I've got an old AST Advantage P200MMX that I gutted to create a PIII-500e about 2 and a half years ago that I'm trying to get running again. The desiscated shell has pretty much been sitting behind my computer desk for all of that time. After I hooked everything up, the fans and hard drives and everything would spin up, but it would beep, and the power light (or maybe it's the HDD light) just flashes on and off. I tried unplugging everything but the hard drive and still the same thing. Then I put the RAM back in and the same thing. I know the HD is good because I took it out of another computer recently. Everything is hooked up correctly. The computer is an Advantage! 200MMX 9414, if that's any help. I checked their website, but they didn't have anything of substance. That's all I can think of that's pertinent. Thanks.

Try it bare bones, just motherboard, CPU, memory, video and keyboard. Reseat the video card a few times, after sitting the contacts might be dirty. Also replace the CMOS battery, after sitting for a while it could be dead.

Well, the problem with the video is that it's an onboard S3 Virge, so there's no way to reseat it. Unfortunately I don't have a non-AGP video card to try it with. Other than that, I did try it bare bones and it still wouldn't post. Would the CMOS battery being dead keep it from posting at all? I have a gutted P233 that I can take the battery out of. I'll give that a try.

Well, no luck with the CMOS battery. I guess I'll see about getting a cheap PCI video card and going from there.

If the system was working fine before you "modified" and relegated it to "dust bunny status," I would think that your onboard Video would be ok to bare bones test the system.

Following the CMOS battery replacement (a known good battery?) did you get any beeps during POST? If so, what was the sequence...and do you know if it's AWARD or who makes the chip?

Yeah, the system was working fine before I gutted it. I'm pretty sure the CMOS battery is good because it was working about 4 months ago. When I put it in, it did the same thing, i.e. nothing. The power light on the front would flash on and off but no beeps. To tell you the truth, it's been so long since I used that computer that I don't remember what kind of BIOS it had. I checked their website and all I saw was this: Advantage! 93xx USB BIOS, so I think it's AST's own type.

If...but it would beep , but now it's not, I would check all the connections. Reseat the RAM. Voltage check the "good" battery.

If you look on the MB you should see the manufacturer of the BIOS chip. Even though the MB may be proprietary, the BIOS chips are only manufactured by a couple/few different companies. Although, until we can get it to toot that point would be moot! :(

Hi,

As I see it you have your hard drive cable in the wrong direction. Did you remove your hard drive? Check the cable and reverse it see if it works and if you had removed your floppy, do the same thing with floppy.

Okay, I'll try that and see what happens.