Hardware Problems ...

[bcard74]

Hey all.  Having some difficulties getting the 'puter running for my bartop.  Remember the 486 thread??  Lol ...

Anyways, I have my hands on a P200MMX and a AMD K6-266, both with respective motherboards and RAM.  I also have a couple of HD's, SB16, and a 12 meg video card.

For the life of me, I cannot get either computer to power up in any configuration.  I get it plugged in and the HD will spin a bit, but nothing comes up on the screen.  I think I am missing something on the power supply side of things as I am not familiar with the older style MB's.  All I am hooking up is the 8 and 9 main power supply, and after reading some FAQ's, I believe this is all I really need to do.

I have swapped in another vid card, same thing.  I have stripped both down to nothing but MB, CPU, RAM and vid card, and still same thing ...  Black screen.

Am I missing something that I need to be connecting?  The CPU's are heating up, so I know the supply should be ok, and the HD will spin up too.  I did read somewhere that something needs to be connected from the power switch to the MB, perhaps this rings a bell?  Of course I can't see anything other than the 4-prong connector to the switch itself.  GRRR.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[gibble]

Hook up a PC speaker (the crappy thing from inside a case) and you should get error codes beeped to you.  If you get no video there is almost always a series of beeps (longs/shorts) that you can use to find what the problem is.

If you can report back with the beep sequence myself or someone can look it up.

[bcard74]

Brilliant.  I will try that later this evening and check back.  Thanks.

[madk]

Also make sure your monitor is plugged in

[bcard74]

UG, no PC speaker in the house.  Will go buy one tomorrow at the Reuse Center and check back, thanks.

[SNAAAKE]

only thing that leads to "nothing on the screen" is either the cpu has problem or the ram modules are not working propley.But its sorta strange that both your pc is acting funny .

[HeadRusch]

Well if its any consolation, I just fried my brand new Athlon 1.33ghz chip when the heatsink stopped making contact with the chip.

$40 chip history, $10 heatsink/fan combo in the trash.

$40 replacement chip, $10.00 arctic silver grease, $25 heatsink/fan combo on the way.

[SNAAAKE]

OOOOHH MY  

You seem happy that you fuc_ed your computer up .

Be sad !.....VERY VERY SAD !

[HeadRusch]

Nah.....the chip was $40 bucks and the Heatsink and fan was $10.  Why be sad......oh well I guess I can afford to NOT be sad since I can afford to replace it, but I am replacing it with a 1Ghz chip instead of a 1.33...seems my motherboard is really designed to run with 200mhz Athlons, not the 266Mhz ones like the 1.33 was before it fried up.

I'm no Enron CEO, but I can afford a $50 mistake if it teaches me something, which it did.

I didn't realize HOW hot the athlons ran until I touched the core after I popped the heatsink/fan off it and smelled the frying electronics.....HOT...hot like Lava hot, like "touch the surface of the sun" hot....hot as in that first second it almost feels COLD its so hot.

[SNAAAKE]

i know exactly how you feel..its not the $50 that kills me here..the the freakgin wait for the mobo  then reinstall everything....

[HeadRusch]

Yup, now I gotta wait another 4 days for the new chip to arrive...

[bcard74]

If I can't even hook up a computer, how am I going to make a cabinet!?

Anyways, I got a PC speaker, and I can't even find where to hook the damn thing up.  It is the type that fits over a 4 pin connector, and I can't even find any 4 pins on the motherboards.  I did find one on the P200, but it made no noise when I powered it up.

I should rename the thread "How Do I Hook Up A PC Speaker" ...

Geesh, first 486 questions, now PC speaker questions.  I should just stick to the Atari 2600.  Thanks for your help guys.

Brent

[HeadRusch]

The further you go back, the more PC's are a pain in the ass.
Be thankful you're not trying to build a 286 or 386, back before smart slots, VESA, and so forth.

I have a pEntium Pro I'm trying to install a 3gig drive on, but the BIOS is so old it wont boot up without a floppy drive.  Now, I gotta steal one from the back room at work!

Putting together a PC is simply put, a pain.  Even modern components you always get some kind of problem, a hangup, a driver that wont install, etc.
dont feel too bad.

Stop messing with the PC speaker...just chuck it, you might never find the slots on the board (if the board has a 4 slot for a speaker, it might have 2 on that aprticular MB, etc).......

[SirPoonga]

Do you get any beeps as you power up?

If no, then check your vga plug, make sure there are no bent pins.  Also take out the video card, clean contacts with isopropyl alchohol.  Also, vga card plugged into the first pci slot?  I know it seems weird, technically it doesn;t matter, but that is where bios looks first for a video card.

If it does beep, then you have to find out form the mobo manufacturer what the beep means.

[bcard74]

Thanks for the ideas SirP.  There are no beeps when I power it up, and I have tried the vid card in every slot ...  I have even tried a second card just to make sure the first isn't fried.

Starting to really bang my head against a wall because now I have actually doled out around 80 bucks in RAM, power supplies and other junk.  Unlikely I can recoup my losses at all especially as I am not sure any of it actually works.

Oh well, will just have to suck it up and buy a working Pentium system from the hock shop or something.  Thanks for everyones help.

[Thenasty]

ok here is some steps to do. Just do it even its already done.

1. Make sure the PS that goes in the MOBO is connected correctly (BLACK wires together in the middle).

2. Unplug all wires (reset, speaker,  Turbo switch etc..) tiny plugs.

3. Double check RAM connection and CPU make sure its nicely put in.

4. Just put a VIDEO CARD card in.

5. Power it up.

If no work, then MOBO is fried.

[isugoat]

do you know if this mobo has onboard video? if so that might be your problem, it's trying to send a video signal out to pins that don't have anything hooked to them.
usually on the old mobos there is just a jumper to enable/disable onboard stuff.
to give me an idea what you're workin with, do you know the brand/model of your mobo?

[bcard74]

One of the MB's has onboard video, and I have tried it both with the monitor hooked up to the onboard output and and the card.  No go.  (At different times, don't worry ...)

I have also tried it bared right down to the minimums just in case a drive or something was interferring.  IE, nothing but CPU, RAM, and video card.  Still nothing.  I have tried a few different power supplies as well.

Luckily I got these things from a pawn shop, so I can take it back and try and get something else.  Thanks for all the help guys.

[dirkmm]

I remember having problems like that years back and had it turn out to be a bad power supply. If you've got a spare one to swap with, I'd give that shot.