Have you tried clearing the CMOS? If it beeps when there is no RAM installed, yet just sits there when RAM is present, could be that the machine is configured to use ECC/Reg'd RAM. Just a thought. Completely useless? I can always be used as a bad example

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Adam could be onto something there. ASUS makes it sound like it's picky about the ram used. I've just tossed generic PC100 and PC133 in them and they worked fine though. Looks like you've done the same. How about setting the FSB to 66Mhz to see if it'll post...worth a try. If it does, the last flash I did from 1011 to 1014beta bios worked just fine. Keep us posted. Skip

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yep that one got me thinking, i will let the system stand unpluged and no battery overnight, i never could get the solder points thing to work, im glad asus uses a jumper to clear cmos now :-) by then it should be cleared and i will see if that was it. i have no experience with ecc ram, and what its setting does. the pc100/133 usually isn't a problem, at least for me, i've used 133 in a p2l97 (p2/66mhz board) before, worked fine, mixed with a pc66 as well. already tried that, fsb to 66, and cpu to 233mhz, no go, no go at fsb 133 either lol. i will check on it tomorrow, thanks everyone for the suggestions...

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ECC stands for "Error Correcting Code", it is generally used in servers only because of the additional costs. As for clearing the CMOS, simply unplug the power, pop out the battery, set the "Clear CMOS" jumper and let it sit for a minute or so, reverse what you have just done and test. Completely useless? I can always be used as a bad example

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after doing some checking, it may just be a memory problem, the chipset, or maybe even its current bios, may just not be able to work with the ram i have, seems the p2b, and older p2/3 boards, is picky on how many chips and the sdrams config is, more then just its size and speed. they are all pulls from newer p3 boards, an asus tuv4x, and p2-99, assuming since the ram worked in there, it should work in this board. looks like i have to call up some friends with similar systems and go over and do some memory swapping. <G> link to some interesting info on the P2B. http://homepage.hispeed.ch/rscheidegger/p2b_procupgrade_faq.html

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"...is picky on how many chips and the sdrams config is..." That is always a possibility. Completely useless? I can always be used as a bad example. There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

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actually, turns out my first assumption was correct, the bios definatly needed updating. first i used ram from a friends asus p2l97 system, same problem, then i just tested the cpu that was in that system, p2 300, system booted fine, updated bios, put the p3 500 back in, and bam, she worked. =)

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That's especially good news. I'm another that flashes old ASUS boards even when ASUS swears it's unnecessary...always seems to fix something. Out of curiosity, what bios version did you find when you got the P2B to post? Skip

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1008??? i never paid attention to it, saw it wasn't 1014 beta 3 and flashed it. but the year the bios was dated was 1998, i will assume it was original, and never updated. im like that too, i ALWAYS keep my motherboards bios as up to date as possible. and when i work on others systems as well. but when they are older, and since i wanted to run xp sp2 on it, updating to the latest was a givin, using certain bios versions installing win 2k/xp can have problems (documented, i have personally never seen them) and using a certain update, or newest, will let windows install acpi support instead of apm.. so flash it, its good for your pc's health, just, just pray for no brown outs LOL.

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For some reason, my stomach always drops when I flash a BIOS, no matter how many times I do it. Completely useless? I can always be used as a bad example. There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

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I have the P2B Rev. 1.04 myself and upgrade from Pentium2 350MHz to Celeron 733MHz (on MSI 6905 Master Version 2.3 Slot1 to FCPGA Adaptercard) about 3 years ago. The CPU ist the 1,75V Version and with the adapter I set it to 1,8V which is tha minimal VCore it is able to support at any board version before board revision 1.10! The 1014 Beta3 Bios is from 2002 and the latest I was able to find. It worked without problems since then and supports all coppermine core FCPGA Pentium3 and Celeron up to 1,1GHz and harddrive up to 127GB. The only reason I used the 733MHz Celeron was that it cost only one quarter than a Pentium3 1,1GHz and I found some evidence that it was a very good overclocker. I run that cpu at 1100 or 1232MHz but at the higher setting it works only up to 41°C which I can't keep up in summer at 30°C+ room temperature. Otherwise the system is perfectly stable despite my big tower being packed to the edge with hardware like 4 IDE drives (two on an additional IDE controller on an ISA soundcard) DVD, CD-RW, SCSI harddrive, SCSI CD-Rom and old SCSI CD-R, 4 PCI cards and one ISA soundcard. I run XP SP2 on it and use it as multimedia system with TV card and so on! That system ran perfectly well but a few weeks ago I got hold on a Asus P3B-F so I switched boards because of the additional PCI slot and possible 133MHz cpu support. Beside that the P2B can do everything the P3B-F can so I wish you a lot of fun with that nice and stable board. The P2B I now keep at a save place as backup and just in case I find a good use for my Pentium2 350Mhz. BTW: I know the P2B Rev. 1.04 has an undocumented jumper setting for 133MHz and it worked with my Pentium2 but in that setting you can't use any ISA cards or the system will not start. I don't know if this also works with your Rev. 1.02. I found the jumper setting on somewhere on the net. I'm not at home at the moment but if you want I can give you the jumper settings just in case you like to try some overclocking. Oh, nearly forgot! SoftFSB 1.71 works perfectly to do some OCing out of windows. You just have to choose the P2B out of the board list. Even using XP!

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lol, adz929, well, personally i keep my fingers crossed, im always afraid of a spike. my p4 asus p4p isn't a problem though, has a backup, and a procedure for flashing a dead bios, place the update on a disk with a specific file name, but i still keep my fingers crossed there just incase. Free Weasel just set the p2b up, why not, you can have some friends over and play some multiplayer games, not sure what another p3 might go for now, but i've got a slot 1 p3 500 in it, and have got quake 3 running on it, even the simpsons hit and run (which uses gta engine) really nicely. on my p2-99 with a p3 600mhz, i even tried half life 2, not blazing like on my p4, but would work in a pinch if i needed it to. im definatly too scared to try doom 3 though <G> both the p4b and p2-99 have geforce 2mx with 32mb ram. they have there usefullness, but id still take my p4 as my main system, definatly :-) the main roles of the p2b is used in a system for my sister though, and the p299 is basically a file server for my house, containing installation files for office, and encarta encyolopeida 2005 files and things like, saves space on my 3 other systems (including the p2b now) this p2b is revision 1.02 and it states a setting for 133 fsb (2-3, 1-2, 1-2) and it states up to 8x cpu speed, not that it matters, both my p3's are locked at there speeds. and im using an isa soundblaster in it, so i need isa <G> (for now at least <G>)

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I gave my last p2b away with a celeron 400 running at 450Mhz last week. There are a few motherboards in the history of computing as good or better than the P2B but, not many. And, anyone that thinks a dual xeon or A64 is a mainstream system nowdays is sadly mistaken...have about 10 bucks invested in my PIII and it works as well as the 2400+ and 2800+ for everyday work. http://skipcox.net/folding.htm Skip

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in all my experiences, i will say that most intel based asus boards are great. very little problems, other then something like i had with the p2b, mostly an error on my part, in not knowing what would happen with an newer cpu in the p2b with an older bios. but once going, i've had very little troubles. from a p2l97 way back when to a p4pe-x. i have some troubles with a tuv4x with a via chipset, but all in all not bad there either. i've tried msi a few times, NBT, i work for a big box company, 3 big blue letters...<G>, not bad machines, better then other big boxes, but id still buy asus boards over then anyday.

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"And, anyone that thinks a dual xeon or A64 is a mainstream system nowdays is sadly mistaken...have about 10 bucks invested in my PIII and it works as well as the 2400+ and 2800+ for everyday work." You know what the sad thing is, a P200 with 64MB RAM, Red Hat 9 (example only), Firefox and OpenOffice can do just as well. Completely useless? I can always be used as a bad example. There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

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Adam, Working on one of two P200MMX @ 225Mhz/64Mb machines right now. Intention is to dual boot 98se and some linux (over 250 to choose from) flavor with firefox and OO for giveaway rigs. Once I get hold of the linux flavor I like best, that'll be the OS they go away with. Both run swell at 75Mhz fsb and I'm watching tv on one (old 2Mb Antec tv card) as we speak. Great platform for all the old video and sound cards, nic's, and modems I've accumulated. Among other things, three slot one combos are in the garage waiting for cheap cases. On the up side, my 2800+ will do everything my 8088 used to do...even plays tetris. Technology is indeed a grand thing. Skip

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Skip, You know what is really sad, I have around 20 odd P200MMX's, each with 64MB RAM, 2GB HDD's sitting at work that I cannot even give away. No charity will take them, they say that the people they offer them to complain that they are not fast enough to play games, that really erks me. On a lighter note, I myself am a big Red Hat fan, so my suggestion would be to take a look at Fedora 3 for your boxes, however, there has been a lot of talk about Ubuntu and it does seem quite simple to use, so there is another possibility. Completely useless? I can always be used as a bad example. There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

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@Tony I would agree with using the P2B with the 350Mhz Pentium2 abut at the moment I already have 5 running systems standing around. An Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe with an Athlon64 3000+ Winchester (can overclock it to 2700MHz but just don't need that amount of power at the moment), my old Asus A7V133 Raid with a 1,2GHz Athlon Thunderbird B clocked at 10x133MHz (gaming system if my nephew is around and to go to lan parties - because of lack of ATX case I just sawed a hole in the back of an old AT big tower to fit the ATX board), the just mentioned P3B-F with a Celeron 733@1100 or 1232MHz (tv and multimedia), an old K6-2 500Mhz in an old mini AT case and a WinChip 200MMX in another AT big tower. Otherwise I surely would have done that with the P2B but despite the lack of SD-Ram, cases, monitors and so on the main problem is I don't know where to put it anymore! ;) BTW: If your isa soundblaster has an additional ide controller I can send you a driver for it that works from Win95 to WinME. I have the soundblaster 16 pnp (ct2290) and found it on the net years ago. It works really well and allows the use of two older harddrives (up to 8,4 GB I think) or optical drives!

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Free Weasel you can set up that 2700MHz here, that should give you the room for the p2b lol. but no my soundblaster is just that, no ide. its a creative, not sure of the model right now. i do have an old revel from a 386 that has ide connections on it, never used it though. but with 3 maxtor udma cards (2 100, 1 133tx2) cards, put them all in one system, and i can get up to 16 ide drives running. sweet :-), at least as long as one drive on each card are udma capable, or else during boot up it disables it self, no matter if you have other things connected to it.

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Sorry Tony, but that baby is not available! ;) Especially as I'm able to run up to 12 drives in that system without one additional controllercard and 4 of them (SATA) in Raid5! But I could spare an old 386SX Desktop PC (Board, desktop case and AT psu). Everything else went into one of my working computers! ;) About the old soundcard from the 386 I doubt it would even support a 6,4GB drive but you never know. I even have an old Jazz16 with onboard SCSI controller (from that above 386SX) and even Win98 autodetected that at installation. The only problem is installing that old things can be quite tricky. Just needed 3 days for my Soundblaster 16 on that mentioned 200MMX because of IRQ problems. After three days I removed the pci network card and it work, even after I reinstalled that networkcard later! Good luck with the upgrade and a lot of fun with that old P2B. The boards worth it!

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"The only problem is installing that old things can be quite tricky. Just needed 3 days for my Soundblaster 16 on that mentioned 200MMX because of IRQ problems. After three days I removed the pci network card and it work, even after I reinstalled that networkcard later!" Story of my life...of two 200Mhz machines I screwing with, the Intel 200MMX machine will happily accept any card I shove in it and the AMD K6-200 fights me every step of the way. The AMD machine has turned into a "one card at a time" rig and goes together just fine that way. Both are happily running at 3 X 75Mhz now but that AMD took a few days and the Intel went together in a couple of hours. You never know... Skip

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Interesting thread. I just want to say thanks to Skip for the info he provided in Response Number 4. I just got a used Asus P2B-B Rev 1.02 board for my original AT-style computer. I couldn't just throw it out - it cost me $3500 in early 1996, and that was with a PI 150mhz cpu, 64Mb ram, 2Mb video, and a 2.1Gb HD! (I later maxed it out with a PI 200 (not even MMX), 128Mb ram, and an 8.4Gb HD. Wow.) Anyhow, I successfully installed the P2B-B (and other stuff) with a PII 350 and upgraded the bios to 1014b, then tried a PIII 600 (Katmai 100fsb) with no changes to the multiplier jumpers. Got a blank screen. Hmm... The P2B-B manual only shows multipliers up to 5.5, and the info I had previously seen on the web suggested that higher-speed cpus would auto-select their fixed multipliers. Maybe that's true for Coppermines, but not for a Katmai. The ASUS website was no help. Then I found this forum, and Skip's comment. A P2B-F isn't a P2B-B, but I figured I'd try the multiplier settings he gave anyhow - and they worked! Startup screen shows PIII 600, as it should. I assume this info is in the P2B-F manual, but it would have never occurred to me to look at a different board's manual. So thanks again, Skip!

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