Motherboards

boards we like to test

• Socket 423
• Socket 462
• Socket 478
• Socket 479
• Socket 603
• Socket 754
• Socket 939
• Socket 940

how to test

• Secure MoBo to plate, ensuring the risers are not grounding out the board.
• Connect
  • IDE II
  • Floppy
  • Power Supply
  • PCI Video Card
    • Some cases might call for testing
      • RAID
      • SATA
• Change the boot order in BIOS.
• The Floppy Drive should have Memtest floppy Disk allready in it.
• The CD Drive should have Knopix in it.

• there is some knowledge needed to test motherboards properly.

here is a list of commands I think one should know. (besides the basics)

• mount(8)

  You use this command to mount devices. Like a hard drive or a floppy disk.
  Some knowledge of the /dev directory is needed but not a whole lot. have fun.
        
            mount /dev/fd0 /place/in/file/system/to/mount/device 
                                   ^
                                  /|\
                                   |  this is most of the time /mnt/floppy
  if you type " umount /dev/fd0 " after that command you would unmount the device from the
  file system.

• dmesg(8)

 This is a very nifty command. It tells all. As in it tells every thing about your 
 system (well most of the time). it is used with the command less(1) a lot. At least with me 
 or grep.

          Try and type: 
                        dmesg | less 
           or 
                       dmesg | grep hdc  # to see what device is attached to /dev/hdc
  TRY IT it's fun.

So You have all the parts and a knoppix disk.

• First make sure everything is pluged in yeah.

 If you have never booted from a live linux cd or knoppix now is the time to learn.
  After the system POSTs you will be met by a command prompt it will say some where 
  to press F2 or F3 for a cheat sheet, feel free to do so. or you could just type:
     
        knoppix 2

 then enter. That command well boot the system into run level 2
 which is short for start the system with out the X server.

• next check if the system can see all the hardware and anything else you pluged into it.

 hint: use dmesg

• well, what if?

What if what!! It should work right RIGHT! Not all the time is right sometimes It just doesn't work.

hint number two: check for bad capacitors. what are bad caps?? well google it or ask Dave Haskins ;)
, but most if the time if it doesn't work then it just doesn't work.