Legacy hardware revisited.

I recently picked up a job getting several old workstations up and running.
Most of them are running SCSI drives (some RAID) w/ dual processors and old motherboards w/ jumpers.

I know.

Anyway, I'm stuck on one in particular and maybe you guys can provide some insight:

I have a workstation that will not display anything.
The power supply works and the fans connected to the mobo are running. The SCSI drive starts up because I can hear it churning.
I tried putting in a known working vid card and even a new stick of RAM. I verified that the jumpers are set right on the mobo.
The CPU warms up.

So I'm left w/ either a motherboard or CPU problem right?
Note: I haven't started plugging components into a working
machine either so I will be doing that tonight.

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Comments

Danman32

You should get a post. Any beeps? Many MB will beep codes if there are memory or video problems. Some can even beep CPU problems, though it sounds like you don't have one of those since it is old.

Unless you know there is actually data activity on the SCSI drive, which means everything but the video is working, you could be simply seeing drive initialization which can occur plugging in only the power to the drive.

w^rl0rd

I figured even w/ no hard drive connected, I would atleast see it POST w/ an error stating that no drive was detected.

I'm not getting a beep though but the internal speaker may be disconnected. I'll have to check that.

Danman32

w^rl0rd wrote:

I figured even w/ no hard drive connected, I would atleast see it POST w/ an error stating that no drive was detected.
quote]

You would if the video was working. It is possible that you could get a post or even a disk boot without video, though most likely the MB would complain about not having video.

Does the board have built-in video? If so, and you add a card, you could have a conflict.

blargoe

I'm sorry you're having to work with that old crap. It's good troubleshooting experience though.

Here's what I would do (in no particular order)

Google for the motherboard model number or the brand and the model of the computer to see if you can come up with a manual or troubleshooting guide.

Disconnect every device that isn't essential for POST. Remove all PCI & ISA cards, drives, etc. Leave video, memory, cpu, and power and see if you get a post or beeps or something. Reset the CMOS and try again.

It could still be the power supply. You might not be getting enough juice to run the computer but just enough to spin the fans. Try a different one.

Danman32

blargoe wrote:

It could still be the power supply. You might not be getting enough juice to run the computer but just enough to spin the fans. Try a different one.

Good call. My dad's PC had a similar problem and it was the
PS. I verifed by trying the PS from my old PC.

TheShadow

Some old systems don't get very far in post with bad ram. I know that you said that you put in a new stick but did you try a different slot to eliminate the slot itself. I have a system here with a bad slot which won't start post unless you wiggle the stick of ram a little. So it runs with less ram than I would like because I must leave the slot empty for reliable operation. So it runs with a copy of SuSe as a host on my router pod.

bighornsheep

Sounds like it's the memory or motherboard.
Check the video card on another system, and try another power supply.

Cheers!

RussS

Sounds to me like a toasted processor or failed bus - either way it is probably good for the trash can only.

Oh - you did check the motherboard for blown voltage regulator or caps?