Trying to get old computer to work

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

First off let me say that I already have an Athlon 64 3500 and a P4-2gig
on a home LAN so please spare me the suggestions of buying a new computer.

I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up. I am
not sure what the problem is. Specs are PII-233 (slot 1), WinXP Pro, 196
megs of ram, QDI MB, 8.4 gig HDD, 32 meg Savage vid card, floppy, CDROM
drive, 200W generic PSU, generic soundcard etc. It is an olde copumter
that I purchased new in 1997. I would like to leave this on my LAN for
backups and file storage and to run my X10 system. It has been a
reliable computer up to now.

On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it starts to look
for the boot drive. I either get a boot drive failure message at this
point or it goes to the next screen and then says system boot failure
after updated ESCD. I swapped out a HDD and tried another and got the
same result. I checked and reseated the ram, reseated the HDD
connections and checked all other obvious connections.

Would the CMOS/BIOS tell me wheteher mu PSU is putting out suffcient
power because that is what I am suspecting at this point? Should I be
looking for something else?

Ron

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Ron Joiner wrote:
> First off let me say that I already have an Athlon 64 3500 and a P4-2gig
> on a home LAN so please spare me the suggestions of buying a new computer.
>
> I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up. I am
> not sure what the problem is. Specs are PII-233 (slot 1), WinXP Pro, 196
> megs of ram, QDI MB, 8.4 gig HDD, 32 meg Savage vid card, floppy, CDROM
> drive, 200W generic PSU, generic soundcard etc. It is an olde copumter
> that I purchased new in 1997. I would like to leave this on my LAN for
> backups and file storage and to run my X10 system. It has been a
> reliable computer up to now.
>
> On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it starts to look
> for the boot drive. I either get a boot drive failure message at this
> point or it goes to the next screen and then says system boot failure
> after updated ESCD. I swapped out a HDD and tried another and got the
> same result. I checked and reseated the ram, reseated the HDD
> connections and checked all other obvious connections.
>
> Would the CMOS/BIOS tell me wheteher mu PSU is putting out suffcient
> power because that is what I am suspecting at this point? Should I be
> looking for something else?
>
> Ron
>
>
Will it boot to the CD drive?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 19:59:37 GMT, Ron Joiner <"joinertake
this out"@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote:

>First off let me say that I already have an Athlon 64 3500 and a P4-2gig
>on a home LAN so please spare me the suggestions of buying a new computer.
>
>I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up. I am
>not sure what the problem is. Specs are PII-233 (slot 1), WinXP Pro, 196
>megs of ram, QDI MB, 8.4 gig HDD, 32 meg Savage vid card, floppy, CDROM
>drive, 200W generic PSU, generic soundcard etc. It is an olde copumter
>that I purchased new in 1997. I would like to leave this on my LAN for
>backups and file storage and to run my X10 system. It has been a
>reliable computer up to now.
>
>On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it starts to look
>for the boot drive. I either get a boot drive failure message at this
>point or it goes to the next screen and then says system boot failure
>after updated ESCD. I swapped out a HDD and tried another and got the
>same result. I checked and reseated the ram, reseated the HDD
>connections and checked all other obvious connections.
>
>Would the CMOS/BIOS tell me wheteher mu PSU is putting out suffcient
>power because that is what I am suspecting at this point? Should I be
>looking for something else?
>
>Ron

Are you certain the other drive was still working, and/or
did it have a bootable partition?

Other boards typically didn't have hardware health
monitoring or at least not the easy acces in the bios to see
the readings. Use a multimeter to take readings or try
another power supply if you have one available.

You migth also check the battery and then clear CMOS.

As for the memory you could run http://www.memtest86.com to
check it.

QDI slot 1 boards weren't the greatest quality and now that
it's aged, could be a problem but the power supply might be
more likely... "likely" doesn't necessarily mean anything
but I'd check on power before memory, for example.

 

[Kent_Diego]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

>
> QDI slot 1 boards weren't the greatest quality and now that
> it's aged, could be a problem but the power supply might be
> more likely... "likely" doesn't necessarily mean anything
> but I'd check on power before memory, for example.
>
The biggest problem of motherboards of this era is the great electrolytic
capacitor scandal. The Chinese capacitors of this era stole the formula for
paste from a Japanese company, but left out an important ingredient. So many
motherboards have failed, leaking, bulging capacitors. Inspect yours for
leaks or bulging tops.

-Kent

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

tomcas wrote:
> Ron Joiner wrote:
>
>> First off let me say that I already have an Athlon 64 3500 and a
>> P4-2gig on a home LAN so please spare me the suggestions of buying a
>> new computer.
>>
>> I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up. I am
>> not sure what the problem is. Specs are PII-233 (slot 1), WinXP Pro,
>> 196 megs of ram, QDI MB, 8.4 gig HDD, 32 meg Savage vid card, floppy,
>> CDROM drive, 200W generic PSU, generic soundcard etc. It is an olde
>> copumter that I purchased new in 1997. I would like to leave this on
>> my LAN for backups and file storage and to run my X10 system. It has
>> been a reliable computer up to now.
>>
>> On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it starts to look
>> for the boot drive. I either get a boot drive failure message at this
>> point or it goes to the next screen and then says system boot failure
>> after updated ESCD. I swapped out a HDD and tried another and got the
>> same result. I checked and reseated the ram, reseated the HDD
>> connections and checked all other obvious connections.
>>
>> Would the CMOS/BIOS tell me wheteher mu PSU is putting out suffcient
>> power because that is what I am suspecting at this point? Should I be
>> looking for something else?
>>
>> Ron
>>
>>
> Will it boot to the CD drive?
I tried putting the WinXP into the CD drive and nothing even though I
set it to boot from CDROM.

Ron

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 17:58:46 -0800, "Kent_Diego"
<None@Nomicrosoft.com> wrote:

>>
>> QDI slot 1 boards weren't the greatest quality and now that
>> it's aged, could be a problem but the power supply might be
>> more likely... "likely" doesn't necessarily mean anything
>> but I'd check on power before memory, for example.
>>
>The biggest problem of motherboards of this era is the great electrolytic
>capacitor scandal. The Chinese capacitors of this era stole the formula for
>paste from a Japanese company, but left out an important ingredient. So many
>motherboards have failed, leaking, bulging capacitors. Inspect yours for
>leaks or bulging tops.
>
>-Kent
>

The boards pre-date the capacitor scandal, which wasn't
effecting boards till about '99. That's not to say we can
be certain the caps are OK though, I used to have a QDI slot
1 board which had very poor capacitors relative to Intel
boards of that time, which had about the best caps. Later
BX or Via 693 boards would be the very first generations
effected by the capacitor issues, IIRC, though partly
because the CPUs then were using less voltage but higher
amperage, such that a weak design would more likely be
problematic even if the caps themselves didnt'
"self-destruct".

 

[Philo]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Ron Joiner wrote:
> tomcas wrote:
>
>> Ron Joiner wrote:
>>
>>> First off let me say that I already have an Athlon 64 3500 and a
>>> P4-2gig on a home LAN so please spare me the suggestions of buying a
>>> new computer.
>>>
>>> I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up. I am
>>> not sure what the problem is. Specs are PII-233 (slot 1), WinXP Pro,
>>> 196 megs of ram, QDI MB, 8.4 gig HDD, 32 meg Savage vid card, floppy,
>>> CDROM drive, 200W generic PSU, generic soundcard etc. It is an olde
>>> copumter that I purchased new in 1997. I would like to leave this on
>>> my LAN for backups and file storage and to run my X10 system. It has
>>> been a reliable computer up to now.
>>>
>>> On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it starts to
>>> look for the boot drive. I either get a boot drive failure message at
>>> this point or it goes to the next screen and then says system boot
>>> failure after updated ESCD. I swapped out a HDD and tried another and
>>> got the same result. I checked and reseated the ram, reseated the HDD
>>> connections and checked all other obvious connections.
>>>
>>> Would the CMOS/BIOS tell me wheteher mu PSU is putting out suffcient
>>> power because that is what I am suspecting at this point? Should I be
>>> looking for something else?
>>>
>>> Ron
>>>
>>>
>> Will it boot to the CD drive?
>
> I tried putting the WinXP into the CD drive and nothing even though I
> set it to boot from CDROM.
>
> Ron

may be a failure of your on-board controller

try the harddrive or cdrom on the other ide channel

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

philo wrote:
> Ron Joiner wrote:
>
>> tomcas wrote:
>>
>>> Ron Joiner wrote:
>>>
>>>> First off let me say that I already have an Athlon 64 3500 and a
>>>> P4-2gig on a home LAN so please spare me the suggestions of buying a
>>>> new computer.
>>>>
>>>> I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up. I
>>>> am not sure what the problem is. Specs are PII-233 (slot 1), WinXP
>>>> Pro, 196 megs of ram, QDI MB, 8.4 gig HDD, 32 meg Savage vid card,
>>>> floppy, CDROM drive, 200W generic PSU, generic soundcard etc. It is
>>>> an olde copumter that I purchased new in 1997. I would like to leave
>>>> this on my LAN for backups and file storage and to run my X10
>>>> system. It has been a reliable computer up to now.
>>>>
>>>> On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it starts to
>>>> look for the boot drive. I either get a boot drive failure message
>>>> at this point or it goes to the next screen and then says system
>>>> boot failure after updated ESCD. I swapped out a HDD and tried
>>>> another and got the same result. I checked and reseated the ram,
>>>> reseated the HDD connections and checked all other obvious connections.
>>>>
>>>> Would the CMOS/BIOS tell me wheteher mu PSU is putting out suffcient
>>>> power because that is what I am suspecting at this point? Should I
>>>> be looking for something else?
>>>>
>>>> Ron
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Will it boot to the CD drive?
>>
>>
>> I tried putting the WinXP into the CD drive and nothing even though I
>> set it to boot from CDROM.
>>
>> Ron
>
>
> may be a failure of your on-board controller
>
> try the harddrive or cdrom on the other ide channel

I am thinking that might be the problem because the CMOS cannot auto
detect the HDD. This, I take it, indicates a major unrepairable MB
failure, right?

Ron

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Ron Joiner wrote:
> philo wrote:
>
>> Ron Joiner wrote:
>>
>>> tomcas wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ron Joiner wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> First off let me say that I already have an Athlon 64 3500 and a
>>>>> P4-2gig on a home LAN so please spare me the suggestions of buying
>>>>> a new computer.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up. I
>>>>> am not sure what the problem is. Specs are PII-233 (slot 1), WinXP
>>>>> Pro, 196 megs of ram, QDI MB, 8.4 gig HDD, 32 meg Savage vid card,
>>>>> floppy, CDROM drive, 200W generic PSU, generic soundcard etc. It is
>>>>> an olde copumter that I purchased new in 1997. I would like to
>>>>> leave this on my LAN for backups and file storage and to run my X10
>>>>> system. It has been a reliable computer up to now.
>>>>>
>>>>> On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it starts to
>>>>> look for the boot drive. I either get a boot drive failure message
>>>>> at this point or it goes to the next screen and then says system
>>>>> boot failure after updated ESCD. I swapped out a HDD and tried
>>>>> another and got the same result. I checked and reseated the ram,
>>>>> reseated the HDD connections and checked all other obvious
>>>>> connections.
>>>>>
>>>>> Would the CMOS/BIOS tell me wheteher mu PSU is putting out
>>>>> suffcient power because that is what I am suspecting at this point?
>>>>> Should I be looking for something else?
>>>>>
>>>>> Ron
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Will it boot to the CD drive?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I tried putting the WinXP into the CD drive and nothing even though I
>>> set it to boot from CDROM.
>>>
>>> Ron
>>
>>
>>
>> may be a failure of your on-board controller
>>
>> try the harddrive or cdrom on the other ide channel
>
>
> I am thinking that might be the problem because the CMOS cannot auto
> detect the HDD. This, I take it, indicates a major unrepairable MB
> failure, right?
>
> Ron
Just some shots in the dark -Are you sure it is not the IDE cable and
have you tried the default bios settings?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

tomcas wrote:
> Ron Joiner wrote:
>
>> philo wrote:
>>
>>> Ron Joiner wrote:
>>>
>>>> tomcas wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Ron Joiner wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> First off let me say that I already have an Athlon 64 3500 and a
>>>>>> P4-2gig on a home LAN so please spare me the suggestions of buying
>>>>>> a new computer.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up. I
>>>>>> am not sure what the problem is. Specs are PII-233 (slot 1), WinXP
>>>>>> Pro, 196 megs of ram, QDI MB, 8.4 gig HDD, 32 meg Savage vid card,
>>>>>> floppy, CDROM drive, 200W generic PSU, generic soundcard etc. It
>>>>>> is an olde copumter that I purchased new in 1997. I would like to
>>>>>> leave this on my LAN for backups and file storage and to run my
>>>>>> X10 system. It has been a reliable computer up to now.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it starts to
>>>>>> look for the boot drive. I either get a boot drive failure message
>>>>>> at this point or it goes to the next screen and then says system
>>>>>> boot failure after updated ESCD. I swapped out a HDD and tried
>>>>>> another and got the same result. I checked and reseated the ram,
>>>>>> reseated the HDD connections and checked all other obvious
>>>>>> connections.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Would the CMOS/BIOS tell me wheteher mu PSU is putting out
>>>>>> suffcient power because that is what I am suspecting at this
>>>>>> point? Should I be looking for something else?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Ron
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Will it boot to the CD drive?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I tried putting the WinXP into the CD drive and nothing even though
>>>> I set it to boot from CDROM.
>>>>
>>>> Ron
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> may be a failure of your on-board controller
>>>
>>> try the harddrive or cdrom on the other ide channel
>>
>>
>>
>> I am thinking that might be the problem because the CMOS cannot auto
>> detect the HDD. This, I take it, indicates a major unrepairable MB
>> failure, right?
>>
>> Ron
>
> Just some shots in the dark -Are you sure it is not the IDE cable and
> have you tried the default bios settings?
Yes I tried a different cable - no go, and I tried various BIOS settings
- still no go. Thanks for your help.

Ron

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Ron Joiner wrote:

>I have a PII-233 on the home LAN and it appears to be acting up.

>On start up I get one beep, the memory test and then it
>starts to look for the boot drive. I either get a boot
>drive failure message at this point or it goes to the next
>screen and then says system boot failure after updated ESCD.

Have you tried installing this drive in your good computer
to make sure the drive is good?

>I swapped out a HDD and tried another and got the
>same result. I checked and reseated the ram, reseated the HDD
>connections and checked all other obvious connections.

What are the sizes of hard drive you're working with? An
old slot 1 motherboard wouldn't be able to handle anything
bigger than 127gigs, and might even be limited to 32gigs.

Also, you may need to set the hard drive jumpers to
Master/Single rather than cable select, and use an old
fashioned IDE cable.

I'm sorry if this is obvious stuff to you; I don't want
to assume either way.

Isaac Kuo

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

further to this as well,

you may want to ensure that the bios has been set to use the correct HDD,
alot of auto-detect features for older systems don't actually work that
well.

Check that the cylinders, heads and sectors line up in BIOS to those that
are
marked on the HDD itself.

as Isaac has mentioned, I don't want to state what you feel is obvious, but
it
is worth checking.

AN

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Andrew Neville wrote:
> further to this as well,
>
> you may want to ensure that the bios has been set to use the correct HDD,
> alot of auto-detect features for older systems don't actually work that
> well.
>
> Check that the cylinders, heads and sectors line up in BIOS to those that
> are
> marked on the HDD itself.
>
> as Isaac has mentioned, I don't want to state what you feel is obvious, but
> it
> is worth checking.
>
> AN
>
Turned out the the HDD could not be auto detected by the CMOS but
another drive could. I installed another that had a boot OS and now it
runs fine. BTW the original drive was only an 8.4 gig WD bought in 1999.

I will put the old HDD in another machine just in case it was as you
said; that older MBs had probs with Auto detect and see what happens.
Thanks for all the help. It was a good learning experience.

Ron