Tomcat S2866 - cannot boot

I have just put together a new system with the Tyan S2866 A2NRF and AMD
opteron. When applying power I get one long beep and two very short
beeps. The manual states that this is a video problem. That may be.
I am temporarily using an old Diamond Monster PCI (circa 1997) card.
Can this old card be the source of my problem? Any other suggestions?

Peter

 

Dear Peter,

looks like that card was getting long in the tooth back in 1998:

http://www.dansdata.com/M3D2.htm

Could be that it would work, though, I suppose: did you go into the
BIOS under

PNP/PCI configuration, first option is

"Init Display First"

choices on my 2865 are PCI express/PCI slot; however, mine has the
built in ATI Rage XL graphics, and that PCI slot option activates
that--not sure if you will have same option.

Here is a list of graphics cards that Tyan says will work with your
board, and the corresponding drivers:

http://www.tyan.com/support/html/video_s2866.html#s2866

Here is a list of PCIex16 graphics cards at Newegg, starting with the
cheapest:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...48+1069609641&Submit=ENE&Nty=1&Subcategory=48

If you are just using your board as a server, one of these for about $40
may be helpful--might be more cost effective than trying to raise the
1998 card from the dead.

HTH,

BC

 

I do not even get to the BIOS!

 

Dear Peter,

Since you have the A2NRF model with SLI and no on board graphics, not
the G3NR (on board, no SLI), I would guess that the Tyan designers
assumed the board would be used with at least one, and probably two PCIe
cards--hence not a lot of concern about supporting PCI graphics cards.

It *could* be that if you install a PCIe graphics card and get into the
BIOS, you might have that PCIe/PCI graphics option available--but,
depending on what OS you are using, might be best to get a newer
inexpensive graphics card with good driver support, etc.

HTH,

BC