Help bringing old PC back to life

[Jeeper1]

Hi all,

I am hoping to get some input to see if I can realistically bring an older PC back to life.

We have 4 younger kids (8,7,5,3) and the older one are into Roblox and YouTube streaming. Personally, I play COD of PS4 and would love to be able to try to start playing on a PC.

Not sure if this is possible, but here are the specs of what I am working with based on the sticker on the side of the case

HP Pavilion P6-2378 PC
- Next Gen AMD Quad-Core A8-5600K
8GM DDR3
1TB Hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 7560D GPU
SuperMulti DVD Burner
WIndows 8 (LOL)


Even if I am not able to accomplish the goals I have for this PC, I would like to use it as a ‘first build' and at least have it at a respectable level.


Thanks all

 

[pete.i]

It's not too bad a spec. I would wack an SSD in it and upgrade the RAM if you can, maybe double it if it will take it. Crucial's memory check will tell you. This is the UK crucial site:- https://uk.crucial.com/ American one is probably:- https://crucial.com.



Nothing wrong with Windows 8 apart from it's not supported. You can upgrade it to Windows 10 for free:- https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10



Whether it will run COD I have no idea. It may need a better graphics card but Youtube and Roblox will be no problem.

 

[Jeeper1]

It's not too bad a spec. I would wack an SSD in it and upgrade the RAM if you can, maybe double it if it will take it. Crucial's memory check will tell you. This is the UK crucial site:- https://uk.crucial.com/ American one is probably:- https://crucial.com.



Nothing wrong with Windows 8 apart from it's not supported. You can upgrade it to Windows 10 for free:- https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10



Whether it will run COD I have no idea. It may need a better graphics card but Youtube and Roblox will be no problem.

Pete.i - thank you!

It appears I have the dreaded black screen, and everything I have read - leans toward having to replace my CPU.

On the HP website - there are a only a handful of processors that are mentioned to be supported by the MS-7778 Jasmine motherboard. Based on the age of this desktop, I don't know if this is a in-complete listing or if any AMD CPU would be compatible (FM2 Socket).

Do you have any insight on this?

Thanks!

 

[pete.i]

Not really I'm afraid. It's been a lot of years since I repalced a CPU or even built my own computer. I find parts these days are so expensive it's just as cheap (nearly) to buy ready built. I would think that due to the age of the machine HP may not be able to supply a suitable CPU. It isn't really worth buying stuff in the hope it works. Just a couple of things to try first though. Sometimes the RAM can cause a black screen. Pull it and then replace. Doing this often cures that problem. The other thing thatcan cause a black screen (apart from a duff monitor) is the graphics card if fitted. remove thatand use the on board graphics if that is possible.


Other than that not a lot else I can say.

 

[Wallaby Dan]

I am thinking that any of the A series would fit into that FM-2 socket. One thing that might help is if its a processor or Motherboard. Most times it is the processor that doesn't fail. motherboards do. Ram can. so can graffics. best way to test is pull memory one stick at a time. Switch one of the sticks to another slot if just one stick installed. If it has a gpu try and remove it and at the same time see if it has on-board graffics try that and see if it wakes up. If you have a spare power supply pug in the cpu plug and board power and see if that will wake it up. You don't need everything plugged in to get it to post bios. another thing to try is the bios battery. Some boards won't wake up if there is a dead battery. If not that then i would say another computer. Very rare do cpu's go bad. A really strong power surge could do that, it would take a pretty big one to do it. Tv's and other electronics would also be affected. In that case both motherboard and Cpu along with the rest of that computer would be toast.

Thats about all i can think of. Let us know!

 

[tehnokraat]

......
It appears I have the dreaded black screen, and everything I have read - leans toward having to replace my CPU.
Do you have any insight on this?
Thanks!

I don't really believe that. There can be many reasons for a black screen.
Check all connections, remove everything unnecessary, including all hard drives, unnecessary external devices, etc., even RAM one by one if necessary - so that only one remains if there are several.
Leave the monitor and mouse only for first try.
And then try booting into the BIOS settings window. Then you have a clear picture of whether it starts or not and what exactly causes the errors.
I can tell you that I have personally never seen a so-called "burned out" processor, and I used computers long before the first Windows came out.
It's possible, that have burned out, put I don't want to belive it.