Fault Description: Boot sequence halts at F1
--------------------------------------------
Intel Motherboard model D815EEA P3 Socket 370
Operating System: Windows XP SP3

Boot-up halts on first screen with message to "press F1 to continue".
After invoking F1, everything goes well, but his happens everytime the
system boots.
I have scoured the BIOS to identify any settings to disable this: it has none.
I have had other motherboards bios with instructions to "Halt on all errors,
keyboard etc., but this model hasn't.

Checked Intel's site for support and downloaded the Flash Bios which was
carried out successfully, but still the F1 halting comes up.
Doubled checked connections and even replaced, keyboard, mouse Ram modules,
power chord and even Power supply, without any success.

Appreciate any comments on this. Thanks

Twanny wrote:
> Fault Description: Boot sequence halts at F1
> --------------------------------------------
> Intel Motherboard model D815EEA P3 Socket 370
> Operating System: Windows XP SP3
>
> Boot-up halts on first screen with message to "press F1 to continue".
> After invoking F1, everything goes well, but his happens everytime the
> system boots.
> I have scoured the BIOS to identify any settings to disable this: it has none.
> I have had other motherboards bios with instructions to "Halt on all errors,
> keyboard etc., but this model hasn't.
>
> Checked Intel's site for support and downloaded the Flash Bios which was
> carried out successfully, but still the F1 halting comes up.
> Doubled checked connections and even replaced, keyboard, mouse Ram modules,
> power chord and even Power supply, without any success.
>
> Appreciate any comments on this. Thanks

I have a motherboard that does something similar. It is not
an Intel branded board.

What happens is, there is a fan connected to one of the
fan headers. At powerup, when the room is cold, the fan
spins at slightly less than 1800RPM. The BIOS on that machine,
is not capable of monitoring a fan, at less than 1800RPM.
(The hardware is capable, but the BIOS doesn't set it up
right.) The monitor reads the fan as spinning at 0 RPM,
even though physically it is spinning at 1750RPM or so. So the
BIOS stops and requests the user to "press F1".

By the time I get into the BIOS, and move to the hardware
monitor page, by that time the fan is spinning at slightly
more than 1800RPM. So I cannot catch it with the bad reading.

The hardware monitor chip has fan RPM readings, temperatures, and
also voltage readings. It could be anything like that, which
causes the error.

A BIOS setting like "Halt on No Errors", is one way to fix it.
If your BIOS has that option.

Some BIOSes, allow you to place the cursor over a monitored
value, and then toggle whether that value is monitored or
not. But not all BIOSes support making changes to the behavior
of the hardware monitor screen. Have a check in there anyway.
At least the CPU fan should be monitored, as the BIOS may
shut off the computer, if a fan speed of zero is detected
on the CPU fan. So the CPU fan is treated a little bit
different than the other (chassis or power) fan headers.

Paul

Thank you for your time and detailed instructions Paul.
It certainly merits looking into it. Will try it out when I get back
home and will report back outcome.

"Paul" wrote:

> Twanny wrote:
> > Fault Description: Boot sequence halts at F1
> > --------------------------------------------
> > Intel Motherboard model D815EEA P3 Socket 370
> > Operating System: Windows XP SP3
> >
> > Boot-up halts on first screen with message to "press F1 to continue".
> > After invoking F1, everything goes well, but his happens everytime the
> > system boots.
> > I have scoured the BIOS to identify any settings to disable this: it has none.
> > I have had other motherboards bios with instructions to "Halt on all errors,
> > keyboard etc., but this model hasn't.
> >
> > Checked Intel's site for support and downloaded the Flash Bios which was
> > carried out successfully, but still the F1 halting comes up.
> > Doubled checked connections and even replaced, keyboard, mouse Ram modules,
> > power chord and even Power supply, without any success.
> >
> > Appreciate any comments on this. Thanks
>
> I have a motherboard that does something similar. It is not
> an Intel branded board.
>
> What happens is, there is a fan connected to one of the
> fan headers. At powerup, when the room is cold, the fan
> spins at slightly less than 1800RPM. The BIOS on that machine,
> is not capable of monitoring a fan, at less than 1800RPM.
> (The hardware is capable, but the BIOS doesn't set it up
> right.) The monitor reads the fan as spinning at 0 RPM,
> even though physically it is spinning at 1750RPM or so. So the
> BIOS stops and requests the user to "press F1".
>
> By the time I get into the BIOS, and move to the hardware
> monitor page, by that time the fan is spinning at slightly
> more than 1800RPM. So I cannot catch it with the bad reading.
>
> The hardware monitor chip has fan RPM readings, temperatures, and
> also voltage readings. It could be anything like that, which
> causes the error.
>
> A BIOS setting like "Halt on No Errors", is one way to fix it.
> If your BIOS has that option.
>
> Some BIOSes, allow you to place the cursor over a monitored
> value, and then toggle whether that value is monitored or
> not. But not all BIOSes support making changes to the behavior
> of the hardware monitor screen. Have a check in there anyway.
> At least the CPU fan should be monitored, as the BIOS may
> shut off the computer, if a fan speed of zero is detected
> on the CPU fan. So the CPU fan is treated a little bit
> different than the other (chassis or power) fan headers.
>
> Paul
>

The BIOS on this motherboard has the following sections:
MAIN - ADVANCED - SECURITY - POWER - BOOT - EXIT

I have not located any hardware monitoring anywhere .
Furthermore, this "F1" stop appears whenever the machine is rebooted, even
after a day's work (shouldn't the fan(s) spin at a normal temperature then?)
Unfortunately this mainboard does not have the "Halt on No Errors" option,
as I have stated in my post.

Even though I have Flashed the BIOS, I am tempted to resort to "Load Setup
Defaults" and see what happens. Anyway, thanks again for your time.

"Paul" wrote:

> Twanny wrote:
> > Fault Description: Boot sequence halts at F1
> > --------------------------------------------
> > Intel Motherboard model D815EEA P3 Socket 370
> > Operating System: Windows XP SP3
> >
> > Boot-up halts on first screen with message to "press F1 to continue".
> > After invoking F1, everything goes well, but his happens everytime the
> > system boots.
> > I have scoured the BIOS to identify any settings to disable this: it has none.
> > I have had other motherboards bios with instructions to "Halt on all errors,
> > keyboard etc., but this model hasn't.
> >
> > Checked Intel's site for support and downloaded the Flash Bios which was
> > carried out successfully, but still the F1 halting comes up.
> > Doubled checked connections and even replaced, keyboard, mouse Ram modules,
> > power chord and even Power supply, without any success.
> >
> > Appreciate any comments on this. Thanks
>
> I have a motherboard that does something similar. It is not
> an Intel branded board.
>
> What happens is, there is a fan connected to one of the
> fan headers. At powerup, when the room is cold, the fan
> spins at slightly less than 1800RPM. The BIOS on that machine,
> is not capable of monitoring a fan, at less than 1800RPM.
> (The hardware is capable, but the BIOS doesn't set it up
> right.) The monitor reads the fan as spinning at 0 RPM,
> even though physically it is spinning at 1750RPM or so. So the
> BIOS stops and requests the user to "press F1".
>
> By the time I get into the BIOS, and move to the hardware
> monitor page, by that time the fan is spinning at slightly
> more than 1800RPM. So I cannot catch it with the bad reading.
>
> The hardware monitor chip has fan RPM readings, temperatures, and
> also voltage readings. It could be anything like that, which
> causes the error.
>
> A BIOS setting like "Halt on No Errors", is one way to fix it.
> If your BIOS has that option.
>
> Some BIOSes, allow you to place the cursor over a monitored
> value, and then toggle whether that value is monitored or
> not. But not all BIOSes support making changes to the behavior
> of the hardware monitor screen. Have a check in there anyway.
> At least the CPU fan should be monitored, as the BIOS may
> shut off the computer, if a fan speed of zero is detected
> on the CPU fan. So the CPU fan is treated a little bit
> different than the other (chassis or power) fan headers.
>
> Paul
>

Twanny wrote:
> The BIOS on this motherboard has the following sections:
> MAIN - ADVANCED - SECURITY - POWER - BOOT - EXIT
>
> I have not located any hardware monitoring anywhere .
> Furthermore, this "F1" stop appears whenever the machine is rebooted, even
> after a day's work (shouldn't the fan(s) spin at a normal temperature then?)
> Unfortunately this mainboard does not have the "Halt on No Errors" option,
> as I have stated in my post.
>
> Even though I have Flashed the BIOS, I am tempted to resort to "Load Setup
> Defaults" and see what happens. Anyway, thanks again for your time.
>

This is the manual for the board. The manual says the SMSC LPC47M102 is
used as a Super I/O chip.

ftp://download.intel.com/support/mot...a/A1696401.pdf

All I see on the chip, is a couple fan monitor channels. That would
be enough to check the CPU and a chassis for fan speed.

http://www.smsc.com/main/datasheets/47m10x.pdf

And the Intel manual calls the LPC47M102 "optional", which is a little
bit weird. It would also be controlling the floppy interface, so is
relatively useful.

The Intel manual also mentions the board can sense the voltages,
so perhaps it can measure the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V from the
power supply. Since I don't see any voltage inputs on the
SuperI/O, there must be another chip hiding on there somewhere.

You could try a program like Speedfan, and see what resources it
manages to find. Perhaps there is some other chip they added to
the board, to measure other things of interest.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan435.exe

One of the interesting features of Speedfan, is it automatically
seeks the best choice of scaling divider in fan monitor circuits.
As a consequence, it can set up the hardware to measure really
slow fans. So in fact, the Speedfan code, is better at it than
the BIOS code that sets up the hardware monitor chip. In any
case, you may learn a little bit more about your board, by
using it.

And you're right - I don't see the typical hardware monitor
screen on your motherboard. But it is still possible the
BIOS is doing some basic checks on the hardware. It seems
a bit silly though, for them to do an "F1 halt", without offering
the user a way to correct the problem. So whatever is upsetting
the BIOS, should be visible, whatever the problem is.

Are your fans running ? Have you checked the CPU fan and
any chassis fan lately ?

Paul

I downloaded Speedfan and will try to figure it out (I am only an end-user
and not really technical). One thing I did find out:
entering BIOS Setup, under Advanced, Event Log configuration/View Event Log
reported: "low CMOS battery". This might be the culprit, but the system is
keeping proper date and time. Anyhow, it's worth replacing: will see how it
goes


"Paul" wrote:

> Twanny wrote:
> > The BIOS on this motherboard has the following sections:
> > MAIN - ADVANCED - SECURITY - POWER - BOOT - EXIT
> >
> > I have not located any hardware monitoring anywhere .
> > Furthermore, this "F1" stop appears whenever the machine is rebooted, even
> > after a day's work (shouldn't the fan(s) spin at a normal temperature then?)
> > Unfortunately this mainboard does not have the "Halt on No Errors" option,
> > as I have stated in my post.
> >
> > Even though I have Flashed the BIOS, I am tempted to resort to "Load Setup
> > Defaults" and see what happens. Anyway, thanks again for your time.
> >
>
> This is the manual for the board. The manual says the SMSC LPC47M102 is
> used as a Super I/O chip.
>
> ftp://download.intel.com/support/mot...a/A1696401.pdf
>
> All I see on the chip, is a couple fan monitor channels. That would
> be enough to check the CPU and a chassis for fan speed.
>
> http://www.smsc.com/main/datasheets/47m10x.pdf
>
> And the Intel manual calls the LPC47M102 "optional", which is a little
> bit weird. It would also be controlling the floppy interface, so is
> relatively useful.
>
> The Intel manual also mentions the board can sense the voltages,
> so perhaps it can measure the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V from the
> power supply. Since I don't see any voltage inputs on the
> SuperI/O, there must be another chip hiding on there somewhere.
>
> You could try a program like Speedfan, and see what resources it
> manages to find. Perhaps there is some other chip they added to
> the board, to measure other things of interest.
>
> http://www.almico.com/speedfan435.exe
>
> One of the interesting features of Speedfan, is it automatically
> seeks the best choice of scaling divider in fan monitor circuits.
> As a consequence, it can set up the hardware to measure really
> slow fans. So in fact, the Speedfan code, is better at it than
> the BIOS code that sets up the hardware monitor chip. In any
> case, you may learn a little bit more about your board, by
> using it.
>
> And you're right - I don't see the typical hardware monitor
> screen on your motherboard. But it is still possible the
> BIOS is doing some basic checks on the hardware. It seems
> a bit silly though, for them to do an "F1 halt", without offering
> the user a way to correct the problem. So whatever is upsetting
> the BIOS, should be visible, whatever the problem is.
>
> Are your fans running ? Have you checked the CPU fan and
> any chassis fan lately ?
>
> Paul
>

On Oct 9, 4:01*pm, Twanny <Evens...@Fastweb.net> wrote:
> I downloaded Speedfan and will try to figure it out (I am only an end-user
> and not really technical). One thing I did find out:
> entering BIOS Setup, under Advanced, Event Log configuration/View Event Log
> reported: "low CMOS battery". This might be the culprit, but the system is
> keeping proper date and time. Anyhow, it's worth replacing: will see how it
> goes
>
> "Paul" wrote:
> > Twanny wrote:
> > > The BIOS on this motherboard has the following sections:
> > > MAIN - ADVANCED - SECURITY - POWER - BOOT - EXIT
>
> > > I have not located any hardware monitoring anywhere .
> > > Furthermore, this "F1" stop appears whenever the machine is rebooted,even
> > > after a day's work (shouldn't the fan(s) spin at a normal temperaturethen?)
> > > Unfortunately this mainboard does not have the *"Halt on No Errors"option,
> > > as I have stated in my post.
>
> > > Even though I have Flashed the BIOS, I am tempted to resort to "Load Setup
> > > Defaults" and see what happens. Anyway, thanks again for your time.
>
> > This is the manual for the board. The manual says the SMSC LPC47M102 is
> > used as a Super I/O chip.
>
> >ftp://download.intel.com/support/mot...815eea/A169640...
>
> > All I see on the chip, is a couple fan monitor channels. That would
> > be enough to check the CPU and a chassis for fan speed.
>
> >http://www.smsc.com/main/datasheets/47m10x.pdf
>
> > And the Intel manual calls the LPC47M102 "optional", which is a little
> > bit weird. It would also be controlling the floppy interface, so is
> > relatively useful.
>
> > The Intel manual also mentions the board can sense the voltages,
> > so perhaps it can measure the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V from the
> > power supply. Since I don't see any voltage inputs on the
> > SuperI/O, there must be another chip hiding on there somewhere.
>
> > You could try a program like Speedfan, and see what resources it
> > manages to find. Perhaps there is some other chip they added to
> > the board, to measure other things of interest.
>
> >http://www.almico.com/speedfan435.exe
>
> > One of the interesting features of Speedfan, is it automatically
> > seeks the best choice of scaling divider in fan monitor circuits.
> > As a consequence, it can set up the hardware to measure really
> > slow fans. So in fact, the Speedfan code, is better at it than
> > the BIOS code that sets up the hardware monitor chip. In any
> > case, you may learn a little bit more about your board, by
> > using it.
>
> > And you're right - I don't see the typical hardware monitor
> > screen on your motherboard. But it is still possible the
> > BIOS is doing some basic checks on the hardware. It seems
> > a bit silly though, for them to do an "F1 halt", without offering
> > the user a way to correct the problem. So whatever is upsetting
> > the BIOS, should be visible, whatever the problem is.
>
> > Are your fans running ? Have you checked the CPU fan and
> > any chassis fan lately ?
>
> > * * Paul

Yes, the CMOS battery is very "afforable" as a test to see if the BIOS
F! can be by-passed.

Twanny wrote:
> I downloaded Speedfan and will try to figure it out (I am only an end-user
> and not really technical). One thing I did find out:
> entering BIOS Setup, under Advanced, Event Log configuration/View Event Log
> reported: "low CMOS battery". This might be the culprit, but the system is
> keeping proper date and time. Anyhow, it's worth replacing: will see how it
> goes
>

I didn't know about that Event Log thing. The BIOS I'm used to,
don't keep a record of what is going on. Another thing to
remember for next time I guess.

Paul

BIOS setup; under the advanced tab, arrow down to view events, press
enter. Also the
hardware monitor is further down this list.

"Twanny" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news468AB80-64FE-4B8F-A7AC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> The BIOS on this motherboard has the following sections:
> MAIN - ADVANCED - SECURITY - POWER - BOOT - EXIT
>
> I have not located any hardware monitoring anywhere .
> Furthermore, this "F1" stop appears whenever the machine is
> rebooted, even
> after a day's work (shouldn't the fan(s) spin at a normal
> temperature then?)
> Unfortunately this mainboard does not have the "Halt on No Errors"
> option,
> as I have stated in my post.
>
> Even though I have Flashed the BIOS, I am tempted to resort to "Load
> Setup
> Defaults" and see what happens. Anyway, thanks again for your time.
>
> "Paul" wrote:
>
>> Twanny wrote:
>> > Fault Description: Boot sequence halts at F1
>> > --------------------------------------------
>> > Intel Motherboard model D815EEA P3 Socket 370
>> > Operating System: Windows XP SP3
>> >
>> > Boot-up halts on first screen with message to "press F1 to
>> > continue".
>> > After invoking F1, everything goes well, but his happens
>> > everytime the
>> > system boots.
>> > I have scoured the BIOS to identify any settings to disable this:
>> > it has none.
>> > I have had other motherboards bios with instructions to "Halt on
>> > all errors,
>> > keyboard etc., but this model hasn't.
>> >
>> > Checked Intel's site for support and downloaded the Flash Bios
>> > which was
>> > carried out successfully, but still the F1 halting comes up.
>> > Doubled checked connections and even replaced, keyboard, mouse
>> > Ram modules,
>> > power chord and even Power supply, without any success.

SNIP