Resolved Just want to confirm a dead PC

A co-worker brought me his pc yesterday [Compaq Presario SR1602HM][specs here]and said it has been acting funny over the past few weeks. He said sometimes he could get it to start up and other times not. The last time he got it to start up the "picture on the tv was blurry ". Now it won't start at all.

I brought it home and opended it up It was covered in a heavy blanket of dust. The heat sink had dust caked inside the fins (I had to take the fan off and shoot it with air for quite a while before it was cleaned out).

I turn it on and get no activity other than fans turning and lights. No beeps, no sound of hard drive trying to boot. The monitor I hooked up came on and then turned itself off. I tried another monitor and it did the same thing.

It may sound strange, but in all my years of doing this, I have never incountered a burned out processor; but I am suspecting this may be my first.
Any ideas/advice?

Mitch

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I did test the PSU with my multimeter and everything appears to be satisfactory. I followed the voltage guide here. I don't have another known good PSU to confirm my finding with though.

 

Dust laden, Fans working, no signs of life from the drives.

I'd say dead, either board or processor, either way changing both rather than one to fit the other is probably more economical. Memory and PSU may also require changing to suit new board.

Not good news Mitch but this is my own opinion, others may differ.

EDIT: You could try clearing CMOS and replacing the battery as a cheap first step, I don't think it'll work but at only a couple of bucks it's worth a chance.

 

Wildfire: my thoughts as well. But for his needs, I think just buying a new Emachines at the local walmart will be his best bet - he can get a new PC with a gig of ram for about 298.00. However, I will wait a couple of days to see what other replies I get.

Thanks for reply.

 

I would think a look at the CPU first as Wildfire suggested. The cost and availability might be a problem and if he can get a new unit at the price you mentioned - why muck about? Neil.

 

If you thought about another motherboard, it would need to be (the same model) Compaq, otherwise the Compaq version of Windows wouldn't work. A retail motherboard probably wouldn't fit in the case anyway and it would be hard to find one that took DDR RAM.

If you buy a cheap replacement computer, you might get what you pay for.

[A lot of computer suppliers sell a "basic box ", it would need a retail version of Windows, but he could use his old monitor, mouse, keyboard etc.]

Do you have any plans for the old HDD and maybe recovering the data? Is it IDE or SATA? It is now getting hard to find ways of accessing IDE.

 

Tony: Checked the MB last night. All seemed to be fine.

Matt: I talked to John already about a new system. He doesn't use the computer for anything except playing card games, mine sweeper, etc. He doesn't know how to do anything else on it. It was hooked up to the Internet for updates only. He doesn't do email or surfing. As far as the HDD goes - he only wants his games....he has the software so they can be reinstalled. I have another system here with IDE so I can browse it and pull off anything he would really need.

 

Thanks for your help and suggestions. You helped me confirm my suspicions. John will just have to get a new PC

Mitch

 

Thanks for letting us know Mitchell.

If you get the opportunity, maybe you could test using another PSU. Did you "Clear the CMOS" effectively? I am just thinking of your title and those things might help you "confirm" it.

Anyway, sorry there couldn't be a better outcome.

Matt

 

Thanks Matt. it just so happens I picked up another PC I am going to cannibalize to fix another. Maybe I'll pull the PSU out and give it a try while I still have John's machine. Can't hurt. I removed the battery to test it - that should have cleard the CMOS.

Eh, its an old PC that wasn't given much care. John was expecting the worst so he isn't too disappointed.

I'll let you know the outcome on the PSU.

Mitch