hey all

just a couple days ago i managed to get my hands on a Tyan S3098G2N motherboard. its a socket 478 motherboard, dual ethernet, onboard graphics, support for my celeron D, two PCI slots, and its a very nice board.

my problem is with the BIOS of the motherboard. it seems to absolutely hate saving itself. if i power down the board, but i leave the power supply plugged in, it actually works fine. the problem starts when i unplug the power supply and the whole system experiences a power loss. the BIOS will reset itself upon my starting the computer.

normally this wouldn't be a problem for me, but it is, because it turns out that it just kills the OS. i restart the computer after plugging it back in, and linux just dies. i've reinstalled at least 3 times because of the BIOS resetting itself, and i've decided to just wait on installing again. i don't want to just throw windows on the computer, but i may not have a choice. is there anything that i can do about this?

i've already tried a new battery and i believe also the power supply (but i'll have to re-test the power supply soon so that i can make sure it's not that.

i've never had an issue with the same setup and a different motherboard and CPU, although i have no other boards that support a Celeron D. oddly enough, it doesn't matter what CPU i use, or how i configure the BIOS.

i generally never have permanent setups, so this is a real bugger, not to mention a power outage would do the same thing. i'm not really about to bother with a UPS or anything similar, so i'm just wondering if i'm at a loss, or if i can do something else. i've been reading through the manual, but i can't find mention of any other jumpers that i can change.

i hope i'm just missing something here.
-bonestonne

Here's a quick idea that's fairly easy to overlook: Check your manual to verify that all of the jumpers are in their correct positions. There might be one in particular that allows you to reset the BIOS if you're having trouble with the settings. That one could cause symptoms that are similar to yours.

Good luck,
Jan

well, i found the jumper for the BIOS, but it seems to be configured properly, on pins 1 & 2, but i may just try to reset the BIOS once through the pins, and then see if it'll hold onto life.

i just don't understand how it would work how it does, being a fileserver based motherboard, you'd almost expect it to hold its settings in the event of a power loss.

i have an S2DGU motherboard that's 10 years old, still runs, has an updated BIOS, and has never given me these troubles, and i have no idea if the BIOS battery is original or replaced recently (i was given the board a little over a year ago).

I'd look at the easy stuff first. If you have an ohm meter, check that that jumper JP is making good contact. I have seen a few of those jumpers that lose their spring, so that the metal doesn't make contact with the posts. If your meter has a voltage function, you can verify that the voltage from the battery is at both of the post for JP3. If it isn't I'd look at the battery again. Then, I'd take the board out of the case a look for a broken etch somewhere between the battery, JP3 and the flash chip.

That's most everything I can think of at the moment. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. Other than that, you may have to consider doing an RMA to get a replacement.

Hopefully, someone else will be able to help you out if none of my suggestions work.

Again, good luck,
Jan

so i took the whole rig apart (thankfully not suffering another ACPI failure in unix) and noticed a couple holes in a page protector that i was using the isolate the board from the case.

well, absolutely brilliant. those holes were the BIOS jumper pins poking through, grounding on the case itself.

lucky me, i had a few plastic standoffs, and a piece of rubber that i used under the pins. now the board is working flawless and the BIOS has no problems at all.

thanks for the help, i replaced the jumper anyway, and also went back to the battery that the board shipped with.

until next time, on this (not so old) [fricken] computer,
bonestonne

That's great. I'm glad you figured it out. By the way, I noticed your NJ location. I grew up in Middlesex and Monmouth counties. I probably would have still been there if work hadn't dragged me to CA.

Take care,
Jan