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ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

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    ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

    Hi all.

    A few years ago a built a kick-ass DOS/Windows 98 SE retro gaming PC with a an AGP Voodoo 3 3000 and ISA Soundblaster Vibra 16. It was working beautifully.

    I pulled it out of the cupboard to play with it last year and it came up with a CMOS Checksum Error. I guess that was normal as it had been sitting dormant for a while.

    The problem is, I can't get into the BIOS. When I power on it shows the VGA bios screen, then it shows the CPU type, does a quick memory test, looks for a Primary Master HDD. Then it says "CMOS Checksum Error - Defaults Load, press F1 to continue or Del to enter setup"

    It doesn't seem to respond to the keyboard. I am using a known working PS/2 keyboard (I tried it in another PC to confirm). This is also the keyboard I was using on this PC before it stopped working.

    I inspected the board and found a bulging cap, I was hopeful! I replaced the cap and still nothing, I can't get into the BIOS. I've tried resetting CMOS, reseating BIOS chip, changing RAM, changing GPU, etc, but nothing helps

    No problem, I thought. I'll just buy a new one an eBay. Um maybe not, have you seen the prices of these things??? I guess this is now some sort of classic highly sought after board, so I am now even more desperate to fix it.

    I checked the fuses near the PS/2 ports for continuity and they seem ok. I'm also getting 5v from the PS/2 port with a PSU connected.

    I'm hoping that somebody here might be able to help me get this board up and running again. Is a full recap likely to fix the issue or is there something more sinister going on here? I'm not sure if the PC isn't detecting the keyboard, or maybe the BIOS is corrupted, or the Keyboard controller has blown, or something else entirely.

    Sorry for the long post. Any help would be very much appreciated.

    TL;DR My motherboard posts, but I can't get into BIOS. I replaced a bulging cap and it didn't help. Please help!

    Attached Files
    Last edited by Per Hansson; 01-11-2021, 12:54 PM. Reason: Offsite image uploaded

    #2
    Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

    show us photos of the whole board with the caps on it visible. if its affected by the capacitor plague, a full recap might fix it. caps can fail without bulging. also make sure the psu also doesnt have any bad caps in it!

    Comment


      #3
      Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

      Originally posted by ChaosLegionnaire View Post
      show us photos of the whole board with the caps on it visible. if its affected by the capacitor plague, a full recap might fix it. caps can fail without bulging. also make sure the psu also doesnt have any bad caps in it!
      Thanks for the reply. I could only see one cap bulging, which I replaced. I'm hoping it's another one that has gone bad, but isn't showing it

      I was thinking of getting an ESR meter to test them without having to desolder the lot.

      I'd be surprised if it's the PSU. It's a 750w Corsair HX that has been happily running a Ryzen 7 5700X and GTX 1080ti

      Here's the pic:



      Thanks!
      Attached Files
      Last edited by Per Hansson; 01-09-2021, 09:33 AM. Reason: Offsite image uploaded

      Comment


        #4
        Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

        Have you checked the CMOS battery voltage
        All donations to badcaps are welcome, click on this link to donate. Thanks to all supporters

        Comment


          #5
          Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

          Originally posted by SMDFlea View Post
          Have you checked the CMOS battery voltage
          Yes, I have. It was putting out 3v. I also bought a brand new battery to try.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

            Replace every cap. The little buggers can stay I suppose, but the bigger ones (anything higher than 330uF) MUST go.
            Main rig:
            Gigabyte B75M-D3H
            Core i5-3470 3.60GHz
            Gigabyte Geforce GTX650 1GB GDDR5
            16GB DDR3-1600
            Samsung SH-224AB DVD-RW
            FSP Bluestorm II 500W (recapped)
            120GB ADATA + 2x Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB
            Delux MG760 case

            Comment


              #7
              Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

              yea looks like a boardful of tayeh caps. tayehs are listed as a junk cap brand here. replace them all with panasonic fr caps with the same size and specs.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                Thanks all. Yeah they are Tayeh. I'll do a full recap. I just wanted to see if it was worthwhile and was likely to fix this issue

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                  also kindly consider eeprom reprograming
                  sometimes with this ols boards/bios nvram gets corrupted and bios needs to be reprogrammed
                  Im Back... sort of...

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                    Originally posted by ala_borbe View Post
                    also kindly consider eeprom reprograming
                    sometimes with this ols boards/bios nvram gets corrupted and bios needs to be reprogrammed
                    Yeah, I also thought it might have been something like that. I'm going to recap anyway, but failing that I'd be interested in doing the BIOS reflash.

                    How would I go about doing it? Would something like this do the trick? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CH341A-2...r/283083169035

                    I've also managed to score a cheap BE6-II v1.2 board as a backup. It was cheap because 2 of the memory slots don't work, so there might be another attempted repair job coming there I was only using 1 x 128MB stick in my current machine anyway, so hopefully it will be ok. What would the likely causes of memory slots not working? More bad caps? I guess it could even be something to do with the Slot 1.
                    Last edited by chromium; 01-11-2021, 01:45 AM.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                      Nope, on these old boards it's all bad caps' fault. These are known to exibit these issues when the caps are bad.
                      Last edited by Dan81; 01-11-2021, 03:40 AM.
                      Main rig:
                      Gigabyte B75M-D3H
                      Core i5-3470 3.60GHz
                      Gigabyte Geforce GTX650 1GB GDDR5
                      16GB DDR3-1600
                      Samsung SH-224AB DVD-RW
                      FSP Bluestorm II 500W (recapped)
                      120GB ADATA + 2x Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB
                      Delux MG760 case

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                        Had the same issue today with an old Soltek P4-478 board that I've recapped ~10y ago. Check the leads of the battery holder and if they make good connection. It posted after I did 3-4 clear cmos / battery remove.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                          Originally posted by zunasthegreat View Post
                          Had the same issue today with an old Soltek P4-478 board that I've recapped ~10y ago. Check the leads of the battery holder and if they make good connection. It posted after I did 3-4 clear cmos / battery remove.
                          Mine POSTs, but I can't enter BIOS. Is that the same issue you had?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                            Yeap same, board posts but keyboard doesnt work and u can't either enter bios. CMOS Checksum error or GPNV error something. I did replace a suspect cap near the CR2032 bat and now it boots just fine. Another folk told me it might be aging CMOS chip or something related to the I/O chip (ITE/Winbond).

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                              Originally posted by zunasthegreat View Post
                              Yeap same, board posts but keyboard doesnt work and u can't either enter bios. CMOS Checksum error or GPNV error something. I did replace a suspect cap near the CR2032 bat and now it boots just fine. Another folk told me it might be aging CMOS chip or something related to the I/O chip (ITE/Winbond).
                              Interesting. So replacing a cap near the battery fixed the issue? I've ordered replacement caps for the whole board, but I might try replacing the ones near the battery first. Thanks.

                              I also thought it might be something to do with the CMOS getting corrupt somehow. I'll try replacing caps first and take it from there

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                                That board was a mess 90% of the caps needed replacement, Capxon/evercom etc. I had some minor ones left. After the minor ones replacement its booting fine. Also I had to re-cap a FX 5500 (4-5 1000uf 6.3/10v) with a hillarious symptom, that card has 128-bit and 256MB VRAM. If you start the pc funky colours will appear on the screen and graphic corruption will occur when u load into OS. Some times after 2-3 hard resets the machine will post without glitch but with 64-bit and 128MB VRAM, will then work fine. In rare cases the card might pick up 128 Bit and 64MB VRAM. I just flashed a 64b/128MB VRAM bios and let it be.

                                CMOS chip can turn bad or lets say weaken, most times u can re-flash it and it will be fine. Saw that on a NIC card that forgot its MAC address and some Jetway board.
                                Last edited by zunasthegreat; 01-17-2021, 01:49 PM.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                                  Ok, well that's disappointing.

                                  I spent hours replacing all 27 capacitors and it didn't change a thing.

                                  It posts, but I still can't get into the BIOS.

                                  Should I look at trying to reflash the bios next?

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                                    Hmm, I can't see to be able to edit my post.

                                    Anyway, I think it could also possibly be related to the W83977EF-AW I/O chip.

                                    It looks like it will be fun replacing that

                                    Hmmm, I actually noticed some corrosion or something on the pins of W83977EF-AW. I've tried cleaning it up with isopropyl. Maybe I need to reflow it
                                    Last edited by chromium; 01-23-2021, 02:25 AM.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                                      try another ram stick
                                      try withot hard drive and optical drive
                                      try checking capacitors and coild around PS/2 ports
                                      try usb keyboard

                                      you still have a possibility of problem with bios

                                      regards
                                      Im Back... sort of...

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Re: ABIT BE6-II Posts, but can't enter BIOS

                                        Originally posted by ala_borbe View Post
                                        try another ram stick
                                        try withot hard drive and optical drive
                                        try checking capacitors and coild around PS/2 ports
                                        try usb keyboard

                                        you still have a possibility of problem with bios

                                        regards
                                        Already tried:
                                        A different ram stick
                                        Replaced ALL capacitors
                                        USB Keyboard.

                                        I didn't check the coils.

                                        I think the issue is with the corrosion around the Winbond W83977EF-AW. I believe that it contains the keyboard controller. I desoldered the IC and there are corroded pads and and also corroded traces around and underneath it

                                        I may attempt some micro surgery at some point and try to fix the traces/pads, but it'll be a miracle of if I can pull it off at my skill level. It'll be a fun challenge though

                                        Comment

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