System prob that is getting progressively worse.

[realitybites]

Hi, I have my brothers system which is causing me a major headache. Awhile ago his floppy drive stopped working so he bought a new one. He put it in the wrong way round as regards the cable and the drive light stayed on. He took it out again and re-inserted it the correct way but it does not work. His PC has started to hang and shut itself down and the memory doesn't register as being present though he gets no beeps to indicate this. The hard drive was next to stop working, just getting the BIOS screen. Now this has stopped and he gets nothing at all and nothing sounds like it is firing up at all. You can hear, just faintly the power supply coming on and that is it. I think it may be the power supply, or maybe the motherboard. Haven't got the equipment to test every thing, or a compatible system to test each individual component. Tested the Hard drive on mine and that seems fine. Any idea's anyone?
Cheers

P.S. It is an old system P3 933 mhz memory is 133. If it were the M/B, do any of the latest M/B's support this type of memory and processor?

 

[HippyWarlock]

If it doesn't POST ie beep at you and everything is falling apart as you describe - sounds like the BIOS is dyeing or you have a mobo component failure.

BTW I melted me PSU wires connecting a Floppy badly

You can connect to the B: drive by not having the twist in the Floppy cable IIRC

HTH

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

Hi, I have my brothers system which is causing me a major headache. Awhile ago his floppy drive stopped working so he bought a new one. He put it in the wrong way round as regards the cable and the drive light stayed on. He took it out again and re-inserted it the correct way but it does not work. His PC has started to hang and shut itself down and the memory doesn't register as being present though he gets no beeps to indicate this. The hard drive was next to stop working, just getting the BIOS screen. Now this has stopped and he gets nothing at all and nothing sounds like it is firing up at all. You can hear, just faintly the power supply coming on and that is it. I think it may be the power supply, or maybe the motherboard. Haven't got the equipment to test every thing, or a compatible system to test each individual component. Tested the Hard drive on mine and that seems fine. Any idea's anyone?
Cheers

P.S. It is an old system P3 933 mhz memory is 133. If it were the M/B, do any of the latest M/B's support this type of memory and processor?

Yes soyo makes a very good Celeron/p3 motherboard called the SY-7VBA133U. I use it in my current celeron system. It will support what you want and more.

 

[realitybites]

Thanx for replies, he has nothing at all now, nothing at all registers no lights no nothing, could it be the Power supply?

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

Yes it could be the power supply, if you have another one around I suggest checking. If thats not it then I would say replace the motherboard.

 

[killians45]

Also, so u dont spend money if not needed, remove ALL uneeded components and try to fire her up. Basically, have ONLY the mem, processor, HDD and vid card (and reseat it, too) and see if it boots. I think some dmg may of happened with the floppy problem, but still... we can hope Anyhow, if it powers up then connect the others one by one to see the problem child. Start first with the floppy and then boot. Then the cdrom then boot. From that point, just keep going. If it locks after reinstalling a component then you know where to start. If it doesn't and it comes up then chalk it to good luck and a conflict of sorts. Maybe bad seating...

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

Also, so u dont spend money if not needed, remove ALL uneeded components and try to fire her up. Basically, have ONLY the mem, processor, HDD and vid card (and reseat it, too) and see if it boots. I think some dmg may of happened with the floppy problem, but still... we can hope Anyhow, if it powers up then connect the others one by one to see the problem child. Start first with the floppy and then boot. Then the cdrom then boot. From that point, just keep going. If it locks after reinstalling a component then you know where to start. If it doesn't and it comes up then chalk it to good luck and a conflict of sorts. Maybe bad seating...

The only time you shouldnt get a post from a motherboard is if its not getting power, or if its dead. That or the system speaker could be broken. Anyway it should still show somekind of activity. I'v never seem a badly seated video card produce no system activity and no post code.... Also I have accidently put floppy cables in backwards without any damage. Its nothing more than a polarity reverser so you can write/read from the floppy drive. I had a friend that would put the cable in backwards all the time and his board laster him for years.

 

[realitybites]

Thanx for all your replies, some useful info to be getting on with, fingers crossed.

 

[Recolas]

if he just pushed in the cable the wrong way, it coulda bent the pins causing the PS to slowly short out. It vary well could have killed of the mobo in the process, use a circut tester

 

[killians45]

you never can tell. Oh, and it is COMPLETELY possible to get no post and it not be power. Some MBD this will occur with CPU improperly or not installed. Allthough most MBD will beep with CPU missing, sometimes that just doesn't happen. Also, on the older PIII MBD you could sometimes get no post WITH no video and that was a badly seated vid card, at least in the gateway systems. I know this because I worked for them before getting into networking and ladderlogics and this was a common occurence. So yes, problems with hardware configuration during the bios detection phase MAY cause it to stop dead. Plus its the cheapest route to start.