ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

[dicky96]

Hi guys
This motherboard is from one of my retro gaming rigs. It has Core 2 Duo but also has AGP, it has SATA and IDE.

I use it on a dual boot machine with 2x SSD, selecting the boot drive from the BIOS menu - one SSD has Windows XP and the other Windows 98 SE. I have a couple different AGP graphics cards I use with it at different times, a Radeon 3450 and a Geforce 4ti 4200 - depending on what games I am playing.

Anyway all has been working fine for ages and I have been using the Radeon 3450 for a while in XP but on Sunday decided to try some Win98 games, so I booted into Windows 98 and it just hung up. In the end I had to turn off the power, but when I turned it back on it would not boot up. I could hear a clicking noise, and though it was the IDE DVD-ROM so I disconnected that but no difference

I brought it to the workshop and it still won't boot with no drives attached. The clicking is coming from the motherboard speaker. I tried with no RAM and with a few different CPU but no difference

I can see on my POST test card that it is stuck in a loop

00-D0-D1-D2-D3-E6 click D0-D1-D2-D3-E6 click

For AMI Bios D0 = The NMI is disabled, power on delay is starting, Next the initialisation code checksum will be verified

E6 = Enabling the floppy drive controller and timer IRQs. Enabling internal cache memory

On the rig, I had 2x SATA SSD and 1x IDE DVD-ROM but I didn't have a floppy connected.

Any idea what would cause this sudden failure? It's not like I was having any stability problems previously. Everything looks good on the motherboard, the capacitors look fine to me. Is it possible I somehow corrupted the BIOS when the PC crashed?

I had a look on ecs.com.tw but could not see the BIOS file for this motherboard. I found one from drivers.softpedia.com and the zip tests virus free and contains various files including a 512Kb .ROM file but I don't know if that is a reputable site

I really would like to get this motherboard working again. LGA775 with Core 2 support and AGP are not exactly rare like hens teeth but they are not common either and prices, like a lot of retro PC kit seem to be heading upwards. same for the AGP HD3450 and the 4ti 4200.

[dicky96]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

Ohhh! That's exactly what the problem was

I read and saved the BIOS from the chip, then programmed the downloaded one seeing as the files are the same size and I could always put the original file back in - and it worked! The board now boots again.

I don't know what version it was but the original (corrupted?) file says 07/19/06 in the last few bytes whereas the new one says 08/30/07 so it looks like I also updated my board to a later BIOS revison

Anyone have any theories what would have corrupted the BIOS when Win98 SE locked up during loading (when the blue bar is going across the bottom of the screen). Or maybe it was me turning off the power and just being unlucky?

The board works with my Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz 6600 SL9S8 but it won't work with a Core 2 Duo 3.0GHz E8400 SLB9J that I have (POST tester sticks at 0000). Anyone know if there is a BIOS for this board that supports the faster CPU? Or maybe it is just faulty, I can't recall if it is a tested good one or not.

[ala_borbe]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

always make sure that you are using latest bios on VIA chipset based motherboards

if you see VIA motherboard that does not boot/post, flash bios first then continue troubleshooting

[dicky96]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

Would you happen to know what is the latest BIOS for my motherboard?

[zunasthegreat]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

ECS link with latest bios, this board doesn't support Penryn CPU officialy. You could try some microcode injection but no point IMO cause you use it for W98/XP. The best thing about an AGP C2D board with VIA Chipset is the fact that el-cheapo sound cards like ESS Solo1 have working FX/Music @ DOS.

[dicky96]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

Interesting
The latest BIOS version there is 07/05/25 but I have 08/30/07 which appears to be newer

The machine is working fine again now so probably I will leave it (don't fix it if it ain't broke). The thing with me and retro-gaming, a lot of people do that for nostalgia but I actually never played these games before (I stopped gaming around the end of the 90s, I think the last game I played was Tomb Raider III) and didn't play games again until 2018. So fore me these are new experiences, and I have 20 years of back catalog to experience for the fist time.

I find a lot of old original PC games at the local flea market usually for €1 each (or less if someone has a handful of games for sale)

A the moment I'm playing Borderlands 2 on my dual boot Windows XP/Windows 10 i7-2600K/GTX 750ti, and I've just loaded 'No One Lives Forever GOTY' on the Windows 98 /Gefoce 4ti as that rig has a 19" 4:3: LCD monitor which is the correct ratio for these old games

So those are the sort of games I am playing, but I only get chance for about an hour a day - Borderlands 1 GOTY plus all the add-ons kept me happy for well over 6 months lol (though I did take a break and complete Tombraider Legend during the the same time)

I've got kinda addicted to buying old games at the flea market, I don't know if i will ever find enough time to play them all

Also I have a AsRock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard on the way - I'm looking forwards to trying that as I read on Vogons forum it is possible to have an AGP and a PCIe graphics card on the same PC and get it to select the card you want in Windows 98 or XP automatically. Also if you use a monitor with VGA and DVI (as my 19" does have) you don't even need to swap any cables, you just select your OS and it works on the card you wish.

I'm thinking of trying the Geforce 4ti 4200 AGP and a GTX280 PCI on the same rig - if I can get the GTX280 working, I picked it up last weekend for €10 at the flea market and I don' know it's condition (it looks OK) and didn't get to test it yet.

Anyway that all sounds like another fun project

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

the chipset on the board only supports fsb speeds of up to 1066 mhz. the e8400 is a 1333 mhz fsb chip therefore it wont work. not sure if u can stick 1333 mhz fsb conroes like the e6850 in there. it would still be overclocking the chipset tho and may not be fully stable. u would have to do your own "testing" urself on whether its stable even if it boots.

secondly, if a board wont post or start the os correct after flashing, try to clear the cmos instead. the bios flashing instructions for some boards ask u to turn off the power after flashing is confirmed done and finished and reset/clear the cmos. probably the reason for this is that the cmos data becomes invalid due to the BIOS code data structure becoming something different when updated, so the cmos needs to be reset so wrong cmos data doesnt get loaded causing the board not to post or start properly. after that, it also says to choose load setup defaults in the bios setup menu after flashing and save the settings and reboot, then u are free customise the cmos settings as u please.

[dicky96]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

Thanks
It is working quite happily with the Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz so I will leave it like that. There are Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz E6700 that are compatible with this motherboard, but they actually sell for £20-£30 and I am not sure it is worth spending the extra for an extra 0.26GHz, so that's..... about 10% faster for a machine that's already a monster when it comes to Win98 and early XP games! I have a much faster machine for later era XP games, I use this one for games that only play (properly) in 4:3 screen ratio. Having said that, if I find an E6700 in one of the second hand PCs I get, then I know where it will end up lol

I did try reset the CMOS before I reprogrammed the BIOS, but it was still stuck in that boot loop. Once I had reprogrammed the BIOS it just worked and actually I haven't loaded default options in the BIOS since then but I will now. Although I have not noticed any instability it's one of those no-brainer things really

Cheers

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

I did try reset the CMOS before I reprogrammed the BIOS.

umm... i repeat again. u are supposed to clear the cmos AFTER flashing the bios. NOT before...

[dicky96]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

Yeah mate I totally understand that

I'm just saying that my board seems to be working perfectly fine without clearing the BIOS after flashing, but hey, maybe I just got lucky so I will do the Optimal Default settings anyway. Nothing to lose and could be something to gain. Cheers

[momaka]

Re: ECS PM800PRO-M V2.0 Stuck in boot loop

The thing with me and retro-gaming, a lot of people do that for nostalgia but I actually never played these games before (I stopped gaming around the end of the 90s, I think the last game I played was Tomb Raider III) and didn't play games again until 2018. So fore me these are new experiences, and I have 20 years of back catalog to experience for the fist time.

Nice!

I'm actually kind of in a similar boat...
That is, I used to play a lot of games as a kid/teenager, but then stopped around when I got in college (apart from keeping a few older racing games just to "kick off and clear my mind" once in a while after studying hard for tests.) So around 2016/7/8/, I kind of got back into it again and... well, I haven't really played that many titles, but I did manage to catch up on a few not-so-old ones that I missed when they were popular in the late 2000's and I'm also trying to go a little further back to the late 90's with some of the games I used to play as a kid, but on a more proper hardware now.

A the moment I'm playing Borderlands 2 on my dual boot Windows XP/Windows 10 i7-2600K/GTX 750ti, and I've just loaded 'No One Lives Forever GOTY' on the Windows 98 /Gefoce 4ti as that rig has a 19" 4:3: LCD monitor which is the correct ratio for these old games

Oh man, you're still missing out with that LCD then.
I know I'm going to sound biased, being known as a die-hard CRT-head around here... but these older games (and especially DOS and Windows 9x ones) will look SO MUCH BETTER on a CRT.

So my suggestion is to hold off your gaming for now and find at least a 17" CRT. 21" might be a bit hard to find... and IMHO, 21" CRTs don't typically have colors as "deep" as 19" and 17" CRTs, but they do offer bigger screen size and better resolution usually. So you'll have to decide what matters more to you. Personally, I love the deep blacks on my 17" and 19" CRTs. On dark scenes, they can go pitch-black and look as if they are turned off completely - something that no LCD can achieve. Of course, for this effect, you would need to game in a dark room with lights off. Color, however, isn't the biggest reason why I prefer CRTs. Rather, it's the way motion-picture looks on a CRT vs. LCD. On LCD, it's blurry and you will also get image tearing (unless the game supports V-sync and it's turned on... but then the game will have input lag, which may not be desirable in quick-pace games). Moreover, anything other than the native resolution on an LCD will not look good. But on CRT, none of these problems exist - you get fluid motion picture without any tearing (so no need for v-sync), no blurring, and the monitor will look sharp on any resolution. Moreover, due to pixels on CRTs not being exactly square like they are on LCDs, you also won't have a need for Anti-Aliasing... so you'll get better game performance too.

Anyways, sorry for going quite offtopic with the above CRT vs LCD monitor discussion there. Just thought I'd suggest it, in case it did cross your mind to try it.

I've got kinda addicted to buying old games at the flea market, I don't know if i will ever find enough time to play them all

I do the same sometimes when Steam has their sales and so far, I did actually end up playing a few of the games that I bought ages ago on sale for like $1-3 each. So I can't say it was a bad spending of money. (But I guess that depends on your point of view... and perhaps that of your partner/significant other - which doesn't apply to me, so I can do as I please. )

Also I have a AsRock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard on the way

That's funny timing - last month, I got a 775Dual-SATA2 board off of a haul from Craigslist. Still haven't tested it, but apparently that should pretty much be the same (or very similar) board to the Dual-VSTA.

I also have TWO of those quirky 939DUAL-SATA2 boards: one of them I picked up from a build I found on the curb on trash day in my neighborhood about 11 years ago. The other one, I bought on eBay for dirt cheap due to bad caps. What's really neat about the 2nd one is that it came with the AM2 FUTURE board - i.e. the add-on board that allows me to run an AM2 CPU instead of the onboard 939 CPU, which is a super-rare item.

Alas, the 939Dual-SATA2 is not as good as the 775Dual-VSTA or 775Dual-SATA2 when it comes to AGP cards, since the AGP port is emulated through the Southbridge... and from what I've been able to tell so far from my testing, it looks like it's running at PCI speeds. But it's still cool. And I can confirm that board (the 939Dual-SATA2) can run both an AGP and PCI-E GPU at the same time. In fact, I think I can run tripple GPU with PCI as well. Just not sure how I would go about switching them before OS, though (aside from BIOS, of course.)

Anyway that all sounds like another fun project

Keep us posted, if you get a chance (perhaps in another thread.)
Retro PC builds tend to get pretty good approval on this forum.