Hi there, I gave my mother-in-law a computer a few months ago. It was working fine then. I've been to move it from one room to another today and now it won't boot up. Its an old(ish) pentium II 366Mhz packard bell machine running Windows 95. Nothing has been done to it appart from disconnecting wires, moving about twelve metres and reconnecting wires. It was working fine last night but when I reconnected the wires and plugged it into the wall socket it switched on straight away. (normally I have to press the on button on the front). The fans start, it sounds like the Hard drive is starting up but there is no beep and the monitor stays in standby. I have to hold the button in on the front to shut it down. When I press the button again it just does the same. Fans and Hard drive but no beep. I dont know if its doing POST or not. I've openned the case and everything appears to be connected OK (allcables and memory seated properly). I've tried plugging it into the same socket it used to be plugged into and it makes no difference. Please help!?????? I only moved it to the next room. It travelled across town alright last year.....
I've seen several posts like yours. Nowdays I just direct them to this thread. Read the whole thread through to the end and see if it helps. If not give me a full rundown on what you tried and what the results were and we'll take it from there.
Thanks for the thread. If she'll let me in the house I'll give it a try over the weekend and let you know. Thanks again......
Before you even spend any time or money troubleshooting this problem, I just wanted to make you aware that Packard-Bell PCs are among the lowest quality PCs ever constructed. The components were manufactured using a very cut-corner approach and to very low standards, and therefore the hardware is unreliable at best. I think it's fair to tell you that when I was a younger technician and PacBells were still being produced, people would bring me problems like the one you're having all the time. I'd ask them, "It isn't, by chance, a PacBell is it?" They'd invariably reply "How did you know?!?" I always refused to work on PacBells for several reasons: Bad PSUs -- They used unreasonably low end power supplies. If the power supply goes, chances are everything else will too. Cheap Components -- Pac Bells are built with the cheapest, lowest-quality components possible, and are therefore unreliable by nature. There isn't any component in a PacBell worth salvaging. Low Performance -- See #2. Inflexability -- Proprietary design means you can't upgrade these suckers. Because of this, I honestly feel that unless you can fix it with a minimal amount of time and zero monetary contribution, you'll be better off just being thankful the thing lasted as long as it did and buying or building a new one. My two cents... -AT
Hi there, Thanks for the advice penguin. Took it appart. removed the battery to reset the CMOS. Gently removed about five years of fluff and dust from the CPU and its fan. Put it all together and...... IT WORKS!!!! Any tips on how to get the mother in law to use the thing properly would be much appreciated, but at least for now she IS going to let me stay married to her daughter. Thanks again for the advice!!
Good, glad I could be of help. What does she use it for and what is she doing wrong? Just because you fixed her computer? Wow! ThePenguinCometh's Hardware Repair and Marriage Counselling Services saves the day once more :good:
