Well, my computer picked today to finally keel over. It had been freezing up and crashing for a few weeks, and after the last time it just never recovered. This is a Windows 2000 machine which used to be working perfectly and did not have any new hardware or software installed in the relevant time period. In case it’s relevant, the way it would crash is that the screen would freeze up (sometimes with a bit of corrupted graphics), and then it would go to a blue-screen error and reboot. Errors I encountered included: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, NTFS_SYSTEM_ERROR (or something like that), and some other Registry-related bluescreen (!) once or twice.
Anyway, enough background. On to the current situation. My computer now refuses to boot up at all - not even displaying the video BIOS message, BIOS memory check, or anything. The CPU fan and power supply fan both run, and all the drives power up, the lights turn on, etc. The floppy drive lights up for a suspiciously long time and then turns off, at which point my computer settles into a steady state of doing nothing at all.
Things I’ve tried: turning the computer off and on; rebooting while on; removing some or all of the RAM chips, and reordering them; unplugging different drives; swapping out the computer’s power cord; and randomly poking at various drive connectors like I have an idea of what to do next.
So, does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be wrong or other things I might try to get this machine working?
This might be a clue – try booting from a floppy disk with the basic OS on it. That requires you to have made & have available what’s commonly called a “rescue disk” – do you? If not, you might try to borrow a copy from someone with a machine similar to yours (the closer the better). Or there are generic downloadable ones available online, that might help you at least get started.
Or find someone who actually still has old DOS floppy disks around, and try to boot with them.
If you can at least get your machine to boot up in DOS or anything, you can do some looking around and see what is still there on your system. I’d suspect that your disk drive has been corrupted, so much so that the system can’t even read enough of the OS to start up the machine. A possibility, at least.
P.S. Hope you have backups, since there’s a good chance all the data on your hard disk is gone.
It doesn’t even get as far as trying to boot an OS off of any disk. I do have boot disks around, and have tried booting off of them, but the floppy doesn’t even notice whether there is a disk or not - it makes no attempt to read, and behaves exactly the same as when it does not have a disk. I’m suspecting a hardware problem rather than something like a corrupted disk.
Thanks for your help though…
OK, you’ve tried pretty much everything I can think of. So I think you’re right, it’s probably down to a hardware problem.
And you might consider just replacing it, rather than getting it fixed. New systems are so cheap today, and quality repair techs so expensive (and rare), that for an older machine just going directly to a replacement might be best. (Again, hope your data backups are up-to-date.)
P.S. One last gasp – you say the machine doesn’t display anything – are you sure you monitor is working? Have you tried witching monitors with a known good machine, just in case?
I tested the monitor with another computer and it works, so it’s not a problem with that. As far as replacing the computer, that’s not an option for me as I don’t have the money for that - and besides, I have an old P-133 with 64 whopping megabytes of RAM to fall back on. (gah)
I did manage to coax it back from the brink once by turning it off and on, but haven’t succeeded again.
Another question for the technology-minded people out there - what individual parts might I want to look into replacing? (a purchase or two off eBay might be in my budget) Is the motherboard shot?
It sounds to me like a motherboard failure if it wont run the POST - or possibly a failed BIOS which is essentialy the same thing as replacing the BIOS chip is practically impossible. Tyr clearing the BIOS - either shift the 'Clear BIOS jumper mometarily or remove the backup (CMOS) battery for a few secons, it might work although it’s not really likely. You might check to see if there is a backup BIOS chip - some recent motherboards have a ‘spare’ in case the main one becomes corrupted, you would probably need to relocate a jumper to select the backup and would need the handbook to confirm - if you know the model you can download instructions from the manufacturer. It may be possible to get hold of a second-hand motherboard if you have access to a computer fair to test your system with. A year-old MB would cost next to nothing and the vendor will usually guarantee it for 3 months and/or test it while you watch.
Failing that, there is no need to replace your whole system - a new motherboard+chip (buy them together for a better deal/less hassle if there is a defect) would do the job at a far lower cost.
Good luck.
The fact that everything powers up without a POST combined with the IRQ error leads me to the bad-motherboard conclusion as well. Get a new one.
Since you’re using Windows 2000, I’d suggest getting one by the same manufacturer if at all possible. If you don’t, you’ll likely have to reinstall the OS (unless you happen to have all the possible IDE drivers installed, which is unlikely… unless you’re weird like me ).
Thanks for the help, everyone - looks like it’s time for me to buy a new motherboard. Stay tuned for my next GQ thread - “Plasma donation: going rate?”
… just kidding. Mostly.
).