjwilson]

Thanks everyone for your help. I`m going back to the jumper schematic and if that fails I`ll have to pay someone or just put it out of it`s/my misery.Thanks, Gary