Gigabyte TA1

[curtis]

So, I picked up one of these at a garage sale last weekend for a decent price and thought I'd turn it into a ICAROS box.

Installed memory is a bit thin at 384MB, but that isn't the problem.  I am unable to get the OS installed on the hard drive.

It only has a CD, so tried hooking up a portable DVD player and boot from that, but the DVD I freshly burned didn't work.

Tried Lite in the CD and all I got was a constant reboot.

I then tried booting from the DVD in my regular computer and doing an install on the hard drive then put the hard drive in the TA1, but the hard drive won't boot once installed.

Thinking the hard drive might be bad, I tried several other hard drives I have ranging in size for 6MB up to 80GB.  All give errors and don't install.  Yet these same drives format just fine in Windows 10.

So, seeing I'm just about at the end of my wits and about to give upon this project, I'm asking for help.

Here's the specs on the TA1:

ChipsetVIA VT8601T(PLE133T) / VT82C686B                 VESAVIA EBGA C3 800MHz / 1GHz                 CPU

• VIA C3 EBGA 733MHz and above
• Automatic 100 /133 MHz FSB
• Automatic detect CPU core voltage

                Memory

• 2 x 168 pin DIMM sockets
• Support PC100 /PC133 SDRAM
• Support up to 1GB SDRAM
• Support only 3.3V SDRAM

                GraphicsVIA S3 ProSavage integrated graphics
Is it worth still trying to Icaros working on this machine?

Curtis

[curtis]

Forgot to mention I also tried doing the USB thumb drive install route also.

No go.

[curtis]

@blizz1220, yes, got the boot order correct.

Can't even get to the video menu!

Checked my CD and it boots on my regular machine, but not the Gigabyte.

There's not a whole lot of configuration options/jumpers available.

This machine started life as a "thin" client, but it has the basics for a full blown computer.

And, I also think you're right about just selling it on fleabay.  Checked over there and the only thing TA1 related is memory modules!  That's probably where they're headed next.

Oh well, I tried!

[curtis]

Got some more info, all bad.

I noticed I said I picked up one of these, but actually I got 2 of them.

Downloaded and burned a bootable CD of Puppy Linux.  It's a very lightweight distro that actually will load to a CD.

Popped it into one of the machines and it said the CD was not bootable.  Hmm, bad CD drive?

Switched the CD drives to see what would happen and I got the same response.  So, safe to assume it wasn't the drive, but rather the IDE channel.

Tried both CD drives in the other machine and they both booted.

After booting from the CD I attempted to install the Puppy Linux distro onto the hard drive.  It chummed along and looked like it was doing the install.  However, when I popped the CD out and tried to boot from the hard drive, I got a "no system installed."  So it looks like the main IDE channel is bad on this machine!

Seeing as the IDE controller is integrated into the motherboard, it would seem both machines are not usable.

One last thing I'm going to try is try the hard drive I installed the Linux on in the other machine (the one with the bad secondary IDE channel).  If that works, I might be able to at least get a bootable machine.

If not, I have a couple of high-tech door stops!

[curtis]

Well, tried the hard drive that supposedly had Puppy Linux installed on it and got the same result, "Missing operating system."

To quote Leonard McCoy, "It's dead, Jim."

I would try installing Windows on them, but some how or another, I don't have an XP CD anymore!  May try a Win 98.

[curtis]

Hmmm, hadn't thought of that.

Guess it wouldn't hurt.

You could try re-flashing the bios?

[curtis]

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Found the updated BIOS.  Copied it to a thumb drive.  Tried to boot with a floppy drive with MS-DOS 5.0, but it doesn't recognize the USB drive!  

Attempted to format a floppy using a USB drive on a Windows 10 computer and it doesn't recognize the USB floppy drive!  DANGED progress...NOT!!!

Anyway, now I'm booting from a DOS 5 diskette on the TA1, formatting the C drive and will boot from the PUPPY Linux CD then copy the BIOS files to the hard drive and reboot with the floppy to access the BIOS files in DOS and HOPEFULLY update the BIOS.

Ya know, I must really be a sado-masochist to go to this much trouble just for play!!!

[curtis]

Well after reflashing the BIOS I booted from the Puppy CD and attempted to install it to the hard drive.

As usual, everything looked like it was working, but when I popped the CD out and rebooted with just the hard drive, still get the dreaded "No Operating System Installed."

I do believe it is time to stop trying to heal terminally broke equipment and move on to something a bit more fun, because this is DEFINITELY NOT FUN ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!