Re: Dead PC - help please !

SteveH wrote:
"Adrian" <adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4h457eF1ppsp0U2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
HI Steve

SteveH wrote:
"Adrian" <adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4h3p1dF1pdrn4U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi All

The header says it all,really !
Saturday night - pc was running fine, Sunday morning it was sat there with both front-panel lights full on (hdd & ?power?) - and completely unresponsive to any stimuli (keyboard, mouse, front panel on-off switch.

Could only turn it off by pulling the mains lead.
Put mains lead back in, front panel switch turned it back on again - but only to the same state as before. No drives spinning, front panel lights hard on, two red leds on the motherboard, fans spinning, no post......

PC was branded i-Friend - sent their support a couple of emails and phoned their helpline - no response - wonder if they've gone bust ?

Spec-wise it's a EVE2 C2714R - micro-atx motherboard, Celeron 1.7, fair bit of ram. Nothing fancy by today's standards - but a lot better than the pII it replaced !

Further diagnosis showed that one of the power supply fans was seized solid - so, on a wild hope <g>, I purchased and installed a new PSU. (The machine has had two replacement PSUs under guarantee before - so I though there might be something in this theory...

Now the new PSU is very nice, but it doesn't change the symptoms one tiny bit.....

Have also tried the 'unplug everything' approach, down to a bare motherboard with Celeron, but this makes no difference.

So - at the moment, I have three possible strategies (further suggestions welcome!)

a) Buy a motherboard 'bundle' (e.g. Celeron 336 2.8Ghz - 512mb - Micro ATX from Novatech http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/bundles.html) on the grounds that I can simply drop the whole lot in and it should fly - about £100 inc vat

b) buy a series of new parts (uP, motherboard, ?memory?) and simply replace bits until it starts to work - could be several parcels / delivery charges etc

c) Bin the whole thing and buy a cheapie replacement system unit and transplant the old hdd to the new unit.


I'm confident around electronics, just a bit baffle by the wide range of bits & pieces available now - which is why the 'bundle' approach appeals..

My diagnosis of 'motherboard or uP' - sounds about right to you ??

Many thanks - sorry it's such a long posting
Adrian
Suffolk UK
If it does turn out to be the mobo, don't just assume you can drop your old HDD onto a new mobo and have it all work, especially if you are running XP or 2000. It may work, or you will need to do a repair install. TBH, if you are replacing the mobo with a different one, your best bet will be a clean install.

Oh - right - hadn't thought of that. The o/s is WinXP Home - I do have the
'restore' disks but it didn't come with the full install disk.

Would the 'restore' disks be likely to do the job ??

Thanks
Adrian

No, the restore disks would like be set up only to restore your existing PC and reinstall all the correct drivers etc for for current setup. You would need a XP home disk (I think you'll be OK regarding licencing as you already have a copy of XP) and reinstall from that.

Cheers
SteveH


Hi Steve

Tried to reinstall with the 'repair' disk - but you were right - no go - odd errors about viruses & so on...

So - I need to buy a CD ?? - Anything to look out for - I've seen them on ebay for a few pounds and at 'proper' suppliers for about £40....

Regards
Adrian
.

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