[rmel]

Have a Mid-Tower Clone PC case configured for the Tiger k8w s2875, model 242, 940 socket, chipset Amd -8111 and have an FF message on motherboard, computer will not boot. The FF message comes up immediately, no blinking, beeping or flashing messages on the display. The hard drive light comes on (front of Computer) - a steady and bright light, and the two lights to the left and right of the hard drive light come on very faint.

I turned the computer off, pulled the power connect to the PC and the two power connects on the motherboard and cleared the ROM BIOS, that did not work. I pulled all the boards, chipset and memory and re-seated them. Checked the AMD chipset to make sure connection was good, silver coating was adequate, cleaned the fan and motherboard. I replaced the vedio card with another one that worked to make sure the card was not the problem and did the same with the monitor. None of these things worked.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Have looked at new ones, but they are very expensive. This computer was built for me about six years ago as a server, with raid and other nice things. Has been a very good board and hate to replace it. If I have too- does anyone have any idea where I can find a similarly configured motherboard or the same one, new or refurbished. I have been checking the Internet for six weeks and have come up with nothing.

Thanks very much for any help you can give me.

Best Regards

rmel

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Welcome to G2G rmel

I can't be absolutely certain about this & Tyan's website is providing very little help on this matter, but I have had exactly the same problem with an Epox board a few years ago. Most Epox boards also have a LED diagnostic display built on to the motherboard that show a hex code for diagnostic purposes. In the case of the epox board, the FF code (when appearing immediately & not preceded by any other codes) meant that the bios chip needed replacing.

Like I said, I can't promise this is the case with your Tyan board, but it sounds like it might be. If it is, then you may be able to get the bios chip reprogrammed or replaced rather than replacing the entire motherboard. There's a couple of links below, depending on which country you live in:

USA & worldwide

UK

Hope this helps some.

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G rmel

I can't be absolutely certain about this & Tyan's website is providing very little help on this matter, but I have had exactly the same problem with an Epox board a few years ago. Most Epox boards also have a LED diagnostic display built on to the motherboard that show a hex code for diagnostic purposes. In the case of the epox board, the FF code (when appearing immediately & not preceded by any other codes) meant that the bios chip needed replacing.

Like I said, I can't promise this is the case with your Tyan board, but it sounds like it might be. If it is, then you may be able to get the bios chip reprogrammed or replaced rather than replacing the entire motherboard. There's a couple of links below, depending on which country you live in:

USA & worldwide

UK

Hope this helps some.

[rmel]

Samm,

That's so much for your quick response and help. I think that you are absolutely right about the problem, and the Link that you gave me was excellent. I am going to remove the ROM BIOS chip and send it to someone for repair or replacement. I have not had a chance to introduce myself to the group yet - I tried to do that last night, but for some reason my reply just disappeared. It was probably my fault!

I have been watching many of your posts, and it is apparent that you know what you are talking about when it comes to PC software/hardware. I look forward to helping others on the Forum. I have visited almost every Technical computer forum I could find on the Internet over the last three months, and this is by far the best one!

Again, thanks for your help.

rmel

[Samm]

Thank you for introducing yourself rmel. You sound like you know a fair amount about computers yourself & can also explain stuff coherently (which helps a lot!).

I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say you are very welcome and we look forward to seeing more of you on the forum

Samm