Help with a VLSI chipset/Award BIOS 286 clone board

[Dave Farquhar]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me troubleshoot my 286 clone board. When I power it on, it doesn't display any video but it's giving me beep codes. I installed a POST card to try to help me debug it.

It's giving me one long beep after code 18, then it runs through a few more sequences, and then gives two short beeps after code 26. Swapping in another video card changes the timing a bit, so I don't know if that's significant (the initial long beep moves to after code 1F), while the two short beeps remain after code 26. Both video cards function in my 386, so that makes me think it's the motherboard rather than either video card.

I haven't been able to identify the board. It has an Award BIOS and a VLSI chipset, was made in Taiwan, has a 12 MHz top speed, and has a jumper that appears to let it switch between a 6 or 8 MHz slow speed. It has 1 MB in DIPs on the board and four unpopulated 30-pin SIPP sockets. There are some similar boards on stason.org but this one has all of its 8-bit slots on the side closest to the keyboard, so it's not a match for any other board I can find.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[Stone]

Sure sounds like a video issue.

Are you using VGA cards?

Is it possible that the board is configured for Mono/CGA?

 

[Dave Farquhar]

I figured it out. Definitely wasn't having my best day yesterday. The cable running into the monitor had worked itself loose, and when I was testing cards in the other system, I was using the other system's monitor. That saying about cable connections being the last thing most people check? Yeah, that was me yesterday.