Help - Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse do not work.

Yeh, you blew something. Dell PIII's didn't use an ATX power supply. What, you thought since it looked like an ATX power supply and had the same connectors, it would work?

Look inside the case and see, the power connector has 6 unused solder points next to it. Those 6 points (3 rows) are where an ATX power header would have gone. Dell had the power offset by 3 rows from standard in order to assure distruction when you use non-Dell parts.

Most Dell P4's use standard power supplies, so don't think this goes across the board. Rather, it refers to Socket 370 and earlier Dells, all the way back to Socket 5.

You probably blew your board. You've probably blown your new power supply too. The good news is, you have a PIII-667 CPU I could use. You should send it to me.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Doh!

Would you know how I can replace or fix the board?

And why should I send you my CPU - what are you planning on doing with it?  


Thanks,
urgo.

That's Crashman for you, finding the silver-lining in every catastrophe.



<font color=green><b><i>Lizards</font color=green></b> do <b>not</b> taste like <b><font color=yellow>chicken</font color=yellow></b>,<b> <font color=yellow>chicken</font color=yellow></b> tastes like <font color=green><b>lizard.</b></font color=green></i>

Yes, you CAN replace the board. The problem is, it's a Dell board. It's probably ATX sized and in an ATX case, but with a Dell proprietary power supply and Intel OEM style front panel connector.

You already know it's easy enough to put a standard power supply in. But then you have a couple other problems: The backplate is steel, you'd have to remove it for any board that didn't have the exact same port configuration. And the front panel connector would have to be re-wired with standard leads for most boards to fit.

I've actually done this. I occasionally remove the wire leads from old cases, I've removed the front panel switchboard, the cable clip that holds the ribbon cable in place, and replaced the ribbon cable with wire leads. It's not that difficult, because you can actually see where all the traces go on that card. Follow the power button traces to the cable connector and install the wires for the power button, etc.

As for the back panel, you can go shieldless, or you can remove the outer cover from the inner shield to expose a full set of port holes on the inner shield. Then it's simply a matter of finding a board with traditional port locations, now that you have all of the traditional port holes open.

If you remove the panel completely, you can install other boards with non-standard ports. But the hole that's filled with that cover is shorter than a standard backplate, and I've found that board with 3-high audio connectors (as opposed to the standard 3-wide configuration) will have the top audio port half covered with the sheet metal. I suppose you could notch the case for it, but it would be far easier to simply select a board with the old standard port locations.

Gateway also used the Intel OEM style front panel connector that Dell used. Gateway also used standard power. So a Gateway motherboard would allow you to change to standard power without modifying the front panel connector. Unfortunately the only Gateway board I have for you is Slot-1 and only supports 66/100MHz bus speeds. Your PIII 667 uses a 133MHz bus and would show up on this board as a PIII 500.

The old Dell plastic case used on P-MMX, PII, and PIII processors is actually a very nice Palo Alto case. Palo Alto unfortunately didn't make room for a standard-sized replacable port cover.

Would you like to upgrade your board for a different processor? I could held you find a board with standard port locations that wouldn't interfere with the case.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

OK, I've found some boards that will fit your case so long as it's the standard Dell ATX case:
<A HREF="http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=7NJL3-N&cat..." target="_new">nForce2, for Athlon XP's up to 400 bus</A>
<A HREF="http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=9PJL3-N&cat..." target="_new">i865PE, for P4's up to 800 bus</A>

And in case you were wondering what the standard port locations I spoke of was:
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=13-152-04..." target="_new">Standard Ports</A>

On the Palo Alto case, if you remove the outer port cover, the innner shield has holes for all these ports except the LAN port. And the inner shield is thin enough to cut out the LAN port if desired with a pocket knife.

Now, since you no longer have a board for your old CPU, you should send it to me so I can toss it in one of my boards.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Hi Crashman,

Thanks for your help. My computer now outputs to the monitor and responds to the keyboard (spontaneous recovery?   ) but what I see is garbled and distorted.


It turns out that my computer is not a Dell Dimension but a NEC Direction SE667 (made in Europe). My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-6WMM7 (Intel 810 socket 370)

Do you think I can buy this board somewhere on the net?
Do the boards you mentioned support my current CPU?
Might my HDD have been damaged as well? I can't get a second computer to auto-detect it.

Thanks,
urgo.

Dood, you really should check what brand you have before calling out one you don't have for support!!!

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

NEC/Packard Bell use standard power supplies, so now that I know I wasted my time telling you the power supply was the problem...

Did you try realoading the operating system?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Hello Crashman,

I am sorry for sending you off on a wild goose chase. I relied on memory and made a mistake.

So now we know my computer is a NEC Direction Evolution SE-667 (link at the bottom of this message). The motherboard is Gigabyte GA-6WMM7 (Houston 1 Intel 810 type) and my CPU is an Intel PIII-667.

I am way before the stage when I can reinstalling my OS. When I turn my computer on, the display (CMOS etc.) is garbled. Lots of horizontal flickering lines and ASCII chars that are replaced by non-English chars. Keyboard seems to be working.

This is better than before when I had no video signal and no keyboard and mouse.

Is this something I can fix myself? Maybe I've fried my onboard video card and just need a new one?


Thanks for all your help,
urgo


<A href="http://help.nec-computers.com/uk/pib.asp?platform=platf..." target="_blank">NEC Direction Evolution SE-667</a>

Try removing and reinserting the RAM, it sounds like a memory problem.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>