Hello.

I have aquired a PC with a problem. I believe the running system is Windows 95, however it has a 1Ghz processor (AMD) and 512MB of RAM. So quite good. Basically i have tried everything to get it to go, including trying to install a Windows 98SE disk upon it. It crashed as soon as it got to the second screen. I tried anpther Hard drive (Which i knew ran) and it still didnt go. It got stuck at the screen beyond the Memory check and stuff.

I cant think what is wrong, ive tried the CMOS settings and stuff, but nothing seems to get it to go. So we are going to see if we can gut it for useful bits and throw the motherboard away.

Any ideas before i get the screwdriver out again?

On that other hard drive, try getting XP to install on it, since it could easily cope with it. I'm more familiar with XP than 98 (98 and 98SE are unsupported and insecure anyway), so I should be able to troubleshoot you at a stage during the installation. I must go through these things at least once a day, every single day, for the past 3 years.

Hmm. Interesting. I might try it. However, It is for nothing special just for one single game that will run perfectly on this PC. thats all the person wants it for. So all it needs really is 95....The game wont run on XP...

Will it be an Internet enabled PC or a standalone? I wouldn't advise putting any machine earlier than XP SP2 on to the Internet... and it's even tricky for me to say whether XP is a good choice!

Have you tried stripping it down to the bare minimum? This means Mobo/CPU/RAM/HDD/Graphics only, possibly a CD drive if you need to install something straight away. Then you put the other stuff back in one by one, locating the error. Also, only use 1 stick of RAM (if it has more than 1), trying all the different sticks one at a time.

Damn Dell service and support always ask that. Even though it's blatantly obvious that the capacitors have exploded... because there's orange and white stuff pouring out of them. ROFL.

^^^ Try what he said.

No, Dell just say "have you tried turning it off and on again" :P. Or "has our laptop burnt your lap?" hehe...

All Dell laptops should come with fire extinguishers IMO.

And better hardware, but that isn't going to happen...

Anyway, back to topic!

[quote:6a1621301a="Grim Reaper"]Have you tried stripping it down to the bare minimum? This means Mobo/CPU/RAM/HDD/Graphics only, possibly a CD drive if you need to install something straight away. Then you put the other stuff back in one by one, locating the error. Also, only use 1 stick of RAM (if it has more than 1), trying all the different sticks one at a time.[/quote:6a1621301a]

Yes, I disconnected everything that wasnt needed (Floppy, CD Drive, Sound card and the like) and tried it still nothing. It only has one ram board and i guess it needs that to run anyway so that would make the probelm worse! :lol:



BTW, i can edit your post Grim. That aint right is it?

You're a mod, you can edit all posts (except in certain special forums), and have been able to since the start of this forum.

Sorry, I'm out of ideas then.

Try the XP install to see where it gets to anyway :P

if the computer hs just been put together from bits of other computers regurly there r specila security codes on the hardware 2 prevent them workin in other system configerations (realy anoying), also i dnt thin win 95 suports that much ram or speed processor, 98 barly dose dsnt run v well with high spec hrdware, if its just stoped workin thn probably sumins blown n best use is salvage

Buggered PATA connection on mobo?

PATA????? WTF is that? No its an original PC,, not been used for anything else and was bought working with al the parts it has now.

PATA, Parallel ATA, aka IDE. Maybe one of the ports is fried, so master hard drive, slave cd drive and try them on just one cable.

so mmmmm hw did ths prob origial ocour, wha did u do 2 it b4 it stoped workin

I beleive he got this PC off someone to fix.

Indeed i did done what Conn said this afternoon and it still wont go. Cant install XP on it, dont have a disk and dont want it on 2 PCs. The person's game wont run on XP either.

It basically stopped working.

Hmm, did the person tell you when it stopped working and what he was doing with it at the time?

Nope apparenmtly one day it jsut wouldnt start.

Hmm, strange, something might have gone pop inside. Have you made sure its all clean etc? Including all the sockets as dust can stop data transfer?

Yes, its now spotless. The whole thing is really clean now. did everyhting.

Does anything look broken? Like a bent capacitor or burnt spots on stuff?

My brother's friend had a computer with a problem like this. While the PC was not fixed, the problem was the PSU. His friend had the power on at the mains, but had not got the power cable for the PC plugged in.

When he did plug it in, there was a pop and it was dead.

My brother purchased this and ripped the useful parts off it for himself.