Hello,

I have tried building my own vga cable by following http://www.happybison.com/reviews/insta ... re-h340-6/ but was unsuccessful. I have followed the pinout for the CN12 header on the board and set the JP3 jumper but in the end the BIOS never displays (no video signal).

I am trying to add a pci-express video card to the x4 slot on the H340 motherboard. I have melted the back of the x4 slot with a soldering iron and inserted a geforce 8600gt pci-e x16. The unit appears to boot and the video card fan is on but I still don't receive video. I have tried it with and without the JP3 jumper on.

Also I slid the motherboard out to insert the x16 video card and in the process was not able to connect the LED light housing or the SATA board housing because they are out of reach.

Anyone have any clues as to how I can troubleshoot the video card? I can post specific images if it helps.

Thanks for the help,
Anthony Bargnesi

Hi abargnesi welcome to the forums:

You might want to compare the info you have with the info in the following forum link:http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=622

Now this link originally was for an HP EX470 MSS but the same debug port configuration is used on the Acer Easy Store Servers.

Of course you can purchase a Debug Board already made for your server which you can read about in the following link: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/05 ... available/

Although I like to build things there are times when its just easier to just purchase an item already made.

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Thanks for the links. I've re-read the classic post from ymboc/cakalapati and I will have another go at the cable tomorrow.

I purchased a Zotac x1 video card from amazon for $30 so that is my fallback.

More info or questions as it develops.

Ok I built the debug connector using a vga female adapter and some pre-crimped wires.



I then connected it into the housing based on HappyBison's pinout at http://www.happybison.com/reviews/insta ... re-h340-6/



Then I connected it to the motherboard and made sure JP3 jumper was on.



I reassembled the H340 and it started up fine but I still don't get a BIOS screen. I have NAS 4 Free installed on the first hard drive so I would expect to see some log while it boots up.

The precrimped wires don't appear to be the 24-28 AWG terminators that are recommended from digikey.

I did a continuity test between the vga cable I am using from the monitor and the housing slots. I have confirmed all pins are connected. The interesting bit is that the vga cable metal cap, pin 4 (reserved), pin 5 (ground), pin 11 (reserved), pin 16 (red ground), pin 20 (green ground), and pin 24 (blue ground) are all connected. I've confirmed this for each grounding wire.

How else can I troubleshoot why video isn't displayed? Can I use the multimeter to test when the connector is plugged in to the board?

Thanks for the help.