Batboard

I have a old motherboard sitting around for few years already that I believe has a bad RAM slot. When using this mobo, the computer will power up, beep once, than just hangs there with no display or anything. I tried changing video card, hard drive and the RAM but with no luck. I saw a few sites on the web that seems to point to the problem towards the RAM slot.

Now my question is, how do I know if the RAM slot is good or bad? Does anyone have a pinout of the 168 pin SDRAM slot? How do I check if I get good voltage or not?

Thanks
dennis

for the time invested it will take to troubleshoot the RAM slot on an older mobo, i would say it would just be easier to just purchase a replacement on fleabay or find an equivalent to replace it. If it is not a proprietary piece on a specific system, you should be able to find a replacement for it. That sounds like it might be a little more of a reliable fix than workin on an antique mobo. If you have a bad SDRAM slot now, pretty soon those caps will start to be suspect...etc...

And i can only figure it would be MISERABLE to diagnose a SDRAM slot by checking voltages, as it's not like the RAM is constant voltage across all the pin headers as they are mostly bi-directional, pulsed data bursts, and you have NO idea what would be normal where...and how..

IIWY, i'd buy a new mobo.

For most BIOS's, one beep means "all normal". RAM errors are usually indicated by 5 long beeps, if memory serves. Do a web search for "BIOS error beeps".

Thanks for the inputs. It's not that I don't have spare computers at home. This is one of my antique mobos and I just wanna find something to mess with in spare time.

I'll try to dig up the motherboard manual and see what it has to say.

Thanks

kf4sqb wrote:For most BIOS's, one beep means "all normal". RAM errors are usually indicated by 5 long beeps, if memory serves. Do a web search for "BIOS error beeps".

Anymore the "beeps" on POST are vendor specific, and sometimes model specific. It all depends on the MoBo that you have. I have an ASUS at home that doesn't beep at all unless something is busted. Best bet is to google your MoBo and get a manual for it. There are all sorts of hardware diagnostic stuff that you can get when it does something at POST.