Will old hard drive boot up in slightly different PC?

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glnz

glnz

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BASIC QUESTION:
My Dell Optiplex 755 Desktop (WIn XP Pro SP3) will not power up at all. No power light, no spin-up, no nothing (except that an LED on the curcuit board does light). I think the power supply and hard drive are good but something blew on the motherboard.
SO - if i buy (for very little money) a very similar used Optiplex 755 Desktop from a refurbisher with no hard drive but with a slightly different CPU that DOES boot into BIOS, and I put my old Hard Drive into it, will it boot up and work?
Or will everything in my hard drive (drivers, software, registry, etc.) see that it's a different CPU and slightly different other hardware and refuse to go?
The old (dead) Optiplex has an Intel E4600 CPU, and the one I might buy has an Intel E6850.
Thanks - urgent.
 
Solution
Dark Lord of Tech
If they are very similar or the same you have a good chance that it will boot , I did the same thing with a GX620 and it booted fine.

You have a good chance when they are similar , or almost identical
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glnz

glnz

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okcnaline - thanks, but i'm surprised. I thought the RAM was pretty much empty every time the PC booted up (when it was working). RAM stores some needed permanent data?? Please let me have some more detail. Thanks
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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It may work or it may not. You don't say which OS.

The OS does have some Hardware abstraction Layer that is aware of the CPU. If the processors are similar enough, then it may boot up and you may be able to run a repair and possibly Microsoft may require re-activation.

Also, if it does boot you may have to look for and download drivers from Dell's site and .inf files from Intel.

I'm assuming you do not want to re-install all your programs, etc., since the easiest solution might be to get a recovery disk from Dell and use that to re-install.
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Yea, Windows XP will bitch like mad about the HAL being different. :( Most likely won't boot.

I just re-read some stuff on XP HAL. it may boot. I seem to remember having lots of trouble changing components around if there wasn't a Repair Disk around at the time of first boot.

Maybe you can find/make a repair disk. Hang on while I search.
 
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glnz

glnz

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Oh boy, I'm in trouble. And it's tax time for me. My data is backed up, but I need my emails, and they're all on Outlook Express, which doesn't exist in Win 7. What to do?
 
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glnz

glnz

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SR-71 - give me hope - were your machines Win XP Pro SP3, and were the CPUs and (I suppose) motherboards close? How close?
My dead machine has an Intel E4600, and the shell I am looking at has an E6850. They seem to be in the same "family" of Intel Core 2 Duo Processors.
My old chipset was Q35 (from memory) and I don't know about the one i"m looking at.
What do you think.
Karsten - thanks - looking at your links now.
 
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glnz

glnz

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Gents and Gals? - I have an update and need your advice.
I decided to check 100% whether or not it is the power supply, so I bought a multimeter, and here are some interesting preliminary results:
P1 is the big rectangular plug with 24 pins in two rows that goes from the power supply to a big socket on the motherboard. According to the Dell manual for this Opti 755 Desktop, many of the pins should have 3.3, 5 or 12 volts DC. Well, they're all 0 zero except for:
Pin 9, which has 5 volts (good per manual) and is described as P5AUX in the manual, and
Pin 16, which has 3.5 volts (manual doesn't say what voltage should be) and is described as PWR_PS_ON* in the manual.
P2 is a square plug with 4 pins in two rows that goes from the power supply to a socket on the motherboard near the front of the machine. According to the manual, two of the pins should have 12 volts DC. But they are both zero.
P3 is a rectangular plug with 4 pins in one row that I have never used - from power supply to nothing. Two of the pins should have either 5 or 12 V DC, but they are both zero.
I cannot check P4 or the two SATA power connectors to the hard drive or DVD drive because the holes are too small.
SO - what do you think? Do I have a bad power supply, or is this normal because the machine first needs to boot up in order for these other pins to get juice?
 
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glnz

glnz

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Karsten - thanks for link to interesting gadget, but I think I already know the current voltages on the pins. Most of them are zero that the Dell Manual says should have some voltage.
I think the issue is whether zero on most pins is correct until the machine boots up. If zero is correct until successful boot, then my power supply is OK and I have a circuitry problem - very bad for me.
If those zeros should be something positive even when the machine is off, then I have a power supply problem and should replace the power supply.
What do you think - which is it?
Thanks. Your links today have been very helpful.
 
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glnz

glnz

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Karsten - from another forum, I have learned that my power supply is fine. With all the components disconnected and the internal power lines cables out of their sockets, I manually connected the green line (PWR_PS_ON) in P1 (pin 16) to ground, plugged in the AC and the power supply fan revved up and gave power to the DVD player (the only thing left connected for a load).
So my circuits and on button are NOT connecting that green line to ground.
So here's a crazy idea: What happens if I put everything back together with the green line manually connected to ground and then plug the AC line into the PC? Will I boot up nicely or fry everything?
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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I doubt that a button on your case and wires leading to/from it are defective - but check them... If they are not, then you are as likely to fry everything or something on the motherboard as not.

You're playing in territory where few have experience - because usually in those situations things are as likely to get damaged as not.

Whatever you do, don't connect the hard drive to the computer during your test. In the hope that it is still good and salvageable.

If this was me, about now I'd look at a new, cheap PC and articles on how to import from Outlook express's mail file into another mail client.

I think yu'd have far more success and people that has traveled that road than the one you're on now.

Look for a Windows 7 computer - Windows 8 is a rather steep hill to climb when that's not the thing you want to be learning. Windows 7 is fairly similar to Windows XP.

 
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okcnaline

okcnaline

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"If it's not broken, don't fix it."

Your PSU's fine. The only thing we need now is to take the RAM and the HDD and put it into the new PC. Oh, and move your CPU also.

And I don't know what's in the RAM when a PC boots up, probably system drivers or files or the kernel. Don't ask, it may be complicated.
 
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