A real repair, help!

Impact4ever · July 2003

Ok for the last 2-3 months I 've been repairing pc's for free (I only upgraded and installed components) from friends and family to help me prepare for the A+ test. Which kinda help me out a little, but this time my girl brought over her mother's pc, and my problems begins!

My girl said, "that theirs no picture shown when you turn on the pc" so Instantly I thought it was probably the video card or something. so I took a look at it and something a

little worst then I thought. It seems that when you turn on the pc it doesn't boot, no post codes, can't get into the bios, but the hard drive is running, cpu fan is spinning and I can see a ENERGY STAR logo, but if I restart the computer a second time the picture goes out.

So I'm thinking Guys

could it be the CPU or the BIOS

: I'm leaning towards the CPU, it's truly dead, I think, but I have no way in testing my theory but to try it with another CPU. This has brought up another problem. The machine is made by"A OPEN" which the company does not support this model because its to old so I guessing that the cpu is 190MHZ machine.

Ok let me sum it up:

1) Could it be the CPU or the BIOS ?
2) I know its a Socket 7 Intel, but not sure if its a 90MHZ or a 190MHZ
3) Is their another way to check this or am I missing something

Open for advice guys

RussS · July 2003

Ok dood

My first thought is a HD failure. Just because the drive runs doesn't always mean that all is good - time to start the big diagnostic check.

I guess that since you see the energy star logo then the graphics card isn't totally toast.
Arc the machine up and boot into bios. Reset to defaults and reboot.
That is always a good start

If it still doesn't arc up properly I think perhaps whipping the HD out and installing it in another machine as a slave and see if it is readable. If it is not readable then viola, your problem is evident. If not come back and let us know.

pandimus · July 2003

You said that you couldnt get into the bios? Does it give a memory count and then no post? Do you even see were it tells you to push () to get into setup?

lazyart · July 2003

Is the CPU fan working? Whatever display you are getting aside from the energy star logo would help a lot.

Impact4ever · July 2003

Well I did check Hard drive, its working fine, it has showing win98 SE . And the fan is working. Oh ya pandimus, its telling to me press <DEL> to get into setup, but when I do... Nothing happens.

I can tell you this, I took out hard drive, the modem, the ISA sound card, and left the video card in, replace the power supply, this way I could see what I was really dealing with. And its still doing the same thing like it did yesterday, no post codes, can't get into the bios, and the CPU fan is still spinning. What you guys think?

trick000 · July 2003

try booting up with just the video card, cpu, and ram on the motherboard. If the mb has integrated video try connecting the monitor to that. You should just keep putting known good parts on there until you isolate the problem.

Drakonblayde · July 2003

If you're getting the energy star logo, that tells you a few important things -

#1 - The CPU is good

#2 - The video card is good

#3 - The RAM is probably good

Since you've verified the hdd is good, the next thing is to break the system down to basics, memory sticks, CPU, and vid card. See if it'll boot, count memory, and possible let you into the BIOS that way. If so, then install each piece one by one.

Since it's an older machine, and a Socket 7 at that, pull the CPU out, look at the top or bottom to see if you can find out what it's supposed to be. Then make sure all the jumpers, like for bus speed, clock multiplier, etc are set correctly.

At this point, from what you're describing, I'd personally be suspecting the RAM or the BIOS. Is it using SIMM's or DIMM's, and if so, how many of each? Can you pull one stick or one bank out and try to boot off of it and then swap in the other, and see if either set causes the problem. It could also potentially be a messed up BIOS. Is it set to boot off the C drive, or does it seek to the floppy first? If it is seeking to the floppy first, try and boot it off a bootdisk, and you might want to go ahead and flash the BIOS if that's an option.

Oh, and make sure to check the power supply. I had one box that got real funky about booting properly just before the PS died on it.

Impact4ever · July 2003

WOW! Its the RAM (old dimms). So I replaced the damgae Ram with another stick from an old pc. The computer is working fine. Thanks Drakon, I really didn't consider the ram to be a problem good thing you said something about checking it out.

Well my experience level went up a notch! Hey guys, Thanks for all of your help in trying to the fine the problems.

LATER

Drakonblayde · July 2003

Had a feeling that was it. If it was freezing right after the energy star logo, means the RAM didn't want to count, even though it passed POST. It couldn't have been the CPU or Vid card, as if either of those were dead, you never would have gotten an image on the screen and you would have been hearing beep codes. Glad to hear it's all working correctly now. It's always a good thing to impress your girlfriend's mother

A real repair, help!

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