IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

[bigbeark]

I bought this board to replace a similar board I wrecked while recapping.

Short story, bought this from a super-reliable source, didn't get around to testing it within 30 days, now it appears to be DOA.

Specific problem, on boot up it beeps four time, pauses, then beeps 4 times again, and so on.

No video, no boot. unplugged fans, removed ram, still the same 4 beeps. This is out of the case, so no grounding issue.

This board is 800FSB, tried various 800FSB CPUs, still the same. 2 different PSUs, no change.

So I am thinking this one is trash.

Question: does Post card have any use other than identifying that board is crapped?

$28 bucks down the drain, I won't return to IBM boards, many better out there like this lovely GigaByte I'm using right now

[yyonline]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

A POST card could identify what stage of POST it's getting stuck on. This is usually only useful if the board is not beeping...

However, you have 4 beeps. That tells you...something. To figure out what...you need to figure out what kind of BIOS the board uses and look up what 4 beeps means for that bios. Are they long beeps or short beeps? Long beeps are spaced about a second apart, short beeps are spaced much closer together. A beep sequence can be a combination of long and short.

[seanc]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

CPU is fine if it's beeping.
Do the beeps change without memory installed?
Have you tried a PCI graphics card?
Have you reset the CMOS?

[bigbeark]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

CPU is fine if it's beeping.
Do the beeps change without memory installed?
Have you tried a PCI graphics card?
Have you reset the CMOS?

Same beeps with memory in or out. These boards accept only double sided DDR
Tried with onboard and separate AGP card - same result
I have reset the bios
I will try with a PCI video card

[bigbeark]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

A POST card could identify what stage of POST it's getting stuck on. This is usually only useful if the board is not beeping...

However, you have 4 beeps. That tells you...something. To figure out what...you need to figure out what kind of BIOS the board uses and look up what 4 beeps means for that bios. Are they long beeps or short beeps? Long beeps are spaced about a second apart, short beeps are spaced much closer together. A beep sequence can be a combination of long and short.

These are 4 short beeps, then a pause, then 4 short beeps again.

After 4 iterations of this (16 beeps), it stops beeping entirely.

I looked up the manual - it says something is wrong with the board but does not say what.
The BIOS chip is soldered to the board.

[seanc]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

So, seeing as we're not making any progress, what caps does this board have?
Any blown?

[bigbeark]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

Sean, good caps all around, a mix of MCZ and polymers around the CPU.
Absolutely nothing domed or damaged and ESR is in range on them all.

[seanc]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

Does the board take a standard ATX power supply?
I would test the board out of the case, on a cardboard box, with a known good standard ATX PSU. If it works, test with the IBM PSU. If they both work, investigate the case for shorts, this includes faulty front panel USB ports.

Have you tried different RAM? Just in case your previous board has killed it.

I only have 1 IBM, a server. It's managed to survive my recaps (full of KZG that failed) and a northbridge heatsink that fell off.

[bigbeark]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

Does the board take a standard ATX power supply?
I would test the board out of the case, on a cardboard box, with a known good standard ATX PSU. If it works, test with the IBM PSU. If they both work, investigate the case for shorts, this includes faulty front panel USB ports.

Have you tried different RAM? Just in case your previous board has killed it.

I only have 1 IBM, a server. It's managed to survive my recaps (full of KZG that failed) and a northbridge heatsink that fell off.

This beeping is when testing out of the case on a box with nothing connected. It beeps whether or not there is memory in the slots. I did try with different memory. This memory is good, This is something internal to the board I think but just to be sure I will go through my box of ram and try another piece or two. Thanks, Barry

[Ocelot]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

It sounds like you have more gigs of RAM then your motherboard can handle, or the problem could be that the RAM plugged in does not match when paired up. Depends if you have 2 or 4 dimm slots. If 2 then make sure the gigs match. Same with 4.

For example of 4 dimm slots: The 2 on the left would match to 2GB each, and the right would be 1GB each.

I hope that helps.

[bigbeark]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

After some digging, I find that the 4 beeps on an AMI Bios are "Timer Fault".
Is the timer a physical piece of equipment that I can remove and replace from the board?

[Agent24]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

At at guess I expect the timer is part of the southbridge or something. I don't think it's anything which could be easily replaced.

I wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong, though.

It may be a separate IC which could be fairly easily replaced with a hot air rework (and you could probably use the IC from the other board)


I'll let someone else shed some light on this...

[PCBONEZ]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

The timer is a crystal and the related circuit.
If this board was recapped a bad choice in substitution [or a bad joint] could louse it up.
So could a random splat of solder.
-
As per a note I found, 4 beeps on an AMI also includes the 2 beep problems as a possibility. The 2 beep problem is a problem with RAM 'somewhere'. It might be video RAM or it might be system RAM.
-
This follows as the timer syncs the RAM with the CPU through the chipset.
If the RAM is not at the right speed it could be the RAM -or- the timer -or- the BIOS doesn't recognize the SPD data on the RAM modules.
.
Probably the tube shaped crystal in photo that shows RAM slots but that's a guess.
.
.
Your RAM may be good but not good in -this- board.
# PC2700 (333MHz) and PC2100 (266MHz) memory support
# Supports maximum memory up to 4.0GB
# ECC or parity memory not supported
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...MIGR-51130#gen
.
.
Also the board is for Northwoods, 1Mb cache max. [no Prescotts].
I know the chipset can do better but IBM's BIOS might not.
.

[bigbeark]

Re: IBM 13R8930 - 4 beeps of doom?

Thanks, PCBONEZ.

It beeps:

without any ram at all !!
with the correct ram (works on identical board)
with Northwood CPU (known good)
with Prescott CPU (known good)
witrh various known good Power Supplies.

I will try removing the two crystals circled from the board I damaged and try them on this board.

The beeping board has not been recapped. I don't see any solder anomalies.
I could reflow each cap, might help.

There is always the oven reflow(!). Nothing to lose with this board, I think.

I have another machine, lower spec (8926?). I removed the Celeron 2.4 and plugged in a Prescott 2.8 and WOW - the machine is transformed.
Really quick - 8 times the cache size helps!