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Dell Optiplex GX110 board

maybe repin the adaptor and use the front panel that i just ordered......
or just toss it in the trash and stop spending $$$ on a dead horse.
 
You can try to repin the aux connector from 5v to 3v3. Hopefully it doesn't need some standby voltage. I'd also carefully inspect the ATX connector to make sure the wires are in the correct location.
 
yeah the ATX connector to the dumb-dell side is all wrong too
as per the pictures i posted previously.
the last pin on the AUX connector needs to be the 3.3 sense circuit
or the 3.3 and the sense.
 
i watched the de-pinning methods online
and the staple method is not very efficient . the store bought
tool is not a very good method either... so i made a tool and this is what i came
up with for pin removal. it takes about 60-90 seconds to pop out a wire..
https://youtu.be/cMW0Zb3h0bI

 
looks like i'm short a ground wire do you think i can just have one wire jump over to the next connector??
one wire feeding two connectors??
also perhaps a 3.3v wire will have to do that too.
 
The most I'd recommend splitting is 1 to 2, no more than that. You're losing a considerable amount of current carrying capability. I wouldn't leave wires left floating.

Lower voltage rails rely on larger conductors because the current demand goes up.
 
if you noticed there are no 3.3v pins on the main dell connector ?
they have to be disconnected.... perhaps a dummy load? like lights.
in my work i have a power controller(SCR/halmar 220v 90a powering kanthol elements through a 2-1 step down transformer (10kva I think), for melting 200lbs of glass) and when adjusting/setup it and not connected to any load).
i put 2 150w lights in series for the load..something like that for disconnected wires from the PSU?
 
You shouldn't need a dummy load on the 3v3 rail since it's used on the aux connector. Even if there's low demand on the rail, it doesn't need a dummy load.

On modern PSUs, the 3v3 and 5v rails are generally provided by a buck regulator off the 12v rail. On older group regulated power supplies, the 5v and 3v3 rails are generally regulated together and it still doesn't matter that much.

Also something I forgot to mention, does the power supply you're using have a -5v rail? Even though -5v was not used outside the ISA bus, there were a lot of motherboards that checked for it and won't power on if it's missing.
 
we have action!! when i plugged in the board the 2 LEDs came on!
one on the MB and one on the riser.
then powered on with pins 2&3 but nothing on the screen
not sure if the cpu is bad, i don't have a spare for that board could of been
fried with the wrong power inputs i'll see if it gets hot or if it stays
cold its bad, yes?
or could be the vid card i have lots of spares but mostly AGP...

and yes there is a white wire (-5v) dell does use it

once again Gigabite, thank you for the expert help.!

edit:::CPU does get hot.
 
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If the PSU is coming on, that's at least something. The CPU not getting warm means it's not doing anything. I'd attach a PC speaker to pins 9 and 10 (as shown on the pic on first page) and see if you get any POST codes.

If you have a POST card, you should try plugging that in. Those cheap generic POST cards usually have a speaker on them you can hook up.

No idea if the wrong pinout on the power connector damaged anything, you'll just have to keep plugging away on it.
 
so with the riser and a vid card in i get nothin', nada.
removed the riser and plugged into the onboard vid ..
i get some excitement!!! but its short-lived .. only goes as far as.. entering setup

gx110-on.jpg

post card after dinner....
also riser slot is bad
 
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riser works now, i had to have a pci slot for the post card. it worked
then put in a different vid card and it works so that other vid card "doesn't play well with dell"
can't get past F2--->entering setup
bad bios i think probably a solder in kind
 
the post card errors are 20,30 over and over with a 2c or 3c tossed in here and there.
there are more during boot but they are not retained by the card.

F2 doesn't go to bios....just hangs
F12 just says "Attempting Network Boot"
the bios that is on the computer now is 1.10 a02
i DL the newest (a09) but without being able to get into bios or OS
there's no way to upgrade..

also this PSU has a 16/20 ga orange wire wraped around the
the other wires in the harness and goes to a larger wire
so thats the sense wire ..
 
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Before condemning the riser board, try hosing down the slot on the motherboard, the edge connector on the riser, and all of the PCI slots on the riser in Deoxit Gold G5. If that's not available, CRC 2-26. Who knows how those parts were stored, they probably have oxidation on them causing connection issues.

The freezing is likely caused by the same issue with the RAM slots, or you have bad memory. The memory stick edge connectors and the slots should be hosed down as well.

Both Deoxit Gold G5 and CRC 2-26 are safe to leave on the board while its powered up, just wipe the excess off.
 
Gigabite, you are the wizard with all the magic!
last night computer made it through to loading the os and choked but that is
due to most likely only having one pc100-128mb stick for win98.
today after work I;ll put in another 128mb and try again.. if not i have 2
pc133 256mb sticks that is 'sposed to work but will be down graded by the computer
to pc100's

i had to take out the battery a few times to clear the bios and of course
do the spray in the slots , 2 times, each time the biois loaded a little bit more.
finally getting to 2 ALERTS for the fan and intrusion switch
which as you know are not a big deal with dell.

I'll be back later today and post the final results, but either way, working or not.
thank you for your help and encouragement.
 
We ran windows 98 with 16MB or 32MB when it was new. 128MB should be more than enough to install it.
 
i just put in a HDD with 98 on it..so it should boot, but nope.

the keyboard (2) still doesn't work when i get into the bios.. weird
98 just hangs at the splash screen .
if i put the HDD in a different computer it boots, i wasn't sure if there
is a HDD size limit but both HDD's i tried are 1.6gb(95) and 4gb(98)
both well under the limit.
can't get the computer to boot from A:\ either.

the POST card has a minus sign on one side when the computer first starts
(40 - - )and then it acts normal.
 
daewoo 2800 said:
the keyboard (2) still doesn't work when i get into the bios.. weird
Click to expand...

Are you using a USB or PS/2 keyboard? USB was still very new at the time, and support for keyboards and mice wasn't great, especially if the keyboard has an integrated USB hub, like some Dell keyboards. BIOSes eventually started having options for "Port 60/64 emulation", "USB Legacy Device Support" or individual options to support USB keyboards and USB mice. You may want to get a genuine PS/2 keyboard if you don't have one and look around the BIOS for options similar to those and enable them.

Another possibility is the BIOS is crashing and locking up.


daewoo 2800 said:
98 just hangs at the splash screen .
if i put the HDD in a different computer it boots, i wasn't sure if there
is a HDD size limit but both HDD's i tried are 1.6gb(95) and 4gb(98)
both well under the limit.
can't get the computer to boot from A:\ either.

the POST card has a minus sign on one side when the computer first starts
(40 - - )and then it acts normal.
Click to expand...

This really sounds like bad RAM. If you have another computer the memory modules will work in, you should try running memtest on them.
 
KB is a PS/2, i tried 2, one is older than the computer. one is a Microsoft
and the other is the Leading Edge KB that came with the Leading Edge computer.
the LE was made in 94-95 and the dell was 99.
no issue with the LE-KB even works on the old Asus boards with a PS/2 to Serial adaptor.

The only bois upgrade for the GX110 that is on dells site is A09 which is a long way from the A02
thats on the computer now . so far haven't seen anything between A02 and A09 for a gradual upgrade to A09.

I'll try the memory swap and memtest, but the sticks work in the Asus P2B-F.
i have a few pc100 sticks but have to check if they are buffered or what,
some are only 64MB, but i've even tried pc133 when they are in the slots the computer
said once that it was using them as pc100....

isn't substitution a tried and true test method?

thanks once again Gigabyte and you too, jafir for your help here.

edit:::
Gigabyte you said
"look around the BIOS for options similar to those and enable them."

i'd love it if i could do anything with the bios settings ;~)
 
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