PC trouble!

[eds1275]

So I bought a place, and like a grown man I put my 2 arcade machines in the living room.

The big one won't fire up! The PC mobo gets power, the fans spin, the harddrive spins, and there is no beep error code.

Things I've tried:
reseating everything
tried each stick of ram individually
tried with no ram
different screens

I tried running it with no harddrive attached and nothing attached USB - should still fire up the bios screen right?

I'm very open to ideas! Really, all I did was roll it from the house into a truck, and then from the truck into the new house. Treated it like a baby, no hard knocks or anything.

[leapinlew]

It could've died. It happens!

Swap out a different PSU to test. If that doesn't work, take it down to it's most bare essentials - pull out all add-in cards, unplug everything, and try to power it on again.

That's about as far as I go before I start throwing in more components.

[Vigo]

Have you ensured that it isn't the graphics output or video cable itself?

[eds1275]

Yes I have tried with HDMI out, a few different VGAs, and 2 different PSUs. I'm going to remove the computer from the arcade and set it all up on the table here for easier access and testing. Finally have a place big enough to use it with friends (and was working just fine the night before I moved) and it poops


My life is kinda crummy and it seems I can never have all the good pieces in at the same time

[leapinlew]

My life is kinda crummy and it seems I can never have all the good pieces in at the same time

You don't have exclusive rights on that kinda luck. 

It happens!

[eds1275]

You don't have exclusive rights on that kinda luck. 

Oh I'm aware. But between a surprise divorce that left me in a huge pit of debt, being robbed of everything that makes my business exist, and having a massive brain tumour removed that left me blind in one eye and crippled to the point of not riding a motorcycle or playing a guitar anymore sort of makes me feel like I have paid my share of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- luck. I finally crawl out of the pit of debt and scrape together enough money to buy a home (refuse to go on disability and be a leach off the taxpayers for the rest of my life), and my arcade machine dies! Boo-urns!

[keilmillerjr]

I had same issue, and determined it was a bad motherboard or cpu.

Test psu voltage with multimeter. You need to look up which pin in the harness to jump, simulating power on.

Remove video card.

You need ram for bios. Swap cards, slots, use only 1.

Try resetting cmos.

Try different video ports and monitors.

Listen for beeps. Get mother board speaker if you dont have one. No beeps is bad.

[eds1275]

Ugh unfortunately I have spent most of the day in the hospital.

So say I decide that the mobo/cup is dead, and since it's older (a P4 I think) it would be in my best interests to just replace it. How hard is it moving a mame install to another computer? Will I have to reprogram all my everything, or should it be fairly painless?

[Vigo]

Assuming you don't have too complicated of software/ drivers going on, it should be simple enough. If you install a fresh windows install, then just copy your directories over, and keep the drive letters and file paths identical, Mame, and probably most related apps shouldn't even know the difference.

If you get an identical model motherboard, I bet you could probably even get away without doing anything, just pop the hard drive in.

[BadMouth]

Not that it's that helpful,  but I had a board that would hang until I flexed it.  If I pried up on the corner where the inputs were, it would then do the post beep and continue booting up.  I wedged some foam under that corner and used it for years.  It had to have been a bad solder joint, but I never could track it down.

[Mr. Peabody]

Could be the power supply, but likely the board went tits up. I had a similar circumstance when flashing a board to a later version bios. Had to replace it, which I think is the best option, and perhaps mess with the old one later.

Whether it whispers or yells, in spite of our wishes, life has a way of telling us we are doing things that do not suit us.

[Osirus23]

Just last night I had my main BIOS get corrupted on my motherboard. I was able to boot because it has a Dual BIOS feature that will failover to a backup BIOS in the event the main BIOS fails, but if you don't have that it would just ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- outright.

[eds1275]

OK I'm pretty far out there when it comes to PC specs and all that, and I'm sure whatever newer computer I buy now will kick the butt of the old one - but which is better? i5 processor, or core2duo? Or am I really more worried about the clock speed? These are both around the same price, so if one is better than the other I will go for that. The ones I'm looking at say 2400 3.1g for the i5 and 2.33 for the core2duo.

https://www.amazon.ca/Dell-Optiplex-755-Desktop-Bundle/dp/B00Q76KCV8/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=desktop+pc&qid=1569267593&sr=8-5

https://www.amazon.ca/Dell-990-Desktop-Windows-Refurbished/dp/B07TCCMWY7/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=desktop+pc&qid=1569267593&sr=8-4

[Drnick]

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core2-Duo-E6550-vs-Intel-Core-i5-2400/568vs803

Well looks like the I5 comprehensively dumps all over the core 2