Vintage hardware question!

[ppanickk]

Hello forum members,

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with vintage (Pentium II era) hardware, but here it goes. I have some vintage hardware that I am considering assembling into a full PC. However, there is a complication. The motherboard, a PC Partner 440LX Slot 1 motherboard, does not seem to receive any power when connected to a power supply. The reason for this might be the lack of a CPU, but it could also be faulty, although it was working when last used (about 20 years ago). What I want to ask before I shell out any money to buy a compatible Slot 1 CPU, is this normal behavior? Is it expected for a motherboard of that era not to receive any power at all when a CPU is absent? Modern motherboards do power up even without a CPU, though nothing more happens beyond that.

Thanks for your responses.

Ppanickk

 

[Veseleil]

You should post your question directly to this active thread as well. Cheers.

 

[Bill_Bright]

"Receive" power. Sure. "Power up", no.

Look to see if there is an integrated speaker mounted on the motherboard. It will look similar to this. Many older boards had them but if not, you can easily and inexpensively add a System Speaker to the motherboard's front panel I/O header. Note that $10 price is for 30 speakers!

Typically, with a successful POST (power on self-test), you will hear one short, reassuring, beep. But with a missing CPU, depending on the BIOS used on that motherboard, you should hear a series of several beeps that continually repeats. They may be long, short, or a combination of long and short.

The point is, you should hear some beeps which clearly would indicate the motherboard is "receiving" power.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Hello forum members,

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with vintage (Pentium II era) hardware, but here it goes. I have some vintage hardware that I am considering assembling into a full PC. However, there is a complication. The motherboard, a PC Partner 440LX Slot 1 motherboard, does not seem to receive any power when connected to a power supply. The reason for this might be the lack of a CPU, but it could also be faulty, although it was working when last used (about 20 years ago). What I want to ask before I shell out any money to buy a compatible Slot 1 CPU, is this normal behavior? Is it expected for a motherboard of that era not to receive any power at all when a CPU is absent? Modern motherboards do power up even without a CPU, though nothing more happens beyond that.

Thanks for your responses.

Ppanickk

Without a CPU, few Slot1 boards actually do anything when powered up. The vast majority will do nothing without a CPU installed. You need a CPU for BIOS post code to run. As mentioned above by @Veseleil , the Nostalgic Hardware Club thread is a great place to ask for help and discuss that era of hardware. Take & post pictures and describe in detail what issues you're having.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Slot boards need a CPU.
Be advised, boards of this era generally need caps replaced, so that may be an issue down the road for you.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Be advised, boards of this era generally need caps replaced, so that may be an issue down the road for you.

This! This is why we need pictures. If caps are needing replacement, photo's will allow us to spot them.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Be advised, boards of this era generally need caps replaced,

Yeah, that's a good point.

@ppanickk - you said the board was working 20 years ago, do you know that for a fact? Or did a previous owner just tell you that?

How was this board stored all this time? Time ages everything, even unused electronics. If not stored in a cool, dark and dry place, time has even a greater impact - especially if not protected from the sun or "critters". No doubt the CMOS battery is shot by now too.

 

[ppanickk]

Yeah, that's a good point.

@ppanickk - you said the board was working 20 years ago, do you know that for a fact? Or did a previous owner just tell you that?

How was this board stored all this time? Time ages everything, even unused electronics. If not stored in a cool, dark and dry place, time has even a greater impact - especially if not protected from the sun or "critters". No doubt the CMOS battery is shot by now too.

Hello, and thank you for responding.

I purchased this motherboard new, so I know for a fact that it was working when I stopped using it.

As you and others have mentioned, components like capacitors may have deteriorated over time. However, it was stored in a dark, dry place all this time.

Just to clarify, the motherboard shows no signs of life. Not even the PSU fan starts spinning when I jump the power button pins.

I'll take some photos later and send them to you when I have the time.

Regards,
Ppanickk

 

[TheLostSwede]

Considering it's a PC Partner board, yes, it's expected behaviour, as I'm sorry to say that that brand was an under bottom of the barrel brand alongside PC Chips and some other weird stuff that came out of Hong Kong back in the day.
Most likely some capacitor rot, as they would've been using cheaper than cheap components.
Amazingly, the company is still around, although today their main brands are Zotac and InnoVision, as the PC Partner brand itself had such bad reputation they had to come up with some fresh brands.

PC Partner

www.pcpartner.com

 

[Shrek]

Be advised, boards of this era generally need caps replaced, so that may be an issue down the road for you.

Replacing capacitors on mother boards is no easy task given the large ground planes that conduct the heat away; for this I used a RadioShack desoldering iron as the tip has a hole and so can surround the leg of a capacitor.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Replacing capacitors on mother boards is no easy task given the large ground planes that conduct the heat away.

That can be an minor issue. It's not that much of a problem though.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I agree with Lex on this one - especially when using a desoldering iron with its built-in heating element as opposed to those almost worthless, unheated solder suckers. The trick, as always, is to ensure the tip is clean, hot, and tinned.

For me, the bigger problem was just the large number of caps, along with ensuring the polarity is correct using 70+ year old eyeballs.

I have the exact same Radio Shack desoldering iron (made by Weller, BTW, a good thing). But mine didn't come with that nice little stand.

 

[Shrek]

I had one hell of a time desoldering capacitors from a Mac mother board; a temperature controlled Weller was not nearly enough.

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

Might help:

 

[Shrek]

Ah, I meant for through-hole capacitors.