Hi Tony,
This time I could help you, because in the past I saw those 41 0d codes, in some motherboards, and it was possible to repair them, simply by reprogramming the BIOS, this is what I advise you to do, I hope 🤞 to have given you a useful suggestion.

interesting - I did update the BIOS at some point. I can try re-flashing it for sure. Maybe all that on and off with the unstable clock did the trick.

But I'm concerned that 41 0D code should be kind of normal... I'll give that a go though. Thanks!

I am shocked.

It was the BIOS!!!

So weird! I verified it before flashing, a whole chunk was different but on the good BIOS it was supposed to be all FF
So I thought it was just BIOS settings!

You are a star. I was so sad!

Thank you!!

tony359 wrote on 2025-01-17, 16:15:

I am shocked. […]
Show full quote

I am shocked.

It was the BIOS!!!

So weird! I verified it before flashing, a whole chunk was different but on the good BIOS it was supposed to be all FF
So I thought it was just BIOS settings!

You are a star. I was so sad!

Thank you!!

Great job congratulations 🎉🍾🎊🎈
I'm waiting with curiosity, if you make a video, I follow your channels with interest, I was pretty sure it was that (the BIOS), because in the past I looked for a fault that was not there, and only after doing the BIOS Recovery from floppy 💾, the card is back working, but in your case there was no video screen, so I thought that the BIOS was very damaged, or possibly it could be the chip that was defective.

of course there will be a video 😀

i found those codes in the AWARD BIOS, they seem to be regular startup codes.... Anyways... Thanks again!

And here is the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXaMuqUzV8g

Sorry, PC@live - I only then realised it's "PCALIVE". I can be slow on those things... 😁

tony359 wrote on 2025-01-24, 15:05:

And here is the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXaMuqUzV8g

Sorry, PC@live - I only then realised it's "PCALIVE". I can be slow on those things... 😁

Ciao Tony
Thank you very much for the link, yes PC@LIVE or PCALIVE, it's fine no problem 😉

Another very good video, Tony! Congrats on saving one more motherboard from the scrap 😉 I like very much those "everything failed" repair videos.

For a long time I want to ask you (probably a stupid) question: what kind of marker pens do you use to mark checked working or non-working components on the PCBs? It looks like they are with some kind of thick paint.

thanks @analog_programmer

You're not the first asking - the green one is a "POSCA" marker. It's basically paint so it sticks well. I need to buy a RED one too 😀

tony359 wrote on 2025-01-25, 08:49:

You're not the first asking - the green one is a "POSCA" marker. It's basically paint so it sticks well. I need to buy a RED one too 😀

Thanks for the info. So actually it's kind of a paint marker. I think I've seen similar markers in some of the Epictronic's YT-videos.

Believe it or not it’s where I got the idea 😂

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-01-16, 20:37:

Hi Tony,
This time I could help you, because in the past I saw those 41 0d codes, in some motherboards, and it was possible to repair them, simply by reprogramming the BIOS, this is what I advise you to do, I hope 🤞 to have given you a useful suggestion.

Hi Tony,

Great that PC@LIVE gave you the winning tip to reprogram the BIOS! 😀
For future reference, I have some details about the “41 0D” POST codes on an Award BIOS.

Normally, after POST 0D the codes continue in sequence to 0E, 0F etc. and also stop at 31 for a short while when POST is checking and counting all extended memory.
But a hang with continues beeping at POST code 41 preceded by code 0D on the Award v4.50PG/v4.51PG BIOS is not a normal sequence and means: BIOS Checksum Error! 🙁

This code sequence comes from the BIOS Bootblock and code 41 indicates that the BIOS attempts a recovery by checking for a bootable floppy with the Awdflash program and the BIOS BIN-file on it.
Depending on how badly corrupted the BIOS is, installing an ISA videocard should allow you to view the error messages and see what is going on.
Sadly that didn’t help in your case.

But you fixed the board!!
Thanks for another great video Tony, and I love viewing your troubleshooting and soldering skills. 😀
Cheers, Jan

interesting about 0D-41, I checked when I was diagnosing and I couldn't find anything like that, only standard boot sequence codes. Do you have a link or a table where I can see those codes? Not that I don';t believe you, it's for my future reference!

I did try the ISA card - I think there is a brief mention on the video as well - but same corruption. The AGP card would also generate the "no Video Card" beeps before beeping indefinitely.

Thanks!

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-01-25, 15:23:

Hi Tony, […]
Show full quote

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-01-16, 20:37:

Hi Tony,
This time I could help you, because in the past I saw those 41 0d codes, in some motherboards, and it was possible to repair them, simply by reprogramming the BIOS, this is what I advise you to do, I hope 🤞 to have given you a useful suggestion.

Hi Tony,

Great that PC@LIVE gave you the winning tip to reprogram the BIOS! 😀
For future reference, I have some details about the “41 0D” POST codes on an Award BIOS.

Normally, after POST 0D the codes continue in sequence to 0E, 0F etc. and also stop at 31 for a short while when POST is checking and counting all extended memory.
But a hang with continues beeping at POST code 41 preceded by code 0D on the Award v4.50PG/v4.51PG BIOS is not a normal sequence and means: BIOS Checksum Error! 🙁

This code sequence comes from the BIOS Bootblock and code 41 indicates that the BIOS attempts a recovery by checking for a bootable floppy with the Awdflash program and the BIOS BIN-file on it.
Depending on how badly corrupted the BIOS is, installing an ISA videocard should allow you to view the error messages and see what is going on.
Sadly that didn’t help in your case.

But you fixed the board!!
Thanks for another great video Tony, and I love viewing your troubleshooting and soldering skills. 😀
Cheers, Jan

Thank you ☺️ Jan
As I wrote, I fixed motherboard that showed those codes, one via Floppy BIOS Recovery, but basically it's more convenient to rewrite the BIOS with a programmer.
Speaking of BIOS, I know that Tony has (or had) a Soyo SY-5BT (5BT5), and I would like to put an AMD K6-2+ 400 1.6V CPU, unfortunately 😣 the minimum that can be selected is 2.2VCore, could you possibly tell me if it is possible to change the BIOS for K6+ CPUs?

Regards Elio

tony359 wrote on 2025-01-26, 19:06:

interesting about 0D-41, I checked when I was diagnosing and I couldn't find anything like that, only standard boot sequence codes. Do you have a link or a table where I can see those codes? Not that I don';t believe you, it's for my future reference!

I did try the ISA card - I think there is a brief mention on the video as well - but same corruption. The AGP card would also generate the "no Video Card" beeps before beeping indefinitely.

Thanks!

I learned about the 0D-41 POST code sequence during many years of patching Award v4.5xPG BIOSes. Especially in the beginning, I “made” a lot of corrupted BIOSes in my patching attempts. 😉
And seeing 41 0D on my POST analyzer card told me I had a BIOS Checksum Error again…
Analyzing the Bootblock code also told me what to expect from the BIOS during the first boot-up steps.

So I don’t have a table or link were you can view these specific Bootblock codes.

Cheers, Jan

interesting, thanks!

I looked here: https://blog.theretroweb.com/2024/01/20/award … ost-codes-list/

And 0D seems to be a generic code for initialisation while 41 is floppy controller initialisation. I thought the process was just being interrupted for whatever reason. That's good to know! Thanks again!

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-01-26, 22:25:

Thank you ☺️ Jan
Speaking of BIOS, I know that Tony has (or had) a Soyo SY-5BT (5BT5), and I would like to put an AMD K6-2+ 400 1.6V CPU, unfortunately 😣 the minimum that can be selected is 2.2VCore, could you possibly tell me if it is possible to change the BIOS for K6+ CPUs?

Regards Elio

Hi Elio,

At SY-5BT - identifying revision, correct BIOS and video issues you can read a lot of information about the BIOSes for the SY-5BT board. There is even an 1Mbit BIOS from Unicore with K6-2+/III+ support, and its available on TRW.

The 1.6V K6-2+/400 is the same CPU as the higher clocked 2.0V K6-2+ and will run at 2.0V or 2.1V without problems, provided you use a good heatsink with fan.
If the SY-5BT has the 12-pin JP30 jumper, a documented 2.1V Vcore selection is available.

Ciao, Jan

Guys, do you know if the last POST code displayed by these chinese POST analyzer cards is for the BIOS booting routine that was completed successfully or is it for the one where the error occurred?

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-01-27, 12:54:

Hi Elio, […]
Show full quote

PC@LIVE wrote on 2025-01-26, 22:25:

Thank you ☺️ Jan
Speaking of BIOS, I know that Tony has (or had) a Soyo SY-5BT (5BT5), and I would like to put an AMD K6-2+ 400 1.6V CPU, unfortunately 😣 the minimum that can be selected is 2.2VCore, could you possibly tell me if it is possible to change the BIOS for K6+ CPUs?

Regards Elio

Hi Elio,

At SY-5BT - identifying revision, correct BIOS and video issues you can read a lot of information about the BIOSes for the SY-5BT board. There is even an 1Mbit BIOS from Unicore with K6-2+/III+ support, and its available on TRW.

The 1.6V K6-2+/400 is the same CPU as the higher clocked 2.0V K6-2+ and will run at 2.0V or 2.1V without problems, provided you use a good heatsink with fan.
If the SY-5BT has the 12-pin JP30 jumper, a documented 2.1V Vcore selection is available.

Ciao, Jan

Thanks Jan ☺️ for the info and for the link
As soon as I can I do some checks, and I start trying a 2.2V AMD K6-2 CPU, I measure the VCORE, if it is higher than 2.2V I try to add a resistance, to make it go down a little, alternatively it seems to me you can use a diode, which if I'm not mistaken would lower the voltage by about 0.5V.
I hope I succeed, because currently the MB's L2 cache doesn't work, a chip is missing a pin, I tried to fix it, but with the K6-2+ I would solve the problem.

Regards Elio