Computer trouble... - RC-Monster Forums

Metallover · 10:10 PM

One of our computers died today. It's a Gateway....700c that we got back in 2001. 1.3ghz...

Well this morning it wouldn't turn on. If you press the power button, the light turns orange and it doesn't make a sound. I opened it up and didn't find anything obvious. I tried to turn it on a hundred different ways. I think the computer is done for... It just doesn't respond to anything you do to it. It's bricked. If anyone knows what could be wrong let me know.

If it changes anything I put in two 258mb ram cards a few months ago. It hasn't been used for anything except email since. Turned on 2-4 times a week.

The major problem right now is getting the email recovered. The computer had an outlook express account on it. I got a laptop set up right now that I want to get the email on. Is there a way I can recover the old inbox and address book over the internet?

Thanks for your help.

10:46 PM

Likely either the PSU croaked *happens all the time* or the mobo power modulators or capacitors finally gave out. If you have a spare PSU lying around with the proper connections, you could try to power it up that way. If that doesn't work, its pretty DOA.

Easiest thing to do is just simply slap the old HDD as a slave in another desktop, boot up to its Windows OS, drill through the old HDD and copy the data you need over. Did this all the time at my first IT job years ago. If the settings wern't changed for the outlook express, they will be stored in a default location.

Windows 98
C:\Windows\Application Data\Outlook Express\(GUID)
or

Windows XP, 2000
C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\(GUID)\Microsoft\Outlook Express ---------

To find your address book, do a file search for a *.WAB file as it may be in several locations depending on the OS and how it was set up

Thats the simpliest way to do it

Metallover · 05.23.2009, 10:58 PM

So I'll have to take out the hard drive and try it in another computer? That sucks...

Major update on the computer. I took out the power supply and dusted it all out. Then I put it back in. Now when I put it back in something crazy happens. There is a test button on the power supply next to a led. When I press the test button, the led doesn't light up, but the fan on the cpu spins! I'm making major progress!!

11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metallover

So I'll have to take out the hard drive and try it in another computer? That sucks...

Major update on the computer. I took out the power supply and dusted it all out. Then I put it back in. Now when I put it back in something crazy happens. There is a test button on the power supply next to a led. When I press the test button, the led doesn't light up, but the fan on the cpu spins! I'm making major progress!!

I believe thats just a jumper switch that allows you to power up the PSU without being plugged into the computer. Either way, the CPU fan spinning doesn't mean much as i've seen plenty of dead machines "power up" with the fan but never POST or boot up.

And yes, either way your going to need to to have a computer of some kind to pull the data off the drive unless you get the original machine up and working. And before you ask, yes you could plug a special IDE/USB adapter into the drive and plug it into your laptop, but good luck trying to find at a store. Specialized cables like that you typically have to order online

Metallover · 05.23.2009, 11:08 PM

Well I have an old dell dimension 4300 that would probably read the old drive. I'll give er a try when I get around to it.

Is there a way to tell if the motherboard is dead?

11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metallover

Well I have an old dell dimension 4300 that would probably read the old drive. I'll give er a try when I get around to it.

Is there a way to tell if the motherboard is dead?

Easiest way is to find a working PSU, slap it into the gateway and fire it up with just the bare essentials plugged in. If it works, the PSU was at fault. IF not, then the mobo is bye bye and if your not an electronics or circuity specialist, forget about trying to find what exactly "broke" on the mobo. And especially being a Gateway, pfffft, don't waste your time

rawfuls · 05.23.2009, 11:20 PM

Haha, everything is true.

Easiest way would be just to go to a computer store, buy a PSU, the right pin one, if it's the 20pin, don't' get the 24pin, and vice versa, test it out on the Gateway, and if it works, keep it, if it doesn't, return it, and you will get to know if it's your PSU, or your Mobo.

I have tons of computers lying around for when I do troubleshooting for friends and family, so keeping a couple spares of everything is definitely good.

Just for shit's and giggles, try and take out the new ram, and put in the old ones if you still have it, it probably won't make a difference, but it's worth a try.

You can get those external cases, if it's for a IDE hardrive, and it's pretty much just a IDE/USB adapter, and the case acts as a external case.

Like this:

IDE:
http://cgi.ebay.com/BLACK-3-5-USB-2-...lenotsupported

SATA:
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-5-SATA-HDD-Har...lenotsupported

Those are some good things to get if you do troubleshooting like I do for just small deals and whatnot.

For instance, I recovered tons of crap for a couple bucks with a external enclosure, and the Geek Squad at Best Buy said they might be able to do it, for an excess of $200, then my friends asked how much they would charge for a clean wipe, and then they said an excess of $250...

They went into the store, so the driving out wasn't a factor.
Complete rip-off..

Metallover · 05.23.2009, 11:24 PM

I'll slap the old drive into my dell, and It'll show up in "my computer". How do I recover the outlook express stuff?

11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metallover

I'll slap the old drive into my dell, and It'll show up in "my computer". How do I recover the outlook express stuff?

Yes, you might have to mess around with the jumper settings for it to come up right, but it will show as another drive. After then, just simply click and drag or copy and paste your out emails which will be in *.DBX format shown in the location I gave above. Copy them to the working HDD and then transfer them via CDROM or USB drive to the computer you want the email on and you can import the *.DBX files from there via Outlook express

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/....htm#backupacc

rawfuls · 05.23.2009, 11:31 PM

Yep, just dig around for it.

One thing I hate about Outlook, is that it doesn't save to the email's server, but instead your harddrive.

05.23.2009, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rawfuls

Yep, just dig around for it.

One thing I hate about Outlook, is that it doesn't save to the email's server, but instead your harddrive.

Well depending on how its setup, yah it can go either way. 95% of common PC users don't have home based emails server so where else is the mail gonna be stored at? Sure as hell aint gonna be the ISP unless they allow you to keep copies of messages or your using gmail, yahoo or whatever where its completely server based.

Metallover · 05.23.2009, 11:36 PM

Awesome, Thanks! I'll let you know how it goes when I get around to it. It'll be awhile probably... or it could be tomorrow.....

05.23.2009, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metallover

Awesome, Thanks! I'll let you know how it goes when I get around to it. It'll be awhile probably... or it could be tomorrow.....

NP, I do this stuff for a living

rawfuls · 05.24.2009, 12:12 AM

I like gmail.... :]

sikeston34m · 05.24.2009, 10:27 AM

This sounds like similiar problems that I had just a few weeks ago.

The computer patient was a HP 3.0 Pentium 4 with a gig of DDR Ram with windows xp Media center edition.

Before you sink money into fixing a computer, ask yourself "Is it worth it or time for an upgrade to a better machine?".

This computer stopped working during a Thunderstorm!

The Battery Backup that it was connected to sounded an internal alarm just as the power went out and the thunder sounded. It passed a surge and the computer froze. It would not boot back up once it was powered down.

I figured it was toast, so it was time to buy a new one. It was replaced with a quad core pentium 6066, 4 gigs of DDR ram, 750 gig hard drive, and alot of other goodies in the form of a New HP Tower.

Recently, I got to thinking about the old one and decided to see if there was a chance of bringing it back.

First thing to check, Is the machine following the boot sequence of the BIOS?

Determining this can and often times will lead you in the general direction of the problem.

If the BIOS on the motherboard is active and working, it will first light up the cd/dvd drive to see if there is a disc it should be booting up from. Then it will start the hard drive and boot up from there.

Is the hard drive spinning? You should be able to hear or feel a humm coming from it if it is.

In my case, it passed all of the above. The hard drive was running but nothing on screen.

After disconnecting and testing the power supply, it passed also.

In almost every computer brand, you should get 3 different voltage levels from the power supply. 3 volts, 5 volts and 12 volts.

Don't worry about checking every wire for voltage. Each voltage level picks up power from the same spot inside the power supply.

I then began to check cards, thinking it was the video card.

Video card looked fine, but the modem didn't. There were several chips on it's board that had the center exploded out of them.

AAAAHHH, point of entry for the power surge. I'm hearing this is typical.

I removed the modem, and it booted up!

BUT..............there's always a but.

It wouldn't get on the net because the onboard ethernet adapter was dead. So I intalled another ethernet adapter into a pci slot. No Dice.

After some testing, I realized it could not communicate with any of the PCI slots. The PCI Bus on the mother board was dead/damaged.

I purchased a new motherboard for $65 and installed it along with another gig of RAM.

Now it works like the day I bought it. I believe I got lucky, but I'm also very happy to see it back again.