Re: Life after Windows 98SE
Bill in Co. wrote:
| PCR wrote:
|> Bill in Co. wrote:
|>> PCR wrote:
|>>> Bill in Co. wrote:
|>>>> PCR wrote:
|>>>>> Bill in Co. wrote:
|>>>>>> PCR wrote:
|>>>>>>> Bill in Co. wrote:
|>>>>>>>> PCR wrote:
|>>>>>>>>> Bill in Co. wrote:
|>>>>>>>>>
|>>>>>>>>> ...snip
|>>>>>>>>>> Actually, it "seems" this was a "blessing" in disguise, as I
|>>>>>>>>>> just tried "upgrading" my Win98 Dell's power supply to a
|>>>>>>>>>> quieter one, and, due to Dell's proprietary pin layouts, now
|>>>>>>>>>> have a dead MB. Ironically, I bought one of those "quiet
|>>>>>>>>>> power supply" replacements (even with some special Dell
|>>>>>>>>>> connectors) in the hopes of quieting that PC down. It is
|>>>>>>>>>> VERY quiet now, as in .... completely dead.
|>>>>>>>>>
|>>>>>>>>> You KILLED your Win98! Ohhhh! It's the XP-irradiation
|>>>>>>>>> responsible! It demented you and cajoled you & made you plug
|>>>>>>>>> in a poison, purple power supply to match the color of your
|>>>>>>>>> irradiated toes! I KNEW it would happen! Ohhhhhh!
|>>>>>>>>
|>>>>>>>> Well, I'm not done with it yet! I found and ordered an
|>>>>>>>> exact replacement MB from eBay, so wish me luck!!
|>>>>>>>
|>>>>>>> Good luck-- absolutely! Get that Win98 back!
|>>>>>>>
|>>>>>>>> But I am a bit pissed - this old Dell and its damn proprietary
|>>>>>>>> connector wiring, Bah Humbug!.
|>>>>>>>
|>>>>>>> In truth, that was fairly brave of you to try replacing a power
|>>>>>>> supply. I hope never to have to do it!
|>>>>>>
|>>>>>> I did it to quiet that PC down (it is noticeably noiser than the
|>>>>>> new one). Now it's .... VERY VERY quiet!
|>>>>>
|>>>>> Uhuh. That part was a success. But earplugs would have been
|>>>>> better!
|>>>>>
|>>>>>> Actually, I just tested the power supply with a voltmeter
|>>>>>> (finally found the Dell wiring diagram), and found it's still
|>>>>>> ok. So - the MB is hosed.
|>>>>>
|>>>>> I guess I must agree. If the old one tests well & is plugged as
|>>>>> it was before, it should work as before, I think. Either the MB
|>>>>> is gone or some smaller component on it that gets power first is
|>>>>> gone.
|>>>>
|>>>> Most of those components (and ICs) are soldered in, and I bet
|>>>> several were blown, due to the miswired power supply (putting the
|>>>> wrong voltages on the wrong pins).
|>>>> So it's not practical replacing the individual components.
|>>>> These old motherboards aren't all that expensive anyways.
|>>>
|>>> I see. Yea, that gets worse to consider multiple components may be
|>>> wrecked, & I see there is no sign of singeing anywhere. And I
|>>> personally would suspect I could be doing more damage than existed
|>>> in the first place, if soldering is involved! In fact, I wouldn't
|>>> want to do a whole MB, either. That sounds as tough or worse than a
|>>> power supply, even! Sheesh-- but keep at it! You have no choice!
|>>> Get that Win98 working!
|>>>
|>>>>> But I'm afraid I know little or nothing about this.
|>>>>>
|>>>>> (1) Do all the peripherals such as the hard drives require the MB
|>>>>> to work to get any sound out of them?
|>>>>
|>>>> The problem was that after the MB is fried it can prevent the
|>>>> power supply from working, because the power supply gets a
|>>>> turn-on signal from the MB when you push the power switch ON.
|>>>> (the on switch is not directly wired to the power supply).
|>>>> So if that signal isn't seen and recognized anymore, you get no
|>>>> power from the power supply, because it's still off, but waiting
|>>>> for that signal.
|>>>
|>>> Damn. So, just going by that...
|>>>
|>>> (a) The motherboard could be dead.
|>>> (b) The original power supply could be dead.
|>>>
|>>> I know you tested the power supply with a voltmeter & found it to
|>>> be good. I wonder...
|>>>
|>>> Can it be the MB is also actually still good, & that the surge was
|>>> passed along to the hard drive(s)?
|>>
|>> No, cause it didn't even POST. Just ... nothing (although I did
|>> hear a very faint click when I turned it on)
|>
|> Alright. I'm actually in over my head on this topic. I suppose there
|> would be a post even with a dead or disconnected hard drive. I do
|> have these files on C:\...
|>
|> Directory of C:\
|> BC04 OBJ 184,333 02-09-00 10:29a BC04.OBJ
|> BIOS EXE 45,056 03-31-00 11:13a BIOS.exe
|> BIOS INI 76 03-30-00 12:31p BIOS.ini
|>
|> But, judging from the contents of the .ini (just these two lines)...
|>
|> PRODUCT=Samsung 8x DVD-ROM Drive
|> COMMAND=c:\fromdos bc04.obj /run
|>
|> They seem to relate to the DC-ROM only.
|>
|>>> Can it be the hard drive that is
|>>> dead? I can't seem to find it, but didn't someone in this thread
|>>> post a way to check that... maybe he said to plug in just the hard
|>>> drive & touch something to the chassis? Wait, it was philo, & he
|>>> said...
|>>>
|>>> ......Quote philo............
|>>> I assume it's an ATX you are asking about.
|>>> If it's an ATX supply just touch the green wire to the chassis.
|>>>
|>>> I advise keeping one harddrive connected to it since it's a
|>>> 'switching' type supply and may require some load to run.
|>>>
|>>> If it does not even turn on or power a HD it's dead of course...
|>>> but even if it powers the drive...I'd still check the other
|>>> voltages as it could still be defective of course.
|>>
|>> I checked the voltages and the power supply (at least) seems ok.
|>> So at least something is left.
|>
|> Yea. OK.
|>
|>>> BTW: If the PSU smells burned or if there's a capacitor rattling
|>>> around inside...
|>>> you need not go any further <G>
|>>> ......EOQ.......................
|>>>
|>>> I'm not sure my interpretation is correct. It would be nice if
|>>> something like that should spin the hard drive. Then, you could
|>>> know it wasn't dead.
|>>>
|>>>>> (2) Is there any evidence of burning anywhere?
|>>>>
|>>>> Nope.
|>>>
|>>> OK. Too bad.
|>>>
|>>>>> (3) Was there any noise after the replacement power supply was
|>>>>> plugged in just before things went dead-- like the sound of an
|>>>>> electric chair or something?
|>>>>
|>>>> Nope. It was quiet. All was - and still IS - Quiet, on the
|>>>> Western Front.
|>>>
|>>> Hmm. It seems strange that nothing at all would happen-- not even
|>>> dying words (which always are true) or a last gasp!
|>>
|>> Not if the power supply doesn't get the "good to go" signal (from
|>> some PS_ON control IC, that presumably got initially destroyed) to
|>> turn it fully on.
|>
|> OK. You've said it twice & I'm sure I've heard it before too. That's
|> good enough now. Yet... I'm still wondering why there was no bang (&
|> not even a whimper)... when that fatally pinned replacement power
|> supply was first connected. It doesn't seem right that a MB could
|> die w/o a sound at the hands of a power supply!
|
| Not necessarily. An IC (integrated circuit) chip or transistor,
| etc, can die silently with incorrect voltages. Of course, if one
| wanted to, one could "up" the voltages even more, and under the right
| conditions, blow it literally apart (like blow its case off). THEN
| you would hear it.
All right. I'm sure you are right. The 3 noisy experiences I've had were
unrelated to the MB...
Hard drive crash Had to be replaced & has a rattle now.
CD-ROM crash Worked fine 3/so days later,
after I got the CD out of it.
Speakers Smaller ones blew up! The originals
worked fine when replugged & still do.
|>> Of course, I haven't done a close inspection of all the components
|>> on the MB - I can always do that when I replace it. No rush now.
|>>
|>
|> Right. Hopefully, all will be over when that is connected. I see you
|> & philo have discussed BIOS & USB considerations in the other thread.
|> Also, your CMOS battery was discussed.
|>
|> Remember Candlin? He was big on replacing the CMOS battery first
|> thing when a computer went dead, IIRC. Could be you might try that
|> in the meantime.
You didn't answer this. Candlin seemed knowledeable most of the time,
though also often inordinantly ornery. If a new battery comes with the
new MB, it might be worth a shot just to replace that as a first try.
|>> Actually, I'm kinda lucky in one sense that it worked out this way,
|>> as otherwise I might have destroyed some other things, like the disk
|>> drives and/or PCI cards, if the power supply did turn on and stay on
|>> long enough to damage everything connected to it.
|>
|> I think things would/should have been quite noisy, if a lot of stuff
|> got wrecked.
|
| IC's (integrated circuits), and most of the electronics, can quite
| often go out silently, unless, say, it is severely over-voltaged
| (like enough to literally blow it apart). And of course the wrong
| polarity on (for example) some electrolytic capacitors can, in some
| instances, blow it apart.
|
| But fans (with over-voltage) would make a lot of noise. Probably
| also true for a hard drive.
All right. I said I was in over my head.
|>> I'm not totally sure that didn't happen, but I'm pretty sure (as I
|>> was able to put power on one of the drives separately, and I heard
|>> it power up and run)
|>
|> Alright! That's that, then-- the hard drive is fine! Very good!
|>
|>>>>>> But one is on its way.
|>>>>>
|>>>>> Very good.
|>>>>
|>>>> I hope so.
|>>>> More below...
|>>>>
|>>>>>>> By the way, in that last thread in which we were speaking
|>>>>>>> (Inbox contents simply vanished), I tried 3 times to post a
|>>>>>>> response to your latest-- but it would post! It wasn't much of
|>>>>>>> anything, though-- we were both just about done & beginning to
|>>>>>>> repeat.
|>>>>>>
|>>>>>> Why did it vanish?
|>>>>>
|>>>>> I don't know whether my 3 posts got through & vanished or just
|>>>>> never got through. They are in my Sent Items folder, but I never
|>>>>> saw them in the thread. It wasn't the problem of reaching the
|>>>>> size limit of a thread segment; I never got that message. I
|>>>>> thought it might be an early sign of XP-poisoning on your part.
|>>>>> However, I think MEB or someone once reported he couldn't post
|>>>>> to me in a certain thread-- so it couldn't be that!
|>>>>>
|>>>>>> BTW, I never heard back from you on why you didn't like the
|>>>>>> convenience of the Tax programs instead of a spreadsheet on your
|>>>>>> computer (not on the web!). See, it fills out (and can print)
|>>>>>> the forms for you, and you can even efile if you want. And
|>>>>>> it's all on your computer after you install the program.
|>>>>>
|>>>>> That's the thread I'm speaking of! I couldn't post my answer to
|>>>>> that-- but it was pretty much the same as I posted earlier,
|>>>>> anyhow.
|>>>>
|>>>> Well, I thought you didn't answer it because you had thought the
|>>>> tax programs were online, but they're not (well, some are, but I
|>>>> never use those). You can do it ALL on your own computer (you
|>>>> get a CD to install the program, and it does all the work for you.
|>>>
|>>> I think (but have never tried it) I could do that now at an IRS
|>>> site (at least the federal site)-- but I choose not to do it. I
|>>> did what I could with MSWorks Spreadsheet-- & I'm waiting
|>>> patiently for my economic stimulus check now! I believe I get the
|>>> full $600.00!
|>>
|>> NICE!!
|>
|> Yea.
|>
|>>> --
|>>> Thanks or Good Luck,
|>>> There may be humor in this post, and,
|>>> Naturally, you will not sue,
|>>> Should things get worse after this,
|>>> PCR
|>>>
pcrrcp@netzero.net
|>
|> --
|> Thanks or Good Luck,
|> There may be humor in this post, and,
|> Naturally, you will not sue,
|> Should things get worse after this,
|> PCR
|>
pcrrcp@netzero.net
--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net
)
