ASRock board will not post (Code 2B)

[TheDaishi]

Hi,

Wondering if anybody can help me with this problem.
Put together a very (VERY!) budget PC for a friend and we're having some problems with it.

The board is the ASRock K7S41.

Sometime the machine will refuse to POST, with the code 2B
The PC will immediately power on after powering off on WinXP shutdown. Holding down the power off button will turn it off.

Any ideas? The BIOS is by AMI apparently.

Thanks,

J.

 

[Kyanzes]

AMI post codes

AMI - 2B - Toggle parity over. About to give control for any setup required before optional video ROM check.

AMI - 2C - Processing before video ROM control is done. About to look for optional video ROM and give control.

I doubt that it has anything to do with your video card but it's worth a try.

 

[TheDaishi]

I hope not, we use the onboard controller.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the boot PCI/AGP first option in the BIOS?

J.

 

[Kyanzes]

Well, it shouldn't be the source of any problems cause this option only decides wether the BIOS should give control to the PCI or the AGP port first. The value set matters only when you have a PCI card in any of your PCI slots for some reason and you want to use your monitor with that card.

However! As you are using an onboard card it would be wise to check the RAM used cause I bet the integrated graphics uses the system RAM so essentially all problems with the video may root in the RAM... Try to set default for RAM and also try different RAM modules.

 

[TheDaishi]

I've run memtest on the machine, it passes OK, BUT it cannot test the System RAM reserved for the video card.
I'll have to find some other RAM to test it with.

One thing it *might* have been is the floppy drive (which is broken). We've disconnected that now, I've not heard whether this made any difference.
The Phoenix POST code 2B means "Your floppy drive is bust". And it was.

Does anybody have any idea about the never-turns-off-unless-you-turn-it-off-yourself problem?

J.