Dead computer?

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 23:28:18 GMT, sbb78247 wrote:

Oh yea? Well top this! I have a couple of 286s up in the attic! one is a
blazing 12 mhz and the other is a 20! I think I still have isa video for
them and add in controller cards for the monsterous 40 mb hd! and if i look
around I think I still have some old 5-1/4 and possibly some 8" drives
around. Also, I think in the storage room at my parents house, they still
have an old IBM PC jr.! 8086 cpu and no ram to speak of!!!!!

Oh wait, I found an 8088 in my attic.

S

I just found a 5 1/4" floppy drive in my collection. I also have a 3 1/2"
- 5 1/4" floppy combo drive somewhere around here. I don't have the 286
anymore though, got rid of that along with the 40MB hard drive a few years
back. Still have my DOS 3.1 floppy disks, though. vbg

Patty
(got to stop being such a packrat, but I'm afraid it runs in the family)

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 13:48:59 -0800, johns wrote:

Windows. Not something I'd want to leave up to a computer illiterate old
lady.

DELL swears they have free on-site tech support :-)
Seriously, you are going to regret this one !!!

johns

I'm wondering if the tech support person is going to fly in from India.
;o)

Patty

Patty wrote:

As far as I understand from reading the info at
Tom's Hardware, the Antec ATX Power Supply Tester
allows you to check the various voltages using a
meter.

With a meter, so does a bent paperclip.

Patty wrote:

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 23:28:18 GMT, sbb78247 wrote:


Oh yea? Well top this! I have a couple of 286s up in the attic! one is a
blazing 12 mhz and the other is a 20! I think I still have isa video for
them and add in controller cards for the monsterous 40 mb hd! and if i look
around I think I still have some old 5-1/4 and possibly some 8" drives
around. Also, I think in the storage room at my parents house, they still
have an old IBM PC jr.! 8086 cpu and no ram to speak of!!!!!

Oh wait, I found an 8088 in my attic.

S


I just found a 5 1/4" floppy drive in my collection. I also have a 3 1/2"
- 5 1/4" floppy combo drive somewhere around here. I don't have the 286
anymore though, got rid of that along with the 40MB hard drive a few years
back. Still have my DOS 3.1 floppy disks, though. vbg

Patty
(got to stop being such a packrat, but I'm afraid it runs in the family)

Don't worry about it. I've got things here that would make your stuff look
positively modern.

Sometime on, or about Sun, 30 Jan 2005 19:56:14 -0500, Patty wrote:

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 23:28:18 GMT, sbb78247 wrote:

Oh yea? Well top this! I have a couple of 286s up in the attic! one is a
blazing 12 mhz and the other is a 20! I think I still have isa video for
them and add in controller cards for the monsterous 40 mb hd! and if i look
around I think I still have some old 5-1/4 and possibly some 8" drives
around. Also, I think in the storage room at my parents house, they still
have an old IBM PC jr.! 8086 cpu and no ram to speak of!!!!!

Oh wait, I found an 8088 in my attic.

S

I just found a 5 1/4" floppy drive in my collection. I also have a 3 1/2"
- 5 1/4" floppy combo drive somewhere around here. I don't have the 286
anymore though, got rid of that along with the 40MB hard drive a few years
back. Still have my DOS 3.1 floppy disks, though. vbg

Patty
(got to stop being such a packrat, but I'm afraid it runs in the family)

You mean I can send you my collection of 5 1/4" floppies and have you
transfer them to 3 1/2" ones? ;-)

Sam
--
To mail me, please get rid of the BS first

Rip open hard drives. Great refrigerator magnets are
inside. Hard disk platter makes shiny ornaments for next
year's Christmas tree.

Patty wrote:
Oh, I wish you could see the boxes of junk I have. Would you believe an
old 120MB hard drive? Yep, it was top of the line in its day. I got a
386SX board in a box if anyone wants it. ;o) This computer I'm looking at
is turning out to be quite a dinosaur too. Just checked the hard drive.
Seagate Medalist Pro 2520 (2.5Gb) so, I think the ole 200Mhz might just
work out fine for her. I'm gonna stick a Diamond 4MB video card in it and
floppy drive and see if it will boot up to a floppy. Then we'll go from
there.

Darn, I gotta get rid of this old junk! ;o)

Patty

It may be a motherboard problem, or a peripheral problem, or
a memory problem - but unlikely a CPU problem. What does the
green wire do? Makes no sense to print out those posts. Too
much paper and too little to remember. What was posted takes
two minutes to accomplish because the principle is simple and
applies to all electronic repair - need not be read again.
Nothing posted (other than the voltage limit chart) is worth
keeping in print. Once done, you should have learned basic
power supply principles and how the motherboard power supply
controller works.

Patty wrote:
Switch turns on the cpu fan, case fan, and power led light. The power
supply fan also comes on when the computer is switched on. I think I'm
done fooling with this thing. I think the power supply is fine (it was
when I last used it) and everything else has checked out fine on it.
I'm still thinking it's a motherboard or cpu problem.

Had a similar problem once when I built a new system, nothing on
power up except fans. Turns out motherboard was shorting to case,
a quick fix solved that problem. Since this motherboard has been
in the case for a few years, I'm guessing something else is shorting
out on it perhaps. For what the equipment is (at least 5-6 years
old), it's just not worth pursuing any further.

Thanks for all your help. I'll print out the info you've given me
and put it in my toolbox for future reference. I'm happy I've
learned something about using a meter for testing. )

Patty

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 06:52:40 -0500, w_tom wrote:

It may be a motherboard problem, or a peripheral problem, or
a memory problem - but unlikely a CPU problem. What does the
green wire do? Makes no sense to print out those posts. Too
much paper and too little to remember. What was posted takes
two minutes to accomplish because the principle is simple and
applies to all electronic repair - need not be read again.
Nothing posted (other than the voltage limit chart) is worth
keeping in print. Once done, you should have learned basic
power supply principles and how the motherboard power supply
controller works.


Green wire tested at 1.92, but I didn't check with the computer switched
on. I still believe the power supply is good, what are the odds it will go
bad just sitting packaged up in a box? I'm done with this, I can try
another power supply in the unit, but I just don't want to bother with it
anymore. The computer switch does switch on the power supply and fans, so
I think the switch works.

The RAM DIMMS fit very strangly in this motherboard. You know where those
side notches are that the clips usually clip into? Well the clips on the
board do not reach there. As far as I can tell, the DIMMS are in the slots
as far as they will go. I just think the whole thing is odd. For what the
computer is too, it's just not worth all this bother... Old 266Mhz system
with 32MB RAM, 2.5Gb hard drive. The inside was so filthy (and smelled
strongly of cigarette smoke). I'm also wondering if she got hit with a
surge or something. I know the floppy drive is fine since I've put it in
another system and checked it. When they got the system back from the
first guy they took it to, not only was the power supply missing, but the
video card was not screwed down. Just stuck into the motherboard. Who
knows? Could be anything wrong with this thing.

Patty

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 21:58:28 -0800, Sam wrote:


You mean I can send you my collection of 5 1/4" floppies and have you
transfer them to 3 1/2" ones? ;-)

Sam

That's why I've kept the combo floppy drive. I got a few of those old
floppies laying around, I figure one day when I retire and have time, I can
stick the drive in a system and copy them to 3 1/2" floppies. ;o)

Patty

Patty wrote:
On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 13:48:59 -0800, johns wrote:


Windows. Not something I'd want to leave up to a computer illiterate old
lady.

DELL swears they have free on-site tech support :-)
Seriously, you are going to regret this one !!!

johns


I'm wondering if the tech support person is going to fly in from India.
;o)

Patty

might as well, the village idiot that paid our office a visit could not
speak English very well. and he did more damage than good as an added
bonus to the on site service.

S