Computer power problem

Bill,
it sure is but watch out, they bite.
just be careful in there, I would have though a 2 year old PC would be in good shape.
I have an old PC from 1993, and has a pentium1, 166mhz, it can barely run the screensaver :lol: , its destined to run the scope in the observatory in the future :roll:

BTW, there is usually a green light on some motherboards, see if this ever comes on.

Bought new in February 2002

By the way , I don't consider that old

How about giving us the model /spec etc ?

Denis

If you are not used to fiddling with PCs , you could try reading this site
before tugging at anything.

Woops! too late :oops:
Anyway, using a bit of common sense, I assume the motherboard is that big one that takes up the complete side of the PC with a fan etc on it. The video cards etc are those slotted in at right angles to it. I have checked all wiring for loose connections, all those card things for loosness, but everything is tight and snug, I can't even make them loose, they all seem to be well bolted. I can't see anything that looks burnt out, but I may be looking for the wrong thing, I'm looking for little scorch marks, but none to be seen anywhere. I may be fighting a lost cause here? Looks like I'm doomed not to do any astro-photography As they say, everything in my favour is against me. Anyone got a second-hand PC?
Bill H.

How about giving us the model /spec etc ?

Hewlett Packard Pavillion 7870
1GHz Pentium III
128Mb SDRAM
40Gb harddrive
I had hoped that this would be perfect for the astronomy, but not if it's dead

Heres an idea,
If you bring it along to cosmos, maybe we can plug it in somewhere and spend 5 mins trying to get it working, maybe friday evening ???
If its something obvious/simple, we can get it working for you
if not, I'll buy if off you
My main pc is a year 2000 HP Vectra vl400, heavily modified. :lol:

Would that be ok Seanie ?

let's go for the simple approach.

Assuming it is powered and is failing with a fault condition;

Some newer PCs will fail if the BIOS settings are wrong .
CPU set at too high a processor speed etc. Don't know how that could happen in your case , but let's try it.

Have you held down the reset key while powering up ?
Does it look like it would even go that far ?
If it does and the bios setup is displayed :shock: , choose default options.
and reset.

If you cannot get it to turn on , it's really a question of removing all components except CPU, video card and memory.
If the cpu/mobo/vid card and memory are good , it will POST.
(Power On Self Test.)
You will hear beeps - no beeps - you are back to the beginning.
It should even beep without a video card or memory.
The beeps will indicate the faulty item , and you know where to start.
(Beep codes for your PC should be available on the net - if you can get to a beep stage - we will look further)

No beeps ;
Then you MUST get a known good power supply.
With a CPU fitted, a good motherboard(mobo), a good supply,
and no beeps you then have either a faulty mobo or a faulty CPU.
Has the CPU fan failed ? If so - the CPU IS fried.

Finally you're are back to the Kirstein test.
That is swap everything in sight for known good bits until it does work
Sorry


Denis