Re: some frustrations...

Andrew Kimpton (kimpton@sna.dec.com)
Fri, 22 Dec 95 14:33:48 +1100


> I just got my motherboard (233mhz noname) today. I hooked it up, plugged
> it in, then wondered why it didn't work. everything seemed to work fine,
> except that my monitor wouldn't show anything. looking through the
> manual showed that I need an extra +/-3v power supply for the pci section
> of teh bus. does anyone know where I can get one of tehse or is there
> a way to get it to use the power from the normal power supply?

Unless you know that you have PCI cards which require the 3Volt Power
Supply rails (and many don't) then you don't usually need to worry about
connecting up those power connections.

However the reason you may be seeing a lack of output on the VGA
console may be because the jumpers on the motherboard are set
for 'failsafe' loading. In this case all output is going to the debug serial
port (NOT com1 or com2) and the machine will be attempting to
access your floppy drive to find a bootstrap loader.

Now to fix this you need to check and ensure that jumper J28 has pins 1 to 3
connected. and that J29 has no jumpers connected at all.

For more information you should be able to find it in the AXPpci Motherboard
OEM Design Guide (If you didn't receive a copy with your motherboard you should
be able to find a copy at ftp://ftp.digital.com/)

Hope that helps a little.

> Bev

Andrew 8-)