Motherboard Problem!!!

95m3hotness · 01-28-2006, 06:03 PM

Hey i guys, i have a problem with my motherboard.

I have a Freetech p6f135 mobo with 512 ram and a pentium 3 intel processor.

When i first power up the motherboard, it runs but it doesn't send a signal to my monitor.
So... I resart it and then my monitor gets a signal but the motherboard shuts off after about 1 second of loading.

It just does that. no signal: Signal then dies: and i can never get it to load.

I have tried 3 different powersupplys with no luck. And i have also tried different ram (the 512 it came with and a 256). with the same results.

I hook up the powersupply and ram and monitor. i have also tried it with a hd attach.

Can someone plz help me.

95m3hotness · 01-28-2006, 10:30 PM

never mind guys i figured out the problem myself.

WeeboTech · 02-03-2006, 02:13 AM

So what was wrong?

Where did you get your MoBo?

Was it from a malltech on eBay?

I just purchased 2 of them from the seller and they both have issues. *sigh*.

95m3hotness · 02-03-2006, 06:24 PM

Yes what issues are you having? Mine works now, i just installed windows, the only thing i havent tried yet is the sound. But everything else is great.

WeeboTech · 02-03-2006, 06:48 PM

Board 1.
Would not post when memory was set to 133MHZ.
Took me a while to figure it out. Worked when memory was forced to 100MHZ. it's not a memory or CPU issue. (as I've swapped both). it's a board issue. Also the sound chip was NOT DETECTED.

Board 2.
Posted, Ran fast and stable until I began using the USB ports. When I did a hot plug the board would loose power and become unstable.
The sound chip was detected but I could not get sound out of the board no matter what I did. I tried Linux, Windows and even downloaded the drivers and installed them too. Nada.. keep in mind the OS's believed the sound chip was there and acted fine. I could'nt even get cdaudio out of it (with either os). Therefore I suggest you test it all out very well.

The seller did allow me to send them back for a refund.

Frankly if only 1 had trouble I would have kept the other.

95m3hotness · 02-03-2006, 08:35 PM

Mine runs at 133mhz and it registers the sound card also, i havent tried the usb ports though, i will give them a try, as for the sound card/chip, hopefully it works. I installed windows and plugged a speaker into both ports and no sound. If theres no sound it wouldn't be a huge problem, because i plan to get an external soundcard anyway. What did you plug into the usb ports to test them?

WeeboTech · 02-03-2006, 09:16 PM

I hot plugged a couple of things and it seemed as if there was a huge drain of power. The motherboard's power would dive. Sometimes it would come back and other times it would not.

I tried with the following.

1. A USB Key with a compact flash slot.
2. An external floppy that also has a 8in1 card reader.
3. A regular USB floppy.
4. USB powered analog speakers.

With each one, when I hot plugged it, the motherboards power dived. If I booted with them it was OK.

The external floppy & 8in1 card reader combo would not work at all.

WeeboTech · 02-03-2006, 09:21 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 95m3hotness

I installed windows and plugged a speaker into both ports and no sound.

It's a line out, therefore you would need amplified speakers.

Considering I wanted to use the USB powered 'analog' speakers with the motherboard's sound chip, an outboard sound card was not an option for me. There are only a few USB ports on the board and I did not want to have the outboard sound card.

I'll probably end up going with an ITX P4 or P4-M.
My use was not specifically for a car, it's a tiny computer for a specialized network monitor environment.
I happened to stumble onto this place when doing research on ITX machines and this motherboard model.

95m3hotness · 02-04-2006, 12:52 AM

so the line out cannot just be hooked up to a speaker or even headphones? Cause i tried both and i got no sound. i hooked up my soundcard from my desktop computer into the pci slot and it works perfectly.

WeeboTech · 02-04-2006, 02:26 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by 95m3hotness

so the line out cannot just be hooked up to a speaker or even headphones?

Depends on the card itself, Sometimes the output is not loud enough to drive speakers. Sometimes it can do speakers or just headphones.

On my Mobo, I did not get output with headphones (amplified or not), nor amplified speakers.

Quote: Originally Posted by 95m3hotness

Cause i tried both and i got no sound. i hooked up my soundcard from my desktop computer into the pci slot and it works perfectly.

This was my finding also.

I even installed the Freetech sound drivers.
Although it looks like a commwell board too.
I may try and get the commwell drivers and see what happens.

95m3hotness · 02-04-2006, 08:13 AM

let me know. but either way i will get a external sound card for better sound, cause the car pc hooked up to an amp will still sound like ****. I need much better sound than that. and those sound cards arent even that expensive. my friend said that thier like 100 new.

So far everthing works on my board exept the sound for the onboard chip, but i will still try some things today to see if i can get it to work.

Ill let you know

WeeboTech · 02-07-2006, 07:55 PM

No Luck for me in getting the sound ports to work, any luck for you?

I ended up sending mine back.
The seller gave me back my money without question.

However, he made an interesting comment.

got both mb back to and my tech tested them both with win xp pro and they work great! but here is your money back.

Now I know I tested them good and solid.

There's no denying have to use the CMOS erase jumper to reset the board (LOL!)

I even used two different operating systems and could not get the sound card to work.

*sigh*.. I would have kept them if they worked great!

95m3hotness · 02-07-2006, 08:35 PM

You should have asked them what drivers they were using. I tried differnt drivers, for that chip, and i even had to reformat my HD because i couldent get into windows after i did one. Ive had no luck with the damn soundcard, but i ordered an audigy nx external soundcard, so i dont even care that it dont work. It would have been nice to have some sound.

Everthing else works great, so far i havent had any problems.

WeeboTech · 02-07-2006, 08:50 PM

> You should have asked them what drivers they were using.

I can always ask.

Windows did autodetect the chip so I used those drivers.
I even installed the drivers from Freetech's site.
In addition linux autodetected it and it still did not work.

I'm curious if there are more people having the same situation.

I'll probably send a note to the seller anyway.
I'm certainly not incompetent, and if they "worked great" I would have kept it them <GRIN>.

FWIW, He did refund my shipping, so I only came out of it loosing the shipping back to him.
He was prompt in response and courteous.
I did get good customer service.

In the end, I decided to go with a COMMELL LV-673 in a CMB-673 configuration. (My use is not a an actual mobile one, just a small form factor for a custom network appliance).

When I priced out the parts for the same MoBo, a PIII & RAM I could not buy all the separate parts at the same price point. It became closer to the price of a low end p4 environment so I decided to just push it to that level and more. My computers usually last 2-3 years anyway.

Good Luck with your project.