Old PC Problem, A Little Help?

netwhizkid

I have an old computer that served me faithfully for 6yrs until last January 12months. Needless the say it never gave me as much trouble as my new Dell Dimension 8400, however it was woefully slow but it got the job done all the same. It worked away fine up until last August when I discovered it was broken, it had not been used or turned on for about 2 months by this stage. When I plug it in, it turns on itself, when it was working normally I had to press the power button on the front of the CPU casing. It just powers itself up automatically and displays nothing on the screen at all. I checked the Monitor on my new pc and its working fine and I even checked my 17” LCD on the Old Packard Bell CPU and it still displayed nothing. I was talking to a very computer minded person recently and he suggested that maybe the button type battery inside the casing could be run down. Would this seem like a plausible answer to the problem? My plan was to revitalize it if I could get it turning back on again. I was planning to run Linux on it instead of Win 98 and Install the usual free software AVG, Picasa etc. The HD is small as 6.4GB but I was planning on buying a new HD and possibly sooping it up with a DVD-/+ Reader writer too. I first job is to get the thing turning on again anyway. If anyone had similar problems with a computer before I’d like to know what steps was taken to remedy it. I could easily call in a professional but I know there is only something very small wrong that I could fix myself I’m sure. I am looking forward to tinkering with it, as it would give me some experience in under the bonnet work!

These are its specs anyway:

Packard Bell Squarius PII350
PROCESSOR: Intel Pentium II
SPEED: 350mhz
MEMORY: 64Mb RAM, 512K Cache
STORAGE: 6.4GB Hard Drive
MULTIMEDIA: 32speed CD-ROM Drive, 16 Bit sound card
MODEM: 56k Fax-data indent
DISPLAY: 15” CRT
OS: Windows 98

Gurgle

netwhizkid wrote:

When I plug it in, it turns on itself, when it was working normally I had to press the power button on the front

Motherboard fecked.
And it might not be too easy to replace.

You never know though, some boardsie is probably using an old P2 motherboard as an ashtray or something.

netwhizkid

The motherboard is like the main part right? Would this give me an opportunity to upgrade it to a Pentium 3 or 4 or would AMD be a better solution? Is there anyway to test it to see if it is the Mobo thats gone?

Ruu_Old

aye do yourself a favour and toss that motherboard through the window. someone on the FS board is bound to have a compatible motherboard around that you could get for little or no cost.

Capt'n Midnight

Check the BIOS, it's probably got a recover option to power up when power is restored ( options - always off or last state instead)

Hold the button in for 10 seconds to turn off the PSU

as for nothing on the screen - loosen all the cards/ drive connectors / PII by 1 or 2mm and tighten again - do this when not plugged in to the mains !
Ram - unclip and reclip - don't remove any of the stuff you are just re-seating it

its not the button battery - remove it anyway to be on the safe side

disconnect all cards / drives - leave the power connector on the HDD to try again - then add stuff one at a time to see.

You'd need more ram than 64 to run linux with a GUI

Gurgle

netwhizkid wrote:

The motherboard is like the main part right? Would this give me an opportunity to upgrade it to a Pentium 3 or 4 or would AMD be a better solution? Is there anyway to test it to see if it is the Mobo thats gone?

Nope, the motherboard is one of the cheapest components. You could probably get one on e-bay very cheap.
If you want to upgrade, you'll need motherboard, cpu, ram & power supply.

netwhizkid

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Check the BIOS, it's probably got a recover option to power up when power is restored ( options - always off or last state instead)

Hold the button in for 10 seconds to turn off the PSU

as for nothing on the screen - loosen all the cards/ drive connectors / PII by 1 or 2mm and tighten again - do this when not plugged in to the mains !
Ram - unclip and reclip - don't remove any of the stuff you are just re-seating it

its not the button battery - remove it anyway to be on the safe side

disconnect all cards / drives - leave the power connector on the HDD to try again - then add stuff one at a time to see.

You'd need more ram than 64 to run linux with a GUI

I could kiss you!!!:rolleyes: I tried all the connections inside as you said and here i am half an hour later typing this reply on the old girl, i haven't sat at this chair for almost a year. I found school essays i typed when i was twelve. I almost don't wan't to do much upgrading now. Sentimental memories come flooding back. Is it possible to run broadband on Win 98 as my sis lives in an ADSL house only to plug in literally. Must upgrade the HD to something bigger though as there is only 758MB left out of 6.4GB. Excuse my spelling as i am on IE5 on this machine with no google toolbar to correct me.


Thnaks Again.

Capt'n Midnight

Get firewall and AV asap

Better still try 98lite to remove IE and use Firefox and/or opera instead - they don't release patches for 98 and many of the generic holes in windows affect it !