HELP! ABit AV8 with Athlon Winchester 3500+ cpu not fully booting

Have just run this new computtr up and found the following results.
There are no graphics on screen at ay time and I have just one hard drive
and one floppy connected - Yu can tel I was doubtful cant you!
anyway on power up all fans started up including the cpu fan and the led
inside is green. Get a 3.0. then it goes 0.2. then 9.0. (Which I thought was
a complete and final to the POST) but then the green led goes off the red
one comes on and there is a two tone sound from the system speaker. Pressing
rst gives a F.0. and the same results.
There was a pop and some smoke from the power supply after I had removed
just one of the two DDR400 memory banks and it happend almost straight after
starting.
I have read alot that some of these boards will not see a Winchester 3500+
in this case and there is a BIOS update. Well if I cannot start it I cannot
update it either so what now? Is this a symptom of not recognising the cpu
or something else?
Can anyone help. I tried the Abit forum but the email has not yet been
received so I cannot post the problem there.

Please can anyone help me out.

 

The smoke has nothing to do with the memory bank.
Either you have a cheapo and nastyo power-supply which cannot supply
the load, or you have somehow hooked up power (or a peripheral)
incorrectly, or you have a short-circuit to the case. Any smoke from a
power-supply demands its immediate replacement....plus disassembly of
the motherboard installation and very careful mechanical and
interconnect inspection for potential shorts before firing up the
replacement power-supply. If there has been a short, the motherboard
itself may have been damaged as well as the power-supply.

Nothing to do with the smoke and pop from the PS.........

John Lewis

 

The smoke may have come from your cpu. The fan in the power supply draws the
smoke through it. Check your cpu heatsink for proper contact. A two tone
siren warning usually means the cpu is overheated.

 

Right. The cpu might have done a "melt down" - which should cause max
current to/through the motherboard - then power supply couldn't handle
the load - then ... pop.

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~mobo.help/

< snip >

 

Have now disembled everything and yet cannot see any burnt out resistors
(thats what it smelt like) I would imagine there was a dead short to ground
for it to have gone so abruptly and quickly and cannot recall much smoke
which meant that I could not see where it originated from. I cannot remember
if the rear fan was illuminated, which should be illuminated like the front
one and since it alll works still up to the point of 9.0. in the post code
table, where the AWARD BIOS "takes over" it may even have been something to
do with that. so far I have RMA'd the power supply and hope the motherboard
which although v1.1 has the serial number for a board that will NOT
recognise the Athlon winchester chip. That being the case I guess all kinds
of beeps and codes could be expected.

 

if you get the "90" code a replacement bios chip is in order. I had the same
problem. I think you can get a new bios from Abit, but there is other places
to get one. I forget where I got mine, but it was only $17 shipped via US
mail and came pretty fast. Popped it in and she booted right up!.

 

Guess the BIOS chip is the answer. One is on its way but have returned the
mobo and took a full refund. Need now to know the next beter mob that WILL
accept the Winchester WITHOUT any problems.

 

ahh, too bad you could have waited for the bios chip. Once I plugged in the
updated bios I have had nothing but good luck with this board. I have the
3000 Winchester and she is a nice stable fast machine. I like how you can
slow the fans down too. I have a 120mm case fan on 8.1 volts and my heatsink
fan is turned down all the way (via a knob on a back slot cover) and it's
nice and quiet and never goes over 46C playing some game like Halflife 2.

I have installed the evaluation copy of Windows XP-64 bit (Dual boot with
Win2K as the main OS) and it works well, though drivers are hard to find
yet for everything. When the official product comes out I'll be in line to
buy it. Windows 2000 is a good OS but it's time to move on.

 

I have actualy now ordered the third eye version with the Guru gizmo. I
thought it was with the mobo I originaly bought but I was wrong! Hope the
new board has the required BIOS.