Savage1701
Posts: 154 +1
I am trying to use just an older socket 370 MB for the PCI slots to hold Gigabyte i-RAM cards. Now, the cards are only supposed to need 3.3 or 5 v power from the PCI bus. They are not supposed to need any data from the MB, cpu, PCI bus, etc.
I have a couple of these running in an old Socket 370 computer that I just boot to a DOS floppy, as well as on an older Socket 775 system. The cards work fine as RAM disks. Figuring this was fine, I picked up another Socket 370 MB without CPU, Memory, Hard Drive, Video Card, etc. I installed an i-RAM card, and plugged the ATX connector in. I shorted the green line on the ATX connector to one of the grounds. The board lights up, fans run off of it, and the i-RAM card shows it is charging and functional, but the other computer I plug the SATA cable into from the i-RAM drive won't see the drive. I know it's not the card, because I swapped it in and out of the other full socket 370 computer and it worked. I had a similar problem trying to run these cards on a PCI passive backplane with power on. Question is this - when I turn on a full-fledged computer, does it route power or activate chipsets, etc. that just shorting the PSU does not? What I can't figure out is that the i-RAM is drawing normal power according to its indicators. Obviously with no CPU or RAM the MB is "dumb", but that is what I wanted - just a collection of powered PCI slots. Any thoughts are appreciated.
I have a couple of these running in an old Socket 370 computer that I just boot to a DOS floppy, as well as on an older Socket 775 system. The cards work fine as RAM disks. Figuring this was fine, I picked up another Socket 370 MB without CPU, Memory, Hard Drive, Video Card, etc. I installed an i-RAM card, and plugged the ATX connector in. I shorted the green line on the ATX connector to one of the grounds. The board lights up, fans run off of it, and the i-RAM card shows it is charging and functional, but the other computer I plug the SATA cable into from the i-RAM drive won't see the drive. I know it's not the card, because I swapped it in and out of the other full socket 370 computer and it worked. I had a similar problem trying to run these cards on a PCI passive backplane with power on. Question is this - when I turn on a full-fledged computer, does it route power or activate chipsets, etc. that just shorting the PSU does not? What I can't figure out is that the i-RAM is drawing normal power according to its indicators. Obviously with no CPU or RAM the MB is "dumb", but that is what I wanted - just a collection of powered PCI slots. Any thoughts are appreciated.
