Help needed fast to find motherboard drivers AtecStar

[Gabriel Knight]

Hi I need motherboard drivers fast for a motherboard that has a name
AtecStar as a sticker on one of the ports printer if im correct and a
sticker with A9GM-1394 for the Mobo I cant find any with google or
driversguide or driverscollection all I need is the onboard video and
onboard sound and one called SM bus controller these are the only ones in
device manager for Win XP Pro. I can put a sound card and an agp card in if
I have to but that just means I need the SM bus controller one to get this
running good, this must be a fairly (crappy) non used mobo as the words
atecstar in google are far and few between but there is a site but I cant
read it as it is in chinese or japanese and google cant translate it. Thanks
all.

 

[Gabriel Knight]

Everyone I have found what I needed I used right click driver pack that I
forgot I had on a dvd that I have

I do now need a manual for the pins of the USB as I have to install a card
reader with individual pins so I need to know what the pins are for the usb
on the mobo or can someone tell me what they are if they are a generic pin
setting. it has:


bg vcc
X O O O O
O O O O O

X is no pin and the only one I paid attention to is the bg and the vcc the
bg is next to the X and the vcc is at the end now (this is what the old
cable was when I pulled out the front usb cable on the case) the other five
pins I dont know I need to put the usb cable for the card reader in that
has pins as: GND, D+, D-, GNDA and VCC.

Then I have a IEEE1394 cable (this is the sticker on the cable) to put on
the mobo too it has:

TX+, TX-, RX+, RX-, VCC and GND. do I use the TX's on one usb port and the
RX's on another usb port but then which port do I put the VCC and GND to?

 

[SC Tom]

Everyone I have found what I needed I used right click driver pack that I
forgot I had on a dvd that I have

I do now need a manual for the pins of the USB as I have to install a card
reader with individual pins so I need to know what the pins are for the
usb on the mobo or can someone tell me what they are if they are a generic
pin setting. it has:


bg vcc
X O O O O
O O O O O

X is no pin and the only one I paid attention to is the bg and the vcc the
bg is next to the X and the vcc is at the end now (this is what the old
cable was when I pulled out the front usb cable on the case) the other
five pins I dont know I need to put the usb cable for the card reader in
that has pins as: GND, D+, D-, GNDA and VCC.

Then I have a IEEE1394 cable (this is the sticker on the cable) to put on
the mobo too it has:

TX+, TX-, RX+, RX-, VCC and GND. do I use the TX's on one usb port and the
RX's on another usb port but then which port do I put the VCC and GND to?

IEEE 1394 is not USB, it's firewire <http://www.frontx.com/cpx105_2.html>.
Connecting it to USB ports on the MB is a very, VERY bad idea. The 9-pin MB
connector you're looking at may not be for USB, it may be for the firewire
<http://www.via.com.tw/en/downloads/brochures/peripherals/1394_1.pdf>,
unless it's specifically labeled USB.

On my old Asus board (M2NPV-VM) the USB pin-outs are

6 10
o o o o o o
o o o o o x
1 5

1- +5V
2- P7- (data -)
3- P7+ (data +)
4- GND
5- no pin
6- +5V
7- P8-
8- P8+
9- GND
10- not connected

The P7 and P8 are for ports 7 and 8; that board has two connectors like this
for the front panel. I had a total of 8 USB ports between the front and the
back.

The IEEE 1394a connector is
(same connector diagram as above)

1- TPA1+
2- GND
3- TPB1+
4- +12V
5- no pin
6- TPA1-
7- GND
8- TPB1-
9- +12V
10- GND

So, you can see from the pin-outs that crossing those connectors could cause
irreparable damage to the device plugged in and/or the MB.
Hopefully this will help. Some kind of fun, huh

 

[SC Tom]

Everyone I have found what I needed I used right click driver pack that I
forgot I had on a dvd that I have

I do now need a manual for the pins of the USB as I have to install a card
reader with individual pins so I need to know what the pins are for the
usb on the mobo or can someone tell me what they are if they are a generic
pin setting. it has:


bg vcc
X O O O O
O O O O O

X is no pin and the only one I paid attention to is the bg and the vcc the
bg is next to the X and the vcc is at the end now (this is what the old
cable was when I pulled out the front usb cable on the case) the other
five pins I dont know I need to put the usb cable for the card reader in
that has pins as: GND, D+, D-, GNDA and VCC.

Then I have a IEEE1394 cable (this is the sticker on the cable) to put on
the mobo too it has:

TX+, TX-, RX+, RX-, VCC and GND. do I use the TX's on one usb port and the
RX's on another usb port but then which port do I put the VCC and GND to?

I think I may have found the manual for your MB
<ftp://driver1.cptech.com.tw/manual/A300M-E1394%20manual.pdf>

Check it out and see. It's a very slow FTP connection, so be patient. If by
chance you can't get it, I saved a copy and can post it somewhere for you.

 

[Paul]

Everyone I have found what I needed I used right click driver pack that I
forgot I had on a dvd that I have

I do now need a manual for the pins of the USB as I have to install a card
reader with individual pins so I need to know what the pins are for the usb
on the mobo or can someone tell me what they are if they are a generic pin
setting. it has:


bg vcc
X O O O O
O O O O O

X is no pin and the only one I paid attention to is the bg and the vcc the
bg is next to the X and the vcc is at the end now (this is what the old
cable was when I pulled out the front usb cable on the case) the other five
pins I dont know I need to put the usb cable for the card reader in that
has pins as: GND, D+, D-, GNDA and VCC.

Then I have a IEEE1394 cable (this is the sticker on the cable) to put on
the mobo too it has:

TX+, TX-, RX+, RX-, VCC and GND. do I use the TX's on one usb port and the
RX's on another usb port but then which port do I put the VCC and GND to?

USENET works on an ancient time scale. If you're lucky,
you get your answer within the next 24 hours. If you're
not lucky, you never get an answer.

Try here for docs.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040903201150/http://www.atecstar.com/eng/product/mb/a9gm-1394.htm

You can track down the drivers, using the chip numbers of course.
But the ATI chipset package or graphics driver would be a critical part.

Now, the motherboard itself, looks suspiciously similar
to the FIC P4M-RS300. Not exactly the same, but a good
deal of similarity. FIC is out of business as near as
I can tell.

http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/motherboards_d/FIC/P4M-RS300/

http://www.firingsquad.com/products/product_images/hw/LARGE_fic_p4m-rs300.jpg

But even with that knowledge, the FIC angle is a dead end. Really dead.
No info of note. They didn't put a manual for that motherboard
on their website. Ever.

I think this is going to cost you a video card, at least.
The sound, you can probably find that on RealTek.com.tw .

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=23&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Maybe if you can figure out another chipset that uses
IXP150, you can get the SMBUS driver from it.

If I was doing this, it might take me the whole day to
get a pig like that ready. If it was a customer,
I'd probably kick them out the door

Paul

 

[Paul]

I think I may have found the manual for your MB
<ftp://driver1.cptech.com.tw/manual/A300M-E1394%20manual.pdf>

Check it out and see. It's a very slow FTP connection, so be patient. If
by chance you can't get it, I saved a copy and can post it somewhere for
you.

That's a good find. I didn't even get a whiff of that
when I went searching...

Now, when I looked at the motherboard picture in that
manual, which is a bit on the blurry side, I can see
the "real" motherboard number on that thing. It's
the FIC P4M-RS300. Look closely between the slots
in the manual you found. The board is a rebranded P4M-RS300.
(And the Firewire header looks like it's missing. I
couldn't see the pin header for it, next to the VIA chip.

http://www.firingsquad.com/products/product_images/hw/LARGE_fic_p4m-rs300.jpg

It looks like FIC OEMed that to other small companies,
and between the lot of them, there is practically
nothing left. You can probably find drivers, but
it'll be a long, long day.

Paul

 

[SC Tom]

That's a good find. I didn't even get a whiff of that
when I went searching...

Now, when I looked at the motherboard picture in that
manual, which is a bit on the blurry side, I can see
the "real" motherboard number on that thing. It's
the FIC P4M-RS300. Look closely between the slots
in the manual you found. The board is a rebranded P4M-RS300.
(And the Firewire header looks like it's missing. I
couldn't see the pin header for it, next to the VIA chip.

http://www.firingsquad.com/products/product_images/hw/LARGE_fic_p4m-rs300.jpg

It looks like FIC OEMed that to other small companies,
and between the lot of them, there is practically
nothing left. You can probably find drivers, but
it'll be a long, long day.

The firewire headers ( (2) 5-pin) are on the edge of the MB by the last PCI
slot on the left.

I think you're right about the FIC MB being sold to smaller companies, hence
the discrepancy in MB numbers. The search I did for A9GM-1394 brought up a
forum that suggested the "true" number A300M-E1394, so I searched for it and
found the link I posted. I can't read the bar code label to see what it
says.

Depending on the header that he has for the firewire, he may be re-doing it
to fit. On my Asus MB that I gave the pin-out on, it was a single 10-pin
block on the MB and the
header was a matching connector with a plug in pin 10. I can remember one
Compaq desktop that I had with another Asus board that had the 10-pin block
on the MB, but the the header was two 5-pin connectors with one hole plugged
on one of them.

Also, I just pulled my old M2NPV-VM MB out of the closet, and the firewire
block on the MB is red as opposed to the black USB ones. It doesn't look
like the two on this MB are; they look black in the picture.

I'm interested to see how it works out for Gabriel. Makes me want to pull
all my older parts out of the closet and see what I can throw together LOL.
I have a nice full tower out in the shed would hold just about anything I
throw in it

 

[Paul]

The firewire headers ( (2) 5-pin) are on the edge of the MB by the last
PCI slot on the left.

I think you're right about the FIC MB being sold to smaller companies,
hence the discrepancy in MB numbers. The search I did for A9GM-1394
brought up a forum that suggested the "true" number A300M-E1394, so I
searched for it and found the link I posted. I can't read the bar code
label to see what it says.

Depending on the header that he has for the firewire, he may be re-doing
it to fit. On my Asus MB that I gave the pin-out on, it was a single
10-pin block on the MB and the
header was a matching connector with a plug in pin 10. I can remember
one Compaq desktop that I had with another Asus board that had the
10-pin block on the MB, but the the header was two 5-pin connectors with
one hole plugged on one of them.

Also, I just pulled my old M2NPV-VM MB out of the closet, and the
firewire block on the MB is red as opposed to the black USB ones. It
doesn't look like the two on this MB are; they look black in the picture.

I'm interested to see how it works out for Gabriel. Makes me want to
pull all my older parts out of the closet and see what I can throw
together LOL. I have a nice full tower out in the shed would hold just
about anything I throw in it

What I noticed in the picture, was a 2x7 connector near the VIA
chip in the upper left.

http://www.firingsquad.com/products/product_images/hw/LARGE_fic_p4m-rs300.jpg

The A300 manual doesn't have any mention of that, and it isn't
in the A300 picture either. I can't figure out what that might be.
It looks to be a 2x7, with one pin blocked in the center on one side.
So a total of 13 pins, with 1 keying pin. And since it's near the
VIA chip, I figured it might be a Firewire.

I've seen a couple different patterns for Firewire, but I thought
eventually they settled on one pinout for later boards. FrontX
has some of it documented, but I don't think they include the
FIC configuration here.

http://www.frontx.com/cpx105_2.html

Some header patterns for Firewire, they use two pins for VCC and
two pins for GND. And that's to handle the max current that
Firewire bus can draw. I notice the FIC board has a Polyfuse
next to each header. So at least you're protected
against a burnout. And the board seems to have enough
Polyfuses in other areas. (That's a measure of cheapness,
and some of the el-cheapo boards cut corners on that,
and run a bunch of 5V interfaces, off the same Polyfuse.)

Paul

 

[GMAN]

That's a good find. I didn't even get a whiff of that
when I went searching...

Now, when I looked at the motherboard picture in that
manual, which is a bit on the blurry side, I can see
the "real" motherboard number on that thing. It's
the FIC P4M-RS300. Look closely between the slots
in the manual you found. The board is a rebranded P4M-RS300.
(And the Firewire header looks like it's missing. I
couldn't see the pin header for it, next to the VIA chip.

http://www.firingsquad.com/products/product_images/hw/LARGE_fic_p4m-rs300.jpg

It looks like FIC OEMed that to other small companies,
and between the lot of them, there is practically
nothing left. You can probably find drivers, but
it'll be a long, long day.

Paul

With it being an ATI chipset, just go to www.amd.com and do an auto drivers
search

 

[Paul]

With it being an ATI chipset, just go to www.amd.com and do an auto drivers
search

The closest I could find manually, was a Win2K driver. Even though
I think the chipset was released after WinXP was.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/integrated-2k.aspx

Paul

 

[Paul]

The closest I could find manually, was a Win2K driver. Even though
I think the chipset was released after WinXP was.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/integrated-2k.aspx

Paul

The P4R800-V Deluxe appears to have the same chipset, and
the "VGA" driver is an all-in-one package for Win2K/XP.
Includes an SMBUS driver. 27.02 (MBytes) 2004.04.29 update

http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=P4R800-V+Deluxe&p=1&s=15

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/P4R800-V Deluxe/Win2K_XP_7991.zip

Paul

 

[Jan Alter]

USENET works on an ancient time scale. If you're lucky,
you get your answer within the next 24 hours. If you're
not lucky, you never get an answer.

Try here for docs.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040903201150/http://www.atecstar.com/eng/product/mb/a9gm-1394.htm

You can track down the drivers, using the chip numbers of course.
But the ATI chipset package or graphics driver would be a critical part.

Now, the motherboard itself, looks suspiciously similar
to the FIC P4M-RS300. Not exactly the same, but a good
deal of similarity. FIC is out of business as near as
I can tell.

http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/motherboards_d/FIC/P4M-RS300/

http://www.firingsquad.com/products/product_images/hw/LARGE_fic_p4m-rs300.jpg

But even with that knowledge, the FIC angle is a dead end. Really dead.
No info of note. They didn't put a manual for that motherboard
on their website. Ever.

I think this is going to cost you a video card, at least.
The sound, you can probably find that on RealTek.com.tw .

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=23&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Maybe if you can figure out another chipset that uses
IXP150, you can get the SMBUS driver from it.

If I was doing this, it might take me the whole day to
get a pig like that ready. If it was a customer,
I'd probably kick them out the door

Paul

Check out Driverpack Solution.

This conglomeration of drivers amounts to about 2 1/2 gb, but I found its
detection program to find drivers for two of my older computers complete to
find all drivers except for one driver on a tuner capture card. What's more
is that the program is free and touted as 'open source'. I copied the files
to a DVD and ran it on each computer successfully. For a couple of years now
I've used a service called Driver Agent to find drivers on old and new
computers, but this thing looks like a posssible free solution.


http://drp.su/download.htm

 

[Gabriel Knight]

Thank you very much Paul and SC Tom for the intense google searching for a
BaD MoThErBOard I ended up finishing this mobo with my forgotten Driverpack
Solution 12.3 Final like Jan reccomended its like 3.13 Gig in size and found
all three of the drivers needed as for the IEEE I cant see it then but I
forgot I already had a 2x firewire pluged in and installed in the case using
both of the motherboards two (ports?) pin array so I pulled one out looked
at it and didnt know the pin settings because the manual is different to the
AtecStar as pin 9 was nc and pin 10 was ?? so I put it back - - the job was
for a repairs centre and firewire as I know wont be used so the card readers
firewire was not pluged in if they realy needed it it was on the back of the
pc so I apologise for all this searching to get IEEE working for me and
forgetful me already had it!! From SC Toms manual I was able to use the usb
pins for the card reader and tested it with a 128mb guinea pig flash drive
to see if it would work or burn luckily it worked.

There was one thing about this AtecStar board and that was that it would not
100% always turn on from pressing the power button sometimes it would power
up and have the fans spin but there was only a black monitor screen,
sometimes shutting down the pc in windows wouldnt work till the power button
was pressed (at the windows is now shutting down - usually the last this you
see) that got me to test the power supply with my useful tester (bought from
ebay) nothing wrong, I tried with another power supply and still the
same?!?!? nothing wrong with the ram as far as memtest 86+ after 3 rounds,
the cpu?? or this board was a bit faulty, no caps buldging or bent. Is this
board just faulty or a cheap board I saved them from using this pc as it had
to many problems in the start to be a safe working money maker and the
second hand HDD I had was not up to my trusting standards its a good thing
because it was making way to much read/write noise only after I finished it
with all updates and AV plus more. SC Tom if you want to get out your old
boards I hope they dont have as much dust as the AtecStar had at its
begining of its refurbishment for somehow the pc case had no case fan it
must of been about five to six maybe more years worth of dust I guess that
is why the power on and off isnt fully working.

Ok long post guys but thanks again for the help.

 

[Paul]

Thank you very much Paul and SC Tom for the intense google searching for a
BaD MoThErBOard I ended up finishing this mobo with my forgotten Driverpack
Solution 12.3 Final like Jan reccomended its like 3.13 Gig in size and found
all three of the drivers needed as for the IEEE I cant see it then but I
forgot I already had a 2x firewire pluged in and installed in the case using
both of the motherboards two (ports?) pin array so I pulled one out looked
at it and didnt know the pin settings because the manual is different to the
AtecStar as pin 9 was nc and pin 10 was ?? so I put it back - - the job was
for a repairs centre and firewire as I know wont be used so the card readers
firewire was not pluged in if they realy needed it it was on the back of the
pc so I apologise for all this searching to get IEEE working for me and
forgetful me already had it!! From SC Toms manual I was able to use the usb
pins for the card reader and tested it with a 128mb guinea pig flash drive
to see if it would work or burn luckily it worked.

There was one thing about this AtecStar board and that was that it would not
100% always turn on from pressing the power button sometimes it would power
up and have the fans spin but there was only a black monitor screen,
sometimes shutting down the pc in windows wouldnt work till the power button
was pressed (at the windows is now shutting down - usually the last this you
see) that got me to test the power supply with my useful tester (bought from
ebay) nothing wrong, I tried with another power supply and still the
same?!?!? nothing wrong with the ram as far as memtest 86+ after 3 rounds,
the cpu?? or this board was a bit faulty, no caps buldging or bent. Is this
board just faulty or a cheap board I saved them from using this pc as it had
to many problems in the start to be a safe working money maker and the
second hand HDD I had was not up to my trusting standards its a good thing
because it was making way to much read/write noise only after I finished it
with all updates and AV plus more. SC Tom if you want to get out your old
boards I hope they dont have as much dust as the AtecStar had at its
begining of its refurbishment for somehow the pc case had no case fan it
must of been about five to six maybe more years worth of dust I guess that
is why the power on and off isnt fully working.

Ok long post guys but thanks again for the help.

Based on symptoms (changed ATX supply and symptoms did not change),
it suggests the motherboard PS_ON# driver isn't working well.

You can access the electrical connections on the main motherboard
power connector, while the cable is plugged in. The plastic shell
on the 20 or 24 pin main connector, is open at the back. You can push a
multimeter tip into each of the individual cells of the main connector,
and make electrical contact with the pin in there. By doing that,
you can get a voltage measurement.

Set your multimeter to volts, maybe 20V scale would be good. (My meter has
2, 20, 200, and 20V is the closest.) Clip the black voltage lead of the
multimeter, to a chassis screw, like a screw on an I/O connector on the
backplate area. This frees up a hand you can use to hold the red probe
and take measurements.

You want to check the voltage on the PS_ON# pin. See page 30.

http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/atx/ATX12V_1_3dg.pdf

When you plug in the PC, and then flip on the switch at the back,
you get +5VSB delivered to the motherboard. The motherboard PS_ON#
driver is open collector, and there is at least a pullup resistor
on the ATX supply end. With the multimeter, with the PC still not
running, the voltage should be 5V.

When you push the power button on the front, that's a momentary
contact switch. That does not connect directly to the PS_ON# line.
The front switch, goes to a logic chip on the motherboard. The
momentary pulse from the front switch, is "latched" by the logic
and converted to a steady level on PS_ON#. The open collector
driver on the motherboard, should drive PS_ON# to between 0.4 and
0.8V. That is a "logic low", and the "#" symbol in the PS_ON# signal
name, means it is "active low". So when the line voltage there
drops to 0.4 to 0.8 V or so, the power supply should turn on.

At the end of your computing session, the computer wishes to shut down.
The command causes the logic on the motherboard to deassert PS_ON#.
The voltage rises back to +5.0V again.

Failure to go through those state transitions, can hint at the
defect. It could be a bad motherboard. If you really wanted to
know, you'd use a 20 pin extender cable, one you can afford to
cut up, and interrupt the PS_ON# signal by cutting it in half.
Strip the ends, so you have electrical connections to work with.
Doing that, allows you to check whether the computer goes
off when the wire connection is opened. And, whether the voltage
on the PSU end of the line, rises to +5V by itself. That's
also a test you can do on the PSU while it is completely
disconnected from the motherboard. The PS_ON# line should be
resting at +5V, when the main power connector is not connected
to anything, but the supply is plugged in to the wall (and switched
on at the back).

HTH,
Paul