dead computer

Well I've done it again !!
Mark Twain said "If its not broke don't fix it "
My son's friend has a 200 mhz Celeron e-machine with a 3 gig hard drive. I voluntered to install an old 6 gig drive for him (was trying for 2 drives on the machine)
The computer was running Win 98 of some sort
I found a way to install the second drive physically. When the machine boots the bios screen is very rapid. Any ideas on how to get into the bios ? del and page down do not seem to work.
Next neither the a drive or cd rom seemed to work.
I carefully took off the power cords to get at things marking the cords
(you could easily tell in most cases),. I even took out the one 32 meg ram chip and replaced it.
Everything seems to be in tight and in the wrong place. The fans work so power is on. But the machine just hums and clicks a bit. It does
not boot up.
Of course it is something simple. Can somone please help me .

 

To get into the CMOS Setup, as soon as you turn on the machine, try each of the following as it starts booting up:

Press the ESC key about every second.
If that doesn't work, boot again and press the F-10 key every second.
If that doesn't work, boot again and press the F-1 key every second.
If that doesn't work, boot again and press the F-2 key every second.
If that doesn't work, boot again and press the DEL key every second.
If that doesn't work, boot again and press the TAB key every second.

 

fans work few clicks on boot

the fans are working
when the machine boots it issues a few clicks and then stops
any ideas?

 

Go back to original HD & start again .

http://www.infohq.com/Computer/adding-second-hard-drive-review.htm
Installing a Second Hard Drive; Demonstrated
with the Maxtor 13.6 GB DiamondMax Plus .

Also , a well written site which shows this step with good illustrations on
adding a 2nd Hard Drive.
http://members.aol.com/mbs1058/2nd_hd.html

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/idedrv1.html
http://pcsupport.about.com/compute/pcsupport/library/weekly/aa010300a.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6883/newide.html
http://www.epinions.com/content_917086340?sp=ink
http://www.dansdata.com/sbs1.htm
http://www.tech-review.com/review.pl?id=75&page=1
http://www.footslog.com/articles/Hardware/ha0001.htm
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/howto/story/0,24330,3322450,00.html

How to Prevent Drive Letters from Changing After You Add a Hard Disk or a CD-ROM (Q282530)
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 95
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q282530

 

Here is is listing of some of the key combinations used to enter the BIOS setup on startup.
You must do this during the first few seconds after you turn on power. If you see the windows
startup, it's too late.
Dell=Ctrl-Alt-Enter
Dell=Reset(Twice)
PS/2=Ctrl-Alt-?
PS/2=Ins
Toshiba=Esc
Toshiba=F1
NEC=F2
Compaq=F10
Award Bios=Ctrl-Alt-Esc
Phoenix Bios=Ctrl-Alt-S
Phoenix Bios=Ctrl-Alt-Ins
AMI Bios and Award Bios and others=Del (most common)

 

jumpers set, one drive dead still

Jmatt,
thanks for your help. Now I know something about jumper
settings. Very usefull.
Tell you where I am.
Checked the jumpers. I swapped the drives - i.e the 6 Gig Quantum drive is now temp hooked up as the only drive i.e. the master.
when the power is switched on the transformer fan is on- power is there. There is a green light on on the Quantum master drive. That is all .
Could a defective or not properly installed Ram chip cause this problem ?
What next ?

 

Tinkering with your own toys is one thing, but when you start messing with someone else's stuff ......

Don't quit your day job.

 

CPU fan erratic

Just trying to be helpfull.
You don't have to run salt in the wound.
Just out of interest the Cpu fan is erratic (on not on) while the
power to the one hard drive and case fan are consitently on. Is this of any diagnostic significance ?

 

Still feel it is best to make sure the old HD still works , that way you know where you are .

Make sure the ribbon cable has the red edge connected next to the power supply on the HD .

If you find everything is back to normal using the old HD , it may need a bios upgrade .

Even if the brand is different , you may find what you wan't to know here .
http://www.maxtor.com/technology/whitepapers/63001.html#solutions

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/bioslmt.html
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213802,00.html
http://www.spcug.org/reviews/bl0107.htm
http://www.muhri.net/skipstone/

 

machine up and running ?

The machine is running to some degree (Win 98)
the boot problem turned out to the ram chip not being seated
properley due to dust city. A tootbrush cured the problem.
the jumper settings for the old drive ( 3 gig) is for master - seagate's only options in this case are master and slave jumper settings. The new drive (6 gig Maxtor) has its jumpers set to slave jumper settings. All cables seem to be tight.
I had taken out the Cmos battery the new hard drive is installed with power. It turns out that the a drive was defective to begin with. Would of been nice if .. however I did not ask and the driver was there.
The bios auto setup is run. It is run at default. The cmos (ambios) is set to autodetect . The bios does not find the slave.
I am locked out from anything due to the fact that the cdrom is not functioning. I tried all of the drivers in the windows hardware wizard. The only one that installed so that it "was
working properly" acccording to windows was a sony prop
controller. However the drive would still not read.
Where do I go from here ?

 

cd rom works a: does not

the cdrom suddently starting working its ok.
the a drive will not read. It is getting power from a new
cord. drivers of course have been removed (add hardware) and reinstalled. Drivers are functioning properly.
the diskette drive has been replaced. The ribbon cable has been replaced.
Any ideas ?
Also the cpu is a 200 mhz Celeron. The bios was reconfigured automatically and now it reads as 400 mhz Celeron Cpu. The Cpu fan is working well. Is this anything to be concerned about ? Is the Cpu working faster or is it just an erronous reading.

thanks

 

Never heard of a 200 mhz celeron - You have finally hit paydirt. Me thinks its finally time to quit your day job, put a big sign up in the front yard, run an ad in the newspaper and start counting all that cash - you da' man!

 

celeron 400

As usual you are right. What do I know "I am from the country ".
I swear however it was labelled as a 200 mhz
but.... http://www.burridgeitservices.co.uk/intel_celeron_history.html

 

maybe someone can help with the a: drive

The a: drive will still not read.
The drivers are there, the diskette drive has been replaced , ribbon cable has been replaced, as far as I can tell - all the cables are in tight. The power source and cables will only fit in one way. Can the long black pin connectors at both the motherboard and drive be reversed ??
The drive will read then the light comes on and I can hear the drive reading.
Any ideas on what could be wrong (beside the nut behind the wheel) ? I am just about ready to throw in the towel.

 

On the floppy drive , the red edge on the cable is Not next to the power supply .

More here if needed .

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000324.htm
As illustrated above the floppy drive A: should be connected to the end of the cable after the twist. If your floppy drive cable does not have two connections this is not the issue.

http://www.winbookcorp.com/_technote/wbta14000011.htm

http://www.create4ms.org/howto/floppy_missing.pdf

 

Assuming this is a 3.5" 1.44mb FDD, make sure your bios is setup accordingly (there may be multiple options for other types of floppy drives). Then, as to your cabling - the 4 pin power connector is pretty much going to set up one way and one way only - your ribbon cable can proove tricky. If connected backwards (L to R), the FDD light will stay on at all times wen the machine is powered up. Do not go by the notch orientation if you have a notched connector - it can be right and it can be wrong. Rule of thumb is if the red wire on your power connector is to the inside, number one pin on the ribbon (red wire) goes to the inside. If red power is the outermost wire, #1 pin will be outermost. Some Mitsumi's have power on top and ribbon below so this rule won't apply universally, but it covers most FDD's you'll veer encounter. JMatt had good "poop" for you on connector after the twist. Recheck your cabling again. If you are dealing with a ridiculously long floppy cable, you can cut the thing right before (travelling away from the motherboard) the second connector (assuming #2 is also a 34 pin connector) and plug that into the motherboard.

 

If you are looking at the back of the floppy drive in the up-right position, the red wire on the ribbon cable will go to your left. I've never seen it different on the 3.5" floppy.

Do all the BIOS checking and do be sure the A drive is connected after the center twist. Also, recheck the pins on the back of the floppy drive. It is common for the inexperienced to push two pins off to one side of the ribbon cable's terminal. When this happens, it is hard to detect unless one is looking specifically for that.

If you cannot get your board to use a known-good floppy drive and known-good floppy disk, the board is useless in my book and you need not go any further. So, my advice is to concentrate your efforts on making the floppy work and forget everything else until you do. If that is impossible, efforts on other features of the board are a waste of time.

 

Hate to break the news but there are those with power on the right and cabling on the left (from a backside view) with #1 pin being on the right (from a backside view).

 

I am throwing in the towel

I am throwing in the towel on this one. As long as the Cd works
it is no big deal.

 

Does the 2d drive have an operating system on it when you installed it as a slave?