Tom's Hardware > Forum > Motherboards & Memory > General Motherboard > Took apart old pc, what went wrong?

Took apart old pc, what went wrong?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - Took apart old pc, what went wrong?

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Ask the community Add a reply
Word :    Username :           
 
endless_n00b   01-24-2002 at 08:08:56 PM

Hi all,

As the name might suggest, I'm a total noob with hardware. After reading a ton of guides, I decided to test myself and take apart my old HP from 2 pcs ago (it's just a doorstop now anyway, P2 266 so I didn't care if I broke it). Well I disassembled it completely down to the bare case, and then I put it back together, but as you might have guessed, I screwed up somewhere because it no longer works. I'm not mad I broke it, just disappointed I failed the test.

So I'm wondering what I did wrong? I made sure I was in a static free environment (lenoleum floor in my hallway), and grounded myself on the leg of metal chair before beginning, and often afterwards just to be safe. I was very careful and I labeled all wires with tape before taking them off, so I am 99% sure I hooked everything up right. So I guess I fried something somehow. Upon reviewing my tools, I realized my screw driver has a magnitized head (oops), a detail that escaped my notice until now. Could this have done it? If not, any ideas where I might have messed up (common mistakes etc)?

Thanks for any help!!


----
A newbie is only a newbie for as long as you allow him to be.
-Anonymous Veteran

Add a reply
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
HawaiianGuy   01-25-2002 at 05:10:38 AM
- 0 +

I'm no expert but if the screwdriver touched the wrong thing it could have hurt something. Something else to remember is that a metal chair is not a ground. You need something that is connected to the ground outside, like a cold water pipe, something that touches good old mother earth.

What I do is get a piece of copper wire, say 14 gauge and run it out the window to a metal hose faucet. Then I touch it occasionally. You can wrap it around a cold water pipe in the house too.

Reply to HawaiianGuy
Crashman   01-25-2002 at 05:45:34 AM
- 0 +

Normally caused by hooking some cables up wrong, try unhooking all the cables except power/power switch and see if it post.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Reply to Crashman
svol   01-25-2002 at 08:18:53 PM
- 0 +

Check if nothing is shorting.
I often use a magnetic screwdriver and I also accidently touched my BIOS chip with it, but nothing was wrong.

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground :eek: .

Reply to svol
endless_n00b   01-25-2002 at 10:04:07 PM
- 0 +

Quote :


Check if nothing is shorting.


How do I check that?

Thanks again for the help =)




----
A newbie is only a newbie for as long as you allow him to be.
-Anonymous Veteran

Reply to endless_n00b
Iseekknowledge   01-25-2002 at 11:26:22 PM
- 0 +

for grounding if your house is properly wired(it should unless it is a very old house) you can stick a wire in the round hole in your wall outlet( make sure it is not a slot but the round hole by itself on the outlet, this is your ground it is hoked to the house ground it is safe. also pay attention to the position of wire from your case to the mobo to turm on the computer labled switch that is pluged in right some times the mobo it is not labled good enough. Also check polarity.

Reply to Iseekknowledge
Iseekknowledge   01-26-2002 at 12:09:44 AM
- 0 +

Just make sure that nothing that conducts electricity is touching any part of your mobo.

Reply to Iseekknowledge
Rick_Criswell   01-26-2002 at 12:45:27 AM
- 0 +

Here is a guess. It is a at power supply.He probably has the plugs connected wrong. IF it is a two piece power supply to the motherboard make sure the black wires are together in the center. No on the outside.

I aint signing nothing!!!

Reply to Rick_Criswell
girish   01-26-2002 at 07:21:32 PM
- 0 +

if it is so, he might have fried the mobo!

take heart noob, its just a guess, may be something is really short that making your ssytem fail. now do another excercise, take the system apart again. keep the motherboard on a clean non-conducting surface and connect all the parts to it and test. if it does bootup, its fine. else keep posted.

<font color=red>Nothing is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>

Reply to girish
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Motherboards & Memory > General Motherboard > Took apart old pc, what went wrong?
Go to:

There are 1133 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.219 seconds
Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Related Topics
See all relatives topics
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
How do I win badges?