Need your help please

[Kaptain_Insano]

Hi everyone,

I will give it to you as short as possible. I took a Pentium 2 off an elderly lady who was having problems with it(to fix it for her). Brought it home formatted it and put win98 se and a whack of things like adaware, spybot, antivir, etc on it. After it running for 6 to 8 hours it suddenly starts ticking like its making a left hand turn. I go over its frozen; I try everything to no avail and have to kill power to it. The computer won't turn on again!? Nothing. No light on the front; no action at all. Is it the power supply maybe? I have checked for a loose connection but don't see anything. Any ideas?

Cheers K

[Mesaeus]

Check and see if the cpu fan is still working. Try to determine where the ticking sound is coming from if it ever happens again (fans can make that sort of noise when dying). If it still won't start, see if you can temporarily try a different PSU.

[Kareeser]

Another likely culprit is the hard drive, although that won't typically cause a computer to not turn on at all.

When my hard drive failed after a power outage, it made a loud clicking noise, similar to what you described.

Just throwing that out there.

[Kaptain_Insano]

Thanks for the replies. This lady said someone had told her her hard drive was going and just to use it till it died. But if it were the HD I should be able to power up right? When I plug in the machine and turn the PSU on I hear a hum, which doesn't necessarily mean it is working though. I have had the cover off and looked for a loose connection just to be sure. I have a feeling its a hardware problem with either the PSU or HD. But if it's the HD why won't it power up?
I had the machine on for 6 to 8 hours formatting and reloading apps to it, maybe that was enough to push it over the edge.

Anyway how do I figure out what the problem is without spending the money? What options do i give this lady? I'm not charging her for this in the first place. Does she spend a few bucks on a HD or PSU or a qualified tech to look at it or does she go newer for $400 to $500 on a new machine? I feel so bad. I have tried calling her twice today; she still doesn't know.

Cheers K

[Mesaeus]

Hey don't feel bad about it. Things happen. I just spent 3 months getting a replacement for an Asus mb in a machine where I was just supposed to add an extra hard drive. I went to the customer for pickup, it was working when I got there, but by the time I got home it wouldn't boot anymore. Your machine, just as mine, chose an inconvenient time to give up the ghost but it probably was on its way out anyway.

As for your machine, have you tried disconnecting the hard drive ? At this point the most important thing is to determine what is causing it to fail booting. If it's the hard drive, you should be able to find a cheap hard drive on ebay. Heck if you're worried, you can find a whole P2 machine for peanuts (not actual peanuts, some sellers may be allergic )

[Kaptain_Insano]

Oh man I thought I would have things figured out here by now. I took a power supply out of another old comp I have and hooked it up to this comp hoping it would go and still nothing. Tried unhooking the HD just to check. Thought maybe the main switch is broken so I took the connection off the MB and tried shorting it to start with a metal ruler but I have never done this so I am unsure how to. Any ideas? could the MB or something else have gone? Like I said there was ticking like a car signal and I had to pull the plug to shut down, and now it does nothing when I try to start it up.

Cheers K

[glc]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409