Old PC dead with no signs of life, hdd light constantly on.

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Gerry154

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Jul 9, 2017
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I have been troubleshooting an old PC that was lying about my house, a couple of years ago I remember trying to switch it on one morning however it would not work. I took it to a PC repair store where they said that it needed a new mobo which would have cost $300 at the time. Last week I decided to take the repair shops advice and order a new mobo now it only costs $30. However I have this installed and the problem still persists. I then decided to try a new power supply as well, however this did not work either. I have tried running the system with separate sticks of ram but the hdd light is constant and the PC is still dead. I am beginning to give up on the computer and soon am going to return it to its corner, so I decided to ask to see if some of you guys can give a heads up to try.

The PC is an old Siemens Scaleo 600 with Intel Pentium 4 chip.

The computer would be handy for a small bit of typing so I will give it another go yet.

Thanks in advance for the replies.
 
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Hi, assume that fans are spinning, disk drive is spinning up (you should be able to hear it go from no spin to spinning. Do you hear the head on the disk chattering away?

Can you remove both wires to the disk drive (power and signal)... the MB should drive MB video to say that no bootable disk is found. If it does not do this suspect that you did not get the CPU installed correctly. CPUs rarely die, you have a new MB and new Power supply. Video is on the MB, with just MB, PSU , CPU and fan with the monitor connected you should get video...
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tsnor

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Nov 20, 2008
3,702
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Stop buying parts.

Pull everything out of PC except the MB, CPU, CPU fan and Power supply. No memory. No wires on MB except front headers and wires to power supply. No power supply wired connected to anything except the two wires to the MB. Try to boot. It should beep "no memory" in beep code. (google beep code, find your beep codes in the MB manual or the PC trouble-shooting section).

Once you have it beeping no memory add parts back in one at a time waiting for it to be dead with no signs of life. Then suspect the last part.

Good luck.

p.s. If I was guessing I'd start by pulling the signal and power cable out of the disk drive and seeing if you get the BIOS message "no operating system found"
 
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Gerry154

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Jul 9, 2017
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Thanks tsnor,

I did what you said but I did not get any beeps from the MB, the pc boots now, fans spin, leds light but there is no picture on the monitor I am just left with a blank monitor. Any ideas where I go from here? Could it possibly be the graphics card?

Thanks again for the replies.
 
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tsnor

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Nov 20, 2008
3,702
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24,965
With no video card installed, do you get a beep code or other diagnostic from the MB for "no video"

With the card installed, with the video cable plugged into the video card and the monitor set to input from the correct source, do you see any indication at all that the monior is seeing the PC boot ?
 
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Gerry154

Prominent
Jul 9, 2017
4
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510
I do not get any beeps no matter what parts I take out ram, graphics card etc. I only get a beep when I turn the switch off on the power supply. The monitor just remains in standby mode.
 
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T

tsnor

Splendid
Nov 20, 2008
3,702
2
24,965


Hi, assume that fans are spinning, disk drive is spinning up (you should be able to hear it go from no spin to spinning. Do you hear the head on the disk chattering away?

Can you remove both wires to the disk drive (power and signal)... the MB should drive MB video to say that no bootable disk is found. If it does not do this suspect that you did not get the CPU installed correctly. CPUs rarely die, you have a new MB and new Power supply. Video is on the MB, with just MB, PSU , CPU and fan with the monitor connected you should get video.

Can you check the wiring on the MB install using the steps and pictures from this guide: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

Reason not to spend too much more on parts is a better refurb PC with win10 is less than $100: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?cp=1&searchType=search&_dyncharset=UTF-8&ks=960&sc=Global&list=y&usc=All%20Categories&type=page&id=pcat17071&iht=n&seeAll=&browsedCategory=pcmcat212600050009&st=categoryid%24pcmcat212600050009&qp=&sp=%2Bcurrentprice%20skuidsaas

 
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