need info on Chaintech MB

[evasive]

Can you make a clear picture of that and send it to me or put it online somewhere? Might be useful for future owners. You have seen the picture in the manual?

Check for bad capacitors on the board and in your power supply
More info here:
http://www.badcaps.net

If you feel more comfortable, post the new question in the Tech support forum.

[Karlsweldt]

The cause for no "life signs" from a system could be simple. If the BIOS battery is dead or weak, that can cause the system real-time clock to stop working. Without the real-time clock, the system may not start. If so, an easy fix. Have seen dozens of cases like that.
Then too, the overlooked power issues. All power sockets mated with leads? Many have an axillary power socket near the CPU.. for +12 volts. Easy enough to check if the PSU is powered.. the violet lead at the rear of the ATX power plug should have +5 volts on it, as long as power enters the PSU, whether active or not.

After 20+ years of building/repairing computers, you learn a lot.

[Mike-K]

Can you make a clear picture of that and send it to me or put it online somewhere? Might be useful for future owners. You have seen the picture in the manual?

Even tho it's actually printed on the board? (No, I don't know how I totally missed it.)

I would like to mention that this model was apparently re-designed (perhaps to incorporate other ideas). Considering how much I researched this board, I'm confident that I found just about everything. But, I didn't find any pictures that showed an identical layout.

All the boards that I found look the same as on Chaintech's archived site, and Chaintech has that model as S1689-000LC. Note that I have an S1689-000LD. Be aware that the manual does not perfectly apply to the newer version. I noticed these differences: the front-panel header has a different layout, there are more external USB headers, the audio jacks are parallel to the board, it has a 15-pin game port, no on-board speaker, and no jumpers to set the CPU voltage or external clock, or the frequency ratio.

Indeed, my board is quite similar to another unit -- the 9bjd (which is an earlier vintage). I noticed some interesting similarities to this board: the front-panel header is identical, the audio jack/game port is identical, and no jumpers.

There is also the 'dual core' issue. The manual for the original states that a dual-core will be recognized with bios v 6. I had the exact cpu (an Athlon 64 x2 4600+). I tried it, and it was recognized (specified in post screen); also, I booted a live linux, and used the system monitor to confirm that both cores were functioning. Considering that the original owner didn't keep a board long enough to worry about updating the bios (anxious to get the latest and greatest), I believe that this board came as such.

[evasive]

Errr ok, so the board boots now? If not, what video card are you using? It seems this board does not like PCI cards, only AGP.

[Karlsweldt]

"S1689" is the base model for that motherboard. Did a lot of searching, but also could not find specifics for your S1689-000LD model. The "tag" indicates different features or improvements.
Unfortunately, Chaintech is sort of defunct now. The brand was acquired and renamed Walton Chaintech Corporation in Oct. 2005.
But as to video setup, it does have a 4x/8x AGP slot. In the BIOS, there should be a control line as to first choice for video.. AGP or PCI. Many AGP cards may have a power connector on the inner edge. That has to be mated to a lead set from the PSU.
The slot cannot provide enough power otherwise.