Old hardware help needed.

God I'm sick of helping 'friends' with their PCs.

I need help with this latest one.

A while ago I upgraded an old Kaiyo machine for a (financially challenged)
friend from an AMD 686 100Mhz to a P166MMX, bumped the RAM up from 8MB to
64MB and slapped in a 256Kb COAST module and added a PCI NIC so his missus
could use this old machine, running 98SE, and use the net, email etc. using
MS ICS from his (PIII) machine. It's an Ocktek mobo. All I got out of it was
I sold him a 15" monitor in good condition for $50.

They were pleased as punch with it for months. Then today I get a call, "The
monitor isn't working". They turn it on, the LEDs come on, the HDD clicks a
few times and...... nothing.

I told him the monitor is a good one and to unplug the monitor from the PC
and, lo and behold, "No signal input" appears on the monitor. Being the
sucker I am I agree to him bringing the box around and so I can have a look
at it.

First thing I do is hook it up to a monitor etc. here and it's just as he
described. No monitor action, no BIOS beeps, just a bit of HDD seek noise.

OK, try a different PCI video card. No change. Try another. Still the same.
Try a different PCI slot, nada. Try an ISA video card (why the hell do I
still have one of those?) still nothing.

HDD light is flashing for a second or two when you first push the power
button, as is the CD-ROM light. CPU fan is spinning fine but nothing is
happening.

So I grab a spare Socket 7 AT mobo out of the bits box, an MSI, a good
board. TX chip-set, 512Kb on-board cache, a lot better than the original.
Change everything over and... Just the same, exactly the same.

So I swapped out the CPU for another P166MMX, no change. I pull the NIC and
soundcard, no change. Unplug the IDE and floppy cables.... you guessed it,
no change. No BIOS on screen, no beeps, nothing.

So I tried the RAM modules seperately (2 X 32MB) still nothing.

As the drives were all spinning and there was power on the 12 and 5 volt
connectors on the molex plugs and I couldn't be bothered completely swapping
PSUs (It was late and he'd been here two hours, talking incessantly) I used
a different PSU to power the mobo, thinking maybe the 3.3v was shot. Turned
them both on at the same time with the second PSU earthed to the chassis,
Still no change. (I no longer have a multi-meter, gave it to a friend in
more affluent times who does a lot more electronics work than me when his
packed up, intending to replace it but... never did and now can't afford
one)

Previous to this, in the last week or so, he tells me sometimes it wouldn't
boot but hitting reset a time or two fixed it. Until tonight.

I told him to leave it with me. I'm gonna bench-test the original mobo
tomorrow, seems a good place to start.

Please, my learned friends, do any of you have the slightest idea what may
be going on with this POS? ;-)
--
~misfit~



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"~misfit~" wrote in message
...
God I'm sick of helping 'friends' with their PCs.

I need help with this latest one.

A while ago I upgraded an old Kaiyo machine for a (financially
challenged) friend from an AMD 686 100Mhz to a P166MMX,
bumped the RAM up from 8MB to

snipped desperate troubleshooting adventure

Seems to me what you need to do is determine which parts of his
*do* work. Setup that spare MSI completely with all your own
components so that it sucsessfully posts. Then, one for one swop
out for his components to determine whether they work. It's my
guess that he has more than one fried item, including the mobo
and/or BIOS chip, so get ready to sell him your MSI board.

The PSU would've been my choice as the culprit ... after the monitor
itself. Have you hooked the suspect monitor to a known working box to
see if the monitor still failed (or hooked a known working monitor to
the suspect box, which might not be preferred method since it is a
*suspect* box)?

--
__________________________________________________ __________
** Share with others. Post replies in the newsgroup.
** If present, remove all "-nix" from my email address.
__________________________________________________ __________


"~misfit~" wrote in message
...
God I'm sick of helping 'friends' with their PCs.

I need help with this latest one.

A while ago I upgraded an old Kaiyo machine for a (financially
challenged)
friend from an AMD 686 100Mhz to a P166MMX, bumped the RAM up from 8MB
to
64MB and slapped in a 256Kb COAST module and added a PCI NIC so his
missus
could use this old machine, running 98SE, and use the net, email etc.
using
MS ICS from his (PIII) machine. It's an Ocktek mobo. All I got out of
it was
I sold him a 15" monitor in good condition for $50.

They were pleased as punch with it for months. Then today I get a
call, "The
monitor isn't working". They turn it on, the LEDs come on, the HDD
clicks a
few times and...... nothing.

I told him the monitor is a good one and to unplug the monitor from
the PC
and, lo and behold, "No signal input" appears on the monitor. Being
the
sucker I am I agree to him bringing the box around and so I can have a
look
at it.

First thing I do is hook it up to a monitor etc. here and it's just as
he
described. No monitor action, no BIOS beeps, just a bit of HDD seek
noise.

OK, try a different PCI video card. No change. Try another. Still the
same.
Try a different PCI slot, nada. Try an ISA video card (why the hell do
I
still have one of those?) still nothing.

HDD light is flashing for a second or two when you first push the
power
button, as is the CD-ROM light. CPU fan is spinning fine but nothing
is
happening.

So I grab a spare Socket 7 AT mobo out of the bits box, an MSI, a good
board. TX chip-set, 512Kb on-board cache, a lot better than the
original.
Change everything over and... Just the same, exactly the same.

So I swapped out the CPU for another P166MMX, no change. I pull the
NIC and
soundcard, no change. Unplug the IDE and floppy cables.... you guessed
it,
no change. No BIOS on screen, no beeps, nothing.

So I tried the RAM modules seperately (2 X 32MB) still nothing.

As the drives were all spinning and there was power on the 12 and 5
volt
connectors on the molex plugs and I couldn't be bothered completely
swapping
PSUs (It was late and he'd been here two hours, talking incessantly) I
used
a different PSU to power the mobo, thinking maybe the 3.3v was shot.
Turned
them both on at the same time with the second PSU earthed to the
chassis,
Still no change. (I no longer have a multi-meter, gave it to a friend
in
more affluent times who does a lot more electronics work than me when
his
packed up, intending to replace it but... never did and now can't
afford
one)

Previous to this, in the last week or so, he tells me sometimes it
wouldn't
boot but hitting reset a time or two fixed it. Until tonight.

I told him to leave it with me. I'm gonna bench-test the original mobo
tomorrow, seems a good place to start.

Please, my learned friends, do any of you have the slightest idea what
may
be going on with this POS? ;-)
--
~misfit~



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.520 / Virus Database: 318 - Release Date: 18/09/2003

"Vanguard" wrote in message
news:gNRab.522612$Ho3.88722@sccrnsc03...
The PSU would've been my choice as the culprit ... after the monitor
itself. Have you hooked the suspect monitor to a known working box to
see if the monitor still failed (or hooked a known working monitor to
the suspect box, which might not be preferred method since it is a
*suspect* box)?

Hi Vanguard.

I tried it with a 'known good' monitor and I've also swapped the PSU out.

Cheers,
--
~misfit~



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.520 / Virus Database: 318 - Release Date: 19/09/2003

"jona" wrote in message
...

"~misfit~" wrote in message
...
God I'm sick of helping 'friends' with their PCs.

I need help with this latest one.

A while ago I upgraded an old Kaiyo machine for a (financially
challenged) friend from an AMD 686 100Mhz to a P166MMX,
bumped the RAM up from 8MB to

snipped desperate troubleshooting adventure

LOL, it did sound a bit desperate didn't it? The guy was waiting as I told
him on the phone that I could more-than-likely fix it that night. I have
spare everythings for it except his HDD/data.

Seems to me what you need to do is determine which parts of his
*do* work. Setup that spare MSI completely with all your own
components so that it sucsessfully posts. Then, one for one swop
out for his components to determine whether they work. It's my
guess that he has more than one fried item, including the mobo
and/or BIOS chip, so get ready to sell him your MSI board.

Yep, that's what I'm gonna do. Thanks for your input, much appreciated.
--
~misfit~



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.520 / Virus Database: 318 - Release Date: 19/09/2003

"~misfit~" wrote in message
...

"jona" wrote in message
...
out for his components to determine whether they work. It's my
guess that he has more than one fried item, including the mobo
and/or BIOS chip, so get ready to sell him your MSI board.

Yep, that's what I'm gonna do. Thanks for your input, much appreciated.

Be sure to let us know what the final verdict was.

"jona" wrote in message
...

"~misfit~" wrote in message
...

"jona" wrote in message
...
out for his components to determine whether they work. It's my
guess that he has more than one fried item, including the mobo
and/or BIOS chip, so get ready to sell him your MSI board.

Yep, that's what I'm gonna do. Thanks for your input, much appreciated.

Be sure to let us know what the final verdict was.

Will do.
--
~misfit~



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.520 / Virus Database: 318 - Release Date: 18/09/2003