Extremely Simple Question about Intel D865PERL Motherboard

[Edzard]

DON'T NEED ANY MORE HELP -- GOT IT TO BOOT IN THE FASHION I'M ACCUSTOMED TO.

Thanks to those who replied.

I have an Intel D865PERL motherboard in a test stand equipped with known good components. I purchased the board used in a group of PC equipment.

I'm curious about the way it boots - I've never experienced similar behavior.

When I boot up a PC or test stand, this is the sequence in which I do it:

1. Turn on the monitor (in order to view diagnostics during boot).

2. Plug a power cord into the power supply in the system unit/test stand.

3. Flip the switch on the power supply to the "on" ("1") position.

4. Press the on/off button on the front of the PC/test stand to initiate boot.

The D865PERL board I have powers up and begins booting (fans spin and POST begins) at step 3 above. When I flip the on/off switch on the power supply, the board "takes off." The prior owner of the board has stated that it behaved the same way when it was part of his PC.

Every other motherboard I've dealt with in the past (at least 30-40 different boards) would not begin to boot (spin fans and begin POST) until step 4 of the sequence above. If a given board had a power indicator light, that light would come on at step 3, but fan spin/POST wouldn't happen until step 4.

My question:

Is this normal for the D865PERL board? Is this the experience of other owners?

If you currently own an Intel D865PERL board, please reply to this post by stating either:

"Mine begins boot at step 3." (or simply state "Step 3")

Or

"Mine begins boot at step 4." (or simply state "Step 4")

Thanks in advance for any/all information provided.

 

[grooge]

There is an option in BIOS to resume after power failure. Ifit is set at enabled, then everytime the motherboard will sense the power coming back, it will boot, without need to press the power button.

Useful feature if you need a computer always runnning and boot again after a power outage.

 

[Compton]

I don't have any experience with that particular board, but there are many boards that exhibit that behavior.

 

[Edzard]

Originally posted by: grooge
There is an option in BIOS to resume after power failure. Ifit is set at enabled, then everytime the motherboard will sense the power coming back, it will boot, without need to press the power button.

Useful feature if you need a computer always runnning and boot again after a power outage.

That's a very good point which is highly relevant to my post.

However, due to the fact that we can have pretty frequent, and violent thunderstorms (including tornados) in my area, and sometimes during the summer have brownouts, I routinely turn that option off in case the power goes up and down several times in a short period of time (a condition generally considered bad for electronic equipment of any kind - not just PCs).

It turns out by that by clearing the BIOS, then editing and saving the BIOS, I got it to boot in the 4-step process I am accustomed to. The fans do spin briefly at step 3 (very typical of Intel boards) but the PC does not begin to boot until step 4.

Everything I've read indicates that this board is designed for Northwood processors ONLY. The person I bought the board from, after running a Northwood for some length of time, very recently installed a Willamette-based CPU and put the board, CPU, and other components up for sale.

I bought the lot and initially found that the board wouldn't boot at all. Then I pulled the processor and did some homework. That's when I found that the board wasn't designed for a CPU with the Willamette core (1.75 Vcore versus around 1.5 Vcore for Northwood). I should have done this homework in advance of powering up the board for the first time.

I think the use of the improper CPU somewhat "traumatized" the BIOS and lead to the behavior I described in the original post. In their literature, Intel warns that use of the incorrect CPU can have serious consequences to the board, CPU, and even the power supply. Frankly, I consider myself lucky.

So the installation of a Northwood CPU, combined with the BIOS gyrations described above, cleared up what I perceived to be a boot sequence problem.

This board (or at least the D865PERL I have) appears to be a bit sensitive. The same boot behavior (3-step boot) re-appeared when I inadvertently installed a PCI card in the board with a power cord plugged into the power supply (the PSU wasn't running but there was possibly a trickle charge going through the board for keeping the CMOS battery charged). That improper card installation scrambled the BIOS a bit but when I cleared and edited the BIOS setup (for the 2nd time), I again obtained the 4-step boot that I am familiar with.

Thanks again to all who responded.