8rda+ won't boot

[SteveI]

Just got an ole' 8rda+ from Mooky.
It seems like a classic.
I'm trying to get another folding rig up. I spent the evening moving things around a bit, and thought I'd try to slap this together sooner rather than later.

She just won't boot. I get an error code of 26. Anyone know what this means?

Running with a good Tbred B
Really crappy PCI video card, good PC3200 ram, and a real old HDD. I just want this to boot up so I know it will fold.

The sooner I get this up, the sooner I have another 2.2ghz folding.

Edit: I'm exhausted, so I think I'll work on it tomorrow night... All advice is appreciated, even if I don't respond quickly.

[SteveI]

Well, I swapped out for another video card (agp), and now it boots, sometimes.
I'd say 1 in about 5.... the rest of the time it stops at one of a few different error codes and/or sirens.

I have managed to get to the bios... also, it is showing odd voltage in the start up screen, like 2.5 in the VSB.... very strange. The PSU is a quality pull w/ a strong 5v line. I'm loading an os... we'll see if she holds together.

[Daniel ~]

Have you tried resetting the CMOS Steve, soulds like the BIOS may be confused...if that even makes sense...

[SteveI]

Only about 20 times....
I'm not sure what's causing it. It's mooky's old mobo... caps blew and Epox replaced all the caps... On the invoice, it just said 'fixed'. I suspect that something else is wrong with the mobo causing the caps to go bad prematurely... whatever that is, is causing the instability. I managed to get it folding, but it has already reset on me twice. I've got my fingers crossed that she'll hold together...

The alternative is that the vid card I just received is bad... cadaveca's old 9600. I checked around and 'way back when' there were compatibility issues. Either way, I was in a rush to get this rig folding. When I have time in a week or so, I'll be playing musical chair. I've mapped out who should get which video card... And in my genius realized that the only machine not getting a card swapped is my IGP box.... duh. (think I'm asking for trouble?)

Bottom line... 2.1ghz added to the folding farm.

[Daniel ~]

Oh! It's for folding! You should have said so! We should NEVER expect an easy time of it when we set out to help others!

All sorts of things will pop up to hinder us. But I know

those WU's get ya to the church on time, you won't back off! ":O}

[TonyCarr]

I had a ATI 9600pro that would not boot up in 3 different 8RDA+ rev 1.1 boards , got the same code 26 , I tried the 9600pro in an old Abit KG-7r and it worked perfectly , that was several bios updates back though . There was a time I thought ATI cards just were not very compatible with 8RDA+ but I run a Sapphire radeon regular 9600 on a couple of my 8RDA+'s ( latest bios ) now with no problems . I don't know if it was that particular 9600pro itself or the boards ?

[jnansley]

Wow. You think if they took the time to perform the repair, they'd test it. (with o-scope?) I suppose stranger things have happened.

[Áedán]

Originally Posted by SteveI

I have managed to get to the bios... also, it is showing odd voltage in the start up screen, like 2.5 in the VSB.... very strange.

VSB is the standby power line. I know the nForce2 boards don't like odd things happening on the standby line. Of course, a multimeter is a far better check than the onboard environment monitor!

[SteveI]

Originally Posted by Áedán

VSB is the standby power line. I know the nForce2 boards don't like odd things happening on the standby line. Of course, a multimeter is a far better check than the onboard environment monitor!

The only reason I noticed is that at the bottom of the start up (boot) screen, it shows various health readings. While everything else is white, this reading shows up as red.... kinda worried me.

OTOH, At 2.1ghz, SSE was causing spontaneous reboots. This is with the 5.02 console. I dropped it down to 1.7v and 2.0ghz, and it has folded over night without issues. At some point, I'll investigate further... but for now, it's good enough. I know the CPU is capable of 2.25ghz, but for an extra folding rig, it's good enough for now.

I have to deal with real life, then when I have a chance, I'll swap around memory and video cards, and then I'll try to push this thing some more... Hopefully, it will remain stable until I get around to it.

[spadearcher]

Originally Posted by TonyCarr

I had a ATI 9600pro that would not boot up in 3 different 8RDA+ rev 1.1 boards , got the same code 26 , I tried the 9600pro in an old Abit KG-7r and it worked perfectly , that was several bios updates back though . There was a time I thought ATI cards just were not very compatible with 8RDA+ but I run a Sapphire radeon regular 9600 on a couple of my 8RDA+'s ( latest bios ) now with no problems . I don't know if it was that particular 9600pro itself or the boards ?

For those ones getting code 26, try to set AGP Aperture Size to 512MB in bios. I know it sounds weird, but that worked for me.

I was using a 9600Pro on a 8rda+ rev. 1.1 updated to latest official bios, wich worked perfectly with an Ati 9100, but 9600Pro didn't boot, code 26. After a search in Google, I found this funny trick, which made it work. Hope it is useful.

[jnansley]

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