Motherboard manual rant

[larrybody]

My son brought me his roomates three year old computer that would not boot. No real problem fixing it, it was a simple corrupt boot sector. After a repartition, format and reinstall I identified the Motherboard and proceeded to gather up and install the drivers. I noticed that both the power and HDD led's did not work. Someone had replaced the motherboard and failed to hook them up. I thought I would save some time and download the manual to to see the correct wiring. Although the manufacturer had the download listed the file was empty. This is a NForce 3 chipset MB. I checked with five other mauufactures that make comparable products and their manuals were avaiable for downloading. I cannot understand a manufacturer that won't supply support information (documentation) for something only three years old. I guess I will try the trial and error mehod, no big deal I will figure it out. Now my question, Does anybody know where to go for for archived product documentation that is no longer avaiable thru the maunfactures website?

 

[Ididmyc600]

My son brought me his roomates three year old computer that would not boot. No real problem fixing it, it was a simple corrupt boot sector. After a repartition, format and reinstall I identified the Motherboard and proceeded to gather up and install the drivers. I noticed that both the power and HDD led's did not work. Someone had replaced the motherboard and failed to hook them up. I thought I would save some time and download the manual to to see the correct wiring. Although the manufacturer had the download listed the file was empty. This is a NForce 3 chipset MB. I checked with five other mauufactures that make comparable products and their manuals were avaiable for downloading. I cannot understand a manufacturer that won't supply support information (documentation) for something only three years old. I guess I will try the trial and error mehod, no big deal I will figure it out. Now my question, Does anybody know where to go for for archived product documentation that is no longer avaiable thru the maunfactures website?

I found the same problem with an older board I acquired, I never did get the manual, I just dug out my test meter and found out that way, only advice I can offer is to try the Mobo websites forum maybe..

Regards

 

[mailpup]

What is the motherboard in question, make and model? I'm in the dark.

 

[larrybody]

More information

The motherboard in question is a Chaintech VN F3-250 which has a Nforce3 chipset. It has a 9X2 front panel connector. The top row has all nine pins and the bottom row has the #15 pin missing as a key. The power switch are the only leads connected with the orange wire on the #11 pin and the white wire on the #13 pin. This is correct for the power switch. I cannot tell from the motherboard lettering what the other pins are for. I would like to hook up the PW LED, the HDD LED, and the RESET switch. If anyone has has knowlege of the pinouts it would be great. Googleing is not getting me there and I have not found documention on another motherboard with this 9X2 arangement.

 

[Tedster]

look here:

http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/eng/product_spec.asp?PISNo=276

 

[larrybody]

Thanks Tedster, I have been to that site several times. I directs me to a download site in Tiawan, but it always comes up that the file is empty. In fact it does that for every motherboard manual on the website. Maybe ther is a problem with Chaintech's FTP server or something.

 

[mailpup]

If you look on the motherboard itself, you might find some small lettering on the board at the pinouts that tell you which is which.

 

[larrybody]

Problem Resolved

Thanks everybody,
I serched the Internet untill I finally found a motherboard manual for a socket A board from the same manufacturer with the same 9X2 pin arangement. That gave me enough information to figure out the correct pinout. Everything is clean and green now. The board in question is less than three years old. Even if a manufacturer does not want to support it's older products, how hard can it be to keep doccumention archived on a FTP server. Makes you think twice before purchasing parts from that manufacturer again.