SD11: Mainboard or Athlon dead?

I'm in trouble with an old FIC SD11 mainboard with an Slot-A Athlon 500,
and I could use some advice.

Currently, the system doesn't do anything: If I turn on the power, the
fans start and that's all. The display stays black, no beeps. No boot
attempt from the floppy as well.

This has evolved over a few months: The machine tended to crash after
some time of work. Later on, it sometimes crashed even when booting or
even in the BIOS startup. Sometimes, the screen would stay black, and
sometimes it would come up for a few minutes again. But now, it
finally reproducably does nothing at all.

The mainboard has no appearent defects. I removed all components.
I tried another power supply. I removed and refitted the RAM. I noticed
that the one of the two CPU fans sometimes doesn't start up.

Therefore, my current guess is that the mainboard is still alive, and
that only the CPU has burnt.

How is the experience with the SD11? Should I trust the board and look
for another Slot-A Athlon, or should I dump both and look for a cheap
replacement?

Gregor

Hmmm. This one is a little bit tricky. Are the CPU fans connected to
the motherboard or directly to the power supply? Also, do you know if the
fans themselves are good?

If I follow your line of reasoning correctly, the fact that the CPU fans
do not always work caused the CPU to overheat and finally die. This does
make sense. On the other hand, if the CPU fans are OK, and a voltage
problem on the motherboard (or power supply) caused them not to work, then
it could be that you have both a bad motherboard and a bad CPU.

I guess my advice would be that if you are sure the fans themselves are
broken, try to find a cheap Slot A CPU. The SD11 will support the Slot A
Athlon Thunderbird with the NC611 BIOS. Be sure to get new fans while
you're at it.

On the other hand, if you are not positive that the fans themselves are
broken, it may be easier to find a cheap (and faster) motherboard/CPU
replacement.

--Alex


Gregor Hoffleit wrote:

 > I'm in trouble with an old FIC SD11 mainboard with an Slot-A Athlon 500,
 > and I could use some advice.
 >
 > Currently, the system doesn't do anything: If I turn on the power, the
 > fans start and that's all. The display stays black, no beeps. No boot
 > attempt from the floppy as well.
 >
 > This has evolved over a few months: The machine tended to crash after
 > some time of work. Later on, it sometimes crashed even when booting or
 > even in the BIOS startup. Sometimes, the screen would stay black, and
 > sometimes it would come up for a few minutes again. But now, it
 > finally reproducably does nothing at all.
 >
 > The mainboard has no appearent defects. I removed all components.
 > I tried another power supply. I removed and refitted the RAM. I noticed
 > that the one of the two CPU fans sometimes doesn't start up.
 >
 > Therefore, my current guess is that the mainboard is still alive, and
 > that only the CPU has burnt.
 >
 > How is the experience with the SD11? Should I trust the board and look
 > for another Slot-A Athlon, or should I dump both and look for a cheap
 > replacement?
 >
 > Gregor<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->