Dead Processor ? --no I/O

wayout2day

wayout2day

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 15, 2006
Messages
170
I repaired a PC to good working order recently. I added a second HD, and brought it from Win ME to Win XP pro.

However, the owner's friend borrowed it and used it to test out his components (having killed his own PC). Sure enough, the owner brought the machine back when it wouldn't boot up.

This PC has a switch on the power supply and on the front. He had disconnected the front switch, and had done who knows what else.

The PC would not boot up and instead gave the missing file message for basic XP files. It further suggested that the original CD be inserted to find the files. Of course, the machine came to me without these. I installed a legal copy of WIN98 and then a legal upgrade copy of XP Pro.

After checking the HD in a good PC and finding it ok, I checked the cables and found them in working order. The CD drives and the 3 1/2" drive all checked out. I set the boot order in setup. This worked ok.

The PC will not recognize any device...CD, Diskette, HD.

Motherboard GA 7Z M
Athlon Socket A processor
128 MB RAM PC-133
The quantum hard drive 15.0 GB--Fireball LCT 15
Hitachi HD 40 GB Deskstar 7200 rpm
Mitsumi 3 1/2" diskette drive
Lite-On I.T. Corp CD-ROM Drive Model LTN-525
Phillips CD drive Model # PCRW2412

I have disconnected and reconnected and tested. The cables are all right, the power leads ok, the parts are installed ok.

Any suggestions ? I don' know if the guy shorted out something. Shouldn't the PC at least boot into a boot disk in the diskette drive ?

Any help welcomed. I am trying now to glue my hair back onto the scalp...
 
If it's booting, you can access into the BIOS, and it can give you a file not found message then the processor is fine. That would be the last thing to worry about.

I would blame the motherboard before anything else. Any bad caps? Bent/missing pins on the IDE ports? Take everything out of the case and try to boot up on a piece of cardboard to make sure nothing is shorted out. You might try another power supply, bad power supplies can do strange things.
 
All of the pins are intact. I have tried a Win98 full version CD. I have tried a Win 95 diskette. The message is that there is no boot record.
 
Try booting it with no memory installed and see if you get any error beeps.... if not, it very well could be a fried mobo....
 
took out 128MB RAM card...restart...3 beeps...pause...3 beeps

Unplugged both Hard Drives...
"check system health ok"
"pri HDD error"
"run setup"
 
Did you check the jumper settings on the hard drives? The "friend" who used the system might have changed them around. If they're set to cable select try manually configuring them as master/slave or vice-versa.
 
I pulled the second hard drive and reformatted the first hard drive. My intent was to reload the OS.

The only clue I have at this point is "boot record" not found.
 
I did check the jumpers for the HD's. I confirmed the jumper settings via the manual from the Websites.

I hesitate, but what about resetting the bios to default ?

It just doesn't make sense that the PC won't read the drives to boot....
 
ok, what i meant by resetting the bios was the option on the setup screen regarding default bios.

I have used another mitsumi diskette drive. I was able to get Win 95 diskette to load. It now says there is no HD.

I am seriously doubting the power supply, as suggested above.

The reason I am writing here is to remind myself and others that it is usually something simple and basic, not devious and complicated. Thanks for grounding me... Friday nites are not best for repairs, sat afternoon brings sunlight to the issues.

I will update this to confirm later today.
 
I wasn't sure if anybody would follow up here, but this is the update....

I tried another power supply along with a newer diskette drive and a cd drive. Turns out that the diskette drive was NO GOOD. I have a newer drive identical to the one in the PC.

I didn't get any action from the drives out of the other power supply. I put the old one back in and also got nothing. Either the first power supply was faulty, or the second one finished the job.

I then took the HD's and other drives and put them into an old Gateway. they all worked fine. I put the case with the motherboard to the side.

What I could use now, is an idea as to how to test the power supply and the motherboard.

I realize it is only a $30 motherboard to replace, but it would be nice to test it. The power supply is about $40 to $50. Any hints ?
 
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