Advice on a PeeCee

[BouncingAyatollah]

Don't forget you need the speaker connected to hear any beeps (did it beep before, from the speaker?). Don't wanna sound patronising btw - just in case!

Also, I had a mb inexplicably die on me once, and clearing the CMOS sorted it out. There may be a "clear CMOS" set of jumpers on the mb somewhere, you would probably have to move the jumper connector across from where it is to the next set of pins, leave it for a few seconds, then move the connector back to where it was. If you don't have a manual see if you can find any reference or model numbers/names on the mb to Google for to see if you can get a manual online, which will show you where this jumper is if it has one.

[Holley]

Yes, an ATX will switch off after 4 or 5 seconds of holding the button down, unless the Bios tells it otherwise (as your bios appears to be kaputski I guess the PSU just doesn't get the message).  The motherboard speaker is just a mini-piezo device, so you'd know if it was working ;-)

PLEASE save yourself! Packard Bells really are the {bleep}roach of the computer world!  If another motherboard fits then fair enough, but the cases really are worse than the cheapest Taiwanese made recycled Fiat case (as you'll find out if you have it apart a couple of times).

EDIT: ok, on any other ATX motherboard than a PB the speaker will be a piezo device mounted on the board itself.  Your PB may well have an old AT type speaker, which would be a small regular cone speaker mounted to the inside of the case, and uses a jumper type plug on the motherboard.
If you don't get any bios info on the monitor then resetting the Bios flash area won't make a difference, I'm afraid.
The bleep above was me describing a certain kind of insect that can survive nuclear explosions ;-)

[JaXanim]

@BouncyA

Yes, I kept the speaker connected throughout. It didn't beep, never has beeped and I suspect never will.

Remember the power supply had blown some internal components apart. I guess this is more than an inexplicable/probable cause.

I'm inclined to fix it to the front door as I said.

Cheers,

JaX

[JaXanim]

@Holley

OK that does it! I'm not gonna bore anyone any longer with this.

@spirantho

Let's do a deal and put the PB to bed, eh?

Cheers,

JaX

[mikeymike]

JaXanim wrote:
@Mikeymike
Yes there's a fan, but it's never been connected to any power.

The CPU fan has never been connected?  What is the CPU?  It would have to be a 486 or a huuuuuge heatsink or a very good PSU to handle the heat from the CPU.

OK, I'll try your suggestion. Maybe if it works, I can use the mobo as a doorbell?

Consider that you might have to 'coax' it into working :-)  Use the PSU power switch (if there is one), then pull the power out the back of the PSU, reconnect stuff, put power back in.  Try as many combinations as you can think of.

You should get beeps to tell you the following:
* Boot OK (single short beep)
* beeeeep beep beep beep (graphics missing)
* varying sorts of beeps to signify lack of RAM/CPU

If you can't get any beeps at all with no hardware around at all, then start thinking the machine is a doorstop.

Try connecting the PC speaker the other way round as well (temporarily, if it doesn't work).

Try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery also.
  (adding to other suggestions already made)

[Methuselas]

Jax, SO sorry it took me so long to reply. We had a MASSIVE storm and I lost power. -_-

Anyways, Check the bottom of the CPU for any burn or scorch marks. If there are any, it's toasted.

Packard Bells and Compaq's use a sub-standard bios that's mounted on the HDD, before the MBR. Since it's a 300 MHZ K6-2, odds are the mobo isn't a Pakard Hell custom. Look for a model number on the board itself. If you're lucky, it's probably a Gigabyte board and they, in my experience are farily reliable.

The ram is fine, so long as you use it with a Socket 7 motherboard. The ram you're using is LOW-DENSITY, PC100 SDRAM. Compaq and Packard Hell, for some odd reason, preferred using the low-density variety.

Best thing to do is remove the board from the box, place it on a static-free item, like a cardboard box and start from scratch. Take everything out of the case and plug it in one at a time. Power it on, using a ball-point pen. Since you're not getting any beeps, it could be a dead CPU or mobo, but since it's not in front of me, I can't tell you for sure.

Everyone's correct, though. Packard Bell's are crap. They were never designed well and have a notorious habit of breaking. You, if you want to venture in to the PC world, should look into getting a new mobo.

Oh, before I forget, you said that there was no video card. Is the video on the motherboard itself? If that's true, the power supply you replaced could have spiked the motherboard, killing it. If you get no beeps and nothing, but an LED for power and HDD, I say again, it's a dead mobo or CPU.

I have a compaq 450 K6-2 mobo that I'm not using. It was a 475, but started flaking out until I dropped it to a 450. It is a TRUE Gigabyte board and I reflashed the BIOS to use the Gigabyte version of the BIOS. If you need it and can pay for the shipping (if I could, I would), it's yours. I guarantee that it works, but it's not the best thing in the world. It's got onboard sound and video, but don't expect to play any serious 3D games with the chipset (it's a SIS 530).It requires low-density, PC100 SDRAM, but can handle 3 sticks at 256MB, for a maximum total of 768MB on the board. Up to 8MB is shared video memory. It's a solid board and I used it regularly for 4 years, up until last year. It was my old Amithlon box, until I got a new one. ^_^

[Holley]

@MikeyMike - please read page 1 ;-)

@JaxAnim - if you get stuck with the new MB and can't get sorted feel free to PM me :-)

[DethKnight]

I wouldn't pay 2.50 for an AMD K(anything)
I pitched my K6/2-380(working-somewhat) because of the ceaseless irritation it gave me. The K6/2-450 soon followed.
Never touch AMD voluntarily again.

I've had PBells die on the bench during the diagnostic stage.
That was before any tools touched the machine or any parts were disconnected.

Happily replaced it all with an ASUS 440BX-LE board from ebay (cost me $45us with postage and celeron 667)

PS: beep-codes are here
http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

[JaXanim]

@Everyone

I'm really overwhelmed by the advice given here and the offers of help and parts. Thank you all very much.

I have decided that the defunct Packard Bell is never gonna get anywhere. If I can beg an old mobo/cpu somewhere, I'll try to refit it. If not, well it was interesting while it lasted!

I only need a simple PeeCee/Win95+ so I can use my new Epson to print off my WaveGuide manual. That's currently held on an even older 386/Win3.1 IBM box. It's is very reliable, but is now too old for printer support.

My old printer with Win3.1 support died a fortnight ago. And before anyone suggests transferring the files to my Amiga, I've looked at the options and the job is too complex, for me anyway.

It's in Lotus AmiPro format with about 15Mb of AmiPro graphics which I am not prepared to revamp into Wordworth or whatever. A free PeeCee seemed to be the solution. Well, there it is. If someone really will send me a mobo/cpu for the price of the postage, I'll gladly send them the money.

Thanks again.

JaX

[bloodmoney]

The Fan was never hooked to the cpu?
I would say the cpu burned up a long time ago?
Also when power supplys blow capicitors, you can get a surge as someone noted earlier. This surge can flash the rom. Since when you do it on purpose you are sending 5 or 12 volts to the rom for a flash.
If this mb has an ISA slot, An old ISA video card can be used to boot up,since ISA cards have there own bios. This way you could see if it posts at all.However no floppy means it probably flashed the boot block on the bios.
If you really loved this computer, you could replace the bios rom chip, or do a hot swap trick if its not soldered on. Last but not least, pulling out the coin battery(if there is one, for 15 min) then put it back in can reset things.

[JaXanim]

@bloodmoney

The heatsink with fan attached was clipped to the CPU OK, but the power lead from the fan was rolled up with a rubber band around it. The plug had never been connected to the supply. This is definitely the condition as originally purchased. Would that be likely to eventually fry the CPU?

Strange thing is, the machine had been in very light use since 1996 or so.

ANYWAY, I'm getting rid of the Packouta Hell and cobbling together an alternative system (thanks to the generous spirantho).

I've no doubt I'll be back with updates/problems in due course.

Cheers,

JaX

[mikeymike]

The heatsink with fan attached was clipped to the CPU OK, but the power lead from the fan was rolled up with a rubber band around it. The plug had never been connected to the supply. This is definitely the condition as originally purchased. Would that be likely to eventually fry the CPU?

Eventually?  It could fry a 486 unless it had a very modern heatsink.

AMD K6-2s don't run very hot (relative to other x86 CPUs), but if you run one for ten seconds without a heatsink from cold, the CPU will be hand-warm.  They do need fans.  I have a K6-2 450 @ 550MHz, and the heatsink/fan is just about hand-warm after a few hours of normal operation.

I wonder what 'very light use' means.  If the machine were kept somewhere cool (ie. a cool breeze could get into it), then it would probably protect the CPU enough.  My guess is, that machine crashed quite often.  With a couple of other lucky factors, it may have saved the CPU from being damaged.

[JaXanim]

@Mikeymike

The more I hear about this contraption, the more I wonder whether my brother-in-law (he gave me it) was taken for a ride when he bought it.

As I said, he bought it brand new from one of the high street suppliers in 1995/6 I guess. At that time, I reckon he'd shell out around a grand for it.

When I opened it up (he never had, nor would he), there were clear signs of tampering to one of the case blanking pieces. A crude self-tapping screw fix had been applied and it certainly wasn't by him (a totally non-practical individual). So who'd done that?

When I next see him, I'll ask him how stable it was when he ran it. As far as I can recall, he only used it occasionally to learn French. The kids weren't interested at all. So no CPU-intensive games, etc. Maybe that's what 'saved' it?

Whatever, the exploding PSU seems to have seen to it in the end. I'll transfer the HD, floppy and CD-ROM drives to a better mobo/CPU and hope for the best.

I assume all being well, it will boot into the OS as if nothing had happened. Is that so?

Cheers,

JaX

[mikeymike]

The K6-2 300 would put it around 1998-99 IIRC.  95/96 were the days of ~100MHz.  I remember getting a P133 machine (which was about midrange then) in mid to late '96.

As for the CPU fan not being connected - does it look like there's any chance the fan might have been connected but somehow came out of the socket?  I'm clasping at straws here, because I simply don't believe anyone would be quite stupid enough to unplug it :-)

As for the 'signs of tampering', I wonder whether someone was planning on scrapping it for parts, like maybe a card was in it but now has been removed.

[JaXanim]

@mikeymike

Your guess at the date is clearly better than mine and I'm sure you're in the right ballpark.

No, it's absolutely impossible that the fan could have been connected at the time of purchase. The fan wires were tightly rolled up and tied with an elastic band. No possibility that they were ever used. The wires were of the through connection type with a male and female connector attached and each connector was tied into the wire bundle.

I think he was sold a runt, but I don't know if I'll have the heart to tell him!

Cheers,

JaX

[mikeymike]

One other thing, is any dust collected in strange patterns in the heatsink?

- edit - also, is the amount of dust on the heatsink about the same as on the motherboard / inside the case generally?