Re: Dim8200 startup

On 10/16/2010 9:23 AM, Bob Villa wrote:
On Oct 16, 7:53 am, Marten Kemp<marten.k...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On 10/16/2010 8:37 AM, Bob Villa wrote:



On Oct 15, 5:22 pm, Marten Kemp<marten.k...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On 10/14/2010 11:45 AM, William R. Walsh wrote:

Hi!

Any suggestions? I really hate tossing stuff in the trash.

The "default state" of a Dell computer from this vintage seems to be
to power on after a clearing of the CMOS memory. It seems that the
machine's power state is stored there.

Check the power button itself. Make sure the ribbon cable is plugged
in tightly to the motherboard and also check the switch itself.
Disconnect it from the motherboard and use a cheap ohmmeter to see if
the switch actually does anything. Maybe it is very dirty or has been
abused?

I'm going to have to remember that bit about purple socks. ;-)

I _finally_ figured it out: the board's been removed therefore
there's no power-on button, therefore the state after a 'power
failure' is controlled by the BIOS setting. Tell the BIOS to
power on after a failure and the board starts right up.

Now all I have to do is reassemble the system with all those
'not a millimeter of slack' cables Dell's so fond of.

It sounds like Mr. Walsh set you in the right direction...and a simple
"Thank You" is in order.

He certainly did. Thank you, Mr. Walsh.

I saw your post unanswered for many days and wanted to know myself,
what was going on. Sorry I didn't have the expertise to answer it.

Well, it seems to be running, for XP Home values of 'running' <grin>.
It's for a friend who was running XP when her previous computer went
casters-up. She kept the drive and I just put in the box and ran a
repair install. All her pics are still there.

Once she picks it up I'll have one fewer big ugly black cases around
(they're not that ugly on the outside but the innards are Dell
proprietary).

There's an Optiplex GX270 board on Ebay for $19 to replace my failed
attempt at fixing an instance of capacitor plague[0] Now, is it worth
$19 to rebuild the system and give it away, as opposed to getting
rid of the case some other way? Karma and my geek nature say yes,
but my frugal side says, 'What the hell do you want to do *that* for.'

[0] Replaced the three tall caps behind the funny Y-shaped heatsink,
then one of them went 'poof,' got round on the top and got really hot.
I kinda figure that there's something else wrong.

--
-- Marten Kemp (Fix ISP to reply)
"Nothing bad can happen if you're wearing purple socks." -Mom
.

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