Computer Repair Help

[ocgw]

I need main connector pinout for a Dell PIII psu to fix a friends dad's PC

Can anybody provide a link?

ocgw

peace

[KingSeti]

Sorry, been putting some overtime in at work!

Classfour, I have two memory sticks in the computer, 1 256 mb in slot 1 and another in slot 3. I have taken the one out of slot 3 and tried to boot with the one in slot 1, no dice. I then took out the one in slot 1 and put the one taken out of slot 3 into slot 1 and still no dice.

Nelson, I know there can't be a virus because after I did manage to get it reformated 5 or 6 months ago it has not been turned on. I do not have it hooked to the internet either. I have the rom, burner, and floppy unpluged. The front usb is unhooked from the motherboard and nothing in the pci slots. Nelson, I will tomorrow unhook the ribbon (data) cables for the floppy and rom and burner as I only unhooked the power cable. I also did put a brand new 400 watt power supply in and still the same thing, fan extremely loud (ready to take off to the moon) and only orange power light on the left front side of the tower.

The place I had my wife test the power supply said they can test processor for $ 15.00 (it was free to test power supply), but I was looking on the net and they want like 140.00 (refurbished) for a P4 3.2 G (I think it is a 775 socket/pin) that is in this computer. Since I can't get it to boot, I can't get any kind of number for the motherboard (to research) in order to find out what other processors I can put in it. There are some stickers on the motherboard but none look like a part number. I will double check tomorrow when I unhook data cables. I have everest installed in it and I know it can give me that information. Last night I did manage to get the heatsink and processor out (thanks to the link from Bjs), there was no dust build-up underneath and I was able to reseat the processor and it still did not boot. Not sure how to "short the two pins" so I won't be able to try the switch.

Tomorrow I will unhook the ribbons (data cable) for the rom, burner and floppy. I will also do this for the harddrive and see what happens

Oh yeah, I was not planning to use the computer for anything major, I just want to get it up and running to put in daughter's room for internet, some gaming and e-mail. That way the little one and the wife leave my main computer alone.

Usually_quit, thanks for the links! I will check them out in the morning as I need a few hours of sleep before I get hooked on looking at computers

Hope I did not forget anything!

[redwudz]

ocgw, Have you checked http://pinouts.ru/ ? They have a lot of info there.

[ocgw]

ocgw, Have you checked http://pinouts.ru/ ? They have a lot of info there.

Thx for the link redwudz

ocgw

peace

[KingSeti]

So here is the latest! I took out the new power supply and put the original back in. I also unhooked all the data cables (ribbons for floppy and dvd rom and dvd burner. I also have them unplugged from power. I then pushed the power button and no dice, still the same high running cpu fan. I unhooked the hardrive, power and ribbon, and still the same. No beeps or no change in the screaming fan. Just for the heck of it i unplugged the cpu fan and nothing changed, well i mean it wouldn't boot but the screaming fan was not there. I even left out both memory chips and nothing, not even an error beep. As of now, I have the 4 pin plug from power supply and the 24 pin hooked to the motherboard. I have the cpu fan plugged into motherboard and 1 stick of memory and hooked back up the harddrive. I still have the front usb unhooked from motherboard. This damn computer still will do nothing but give me a screaming fan. No beeps or nothing on the screen, nada. I have tried everything.

I want to thank everyone for their options on what to try but I am totally stuck at this point.

[budz]

With all the time and money you've already spent buy a cheap amd/intel cpu, mobo & ram. You can use the leftover hardware with the new components. It sounds like the mobo is probably fried rice or something. Black Friday will have a lot of computers for sale at cheapo prices. Perhaps you could look into buying one or buy components to build one and use the left over hardware that you already have. Just my 2 cents!

[KingSeti]

All, I just wanted to update on the issue with the computer. I have since got a new computer, day after Thanksgiving special $198.00 laptop from Walmart. Believe it or not, this little computer is actually nice. I won't be doing video editing on it but for the wife and daughter to surf the net and check e-mail it is wonderful. I am actually using it right now to post this! I went up there at 10:00 pm and was fifth in line, got my ticket at midnight and slept on the floor for a little while till it was time to get things done. Picked up a few things for Christmas while i was there and was back home sleeping by 5:45 in the am.

I took back the power supply since I bought this laptop and might just take it to the computer shop for them to look it over, they said 35.00 to diagnose it and that 35 comes off the price to fix it, if I want them to fix it.

So thanks for the help and guidance as to what to look for in an ailing computer. Depending on how soon I decide what to do I will post back what happens.

[TBoneit]

Just understand that it will take a new motherboard to fix it.

When the Power light stays orange(Yellow) steady it means a bad Motherboard on Dells. A Blinking Orange power light means Power supply. '
When the fan races like that it is a sign of a bsd motherboard.

I base this on experiences at work as well as Dells support material and Web searches.

I have a E510 in the shop now, same thing, racing CPU fan. I'd try a different CPU except it still has approx 100+ days of warranty according to Dells website. Changing the CPU would show. Trying the different power supply and memory won't. They didn't help nor did I really expect them to help.

Time to move on.

Cheers