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not a mac question...but help is still needed...

krossfyter

krossfyter

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jan 13, 2002
4,297
0
secret city
any PC techs in the house?!! my friend is having a problem with his puter and he asked me if I could get some help from the mac guys... (i know some of you cats are or were pc techs).

Okay
the puter is...an AMD K6-2 400MHz with 64 MB of SDRAM
it is currently running windows 98. I think the
mother board is bad b/c no matter what video
card(wether PCI or AGP) nothing comes on the screen.
I dont think it is the hard drive, because the
computer is not even doing the POST test. I can tell
this because there is not the normal beep sound when
the computer starts up. I am 100% confident that the
problem is not with the monitor or the cards
themselves. I have tried both the video cards and the
monitor on other computers and they work fine. I
dont believe it is the ram. The computer turns on
and looks like it goes half way through the POST test
because lights on the CD bays and the Floppy bays are
as normal, but nothing ever shows on the screen.


so thats basically it. any ideas?


peace.
 
krossfyter

krossfyter

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jan 13, 2002
4,297
0
secret city
anyone?


sure i know its a pc help question but come on.

well if its all about letting pc people get what they deserve (being thats now why any help has been voiced) then i could understand. heh...i guess.


:D
 
krossfyter

krossfyter

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jan 13, 2002
4,297
0
secret city
yeah i hear ya. i tried telling them....but they are hell bent on having a pc. they just bought a dell laptop.... i tried warning them on that one....but they are set in thier ways. understandable. im not going to give them hell for it though. all i can do is tell and warn! heh.
 
K

kaltsasa

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2002
585
21
Kellogg IA
I'd try to use some different ram in it just to be sure its not the ram. Bad ram has been known to do some dang funky ash things to a computer, otherwise most likely something is fried.
 
krossfyter

krossfyter

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jan 13, 2002
4,297
0
secret city
Originally posted by kaltsasa
I'd try to use some different ram in it just to be sure its not the ram. Bad ram has been known to do some dang funky ash things to a computer, otherwise most likely something is fried.
Click to expand...


thanks...we are going to try that. although the ram count was showing i do believe.
 
AlphaTech

AlphaTech

macrumors 601
Oct 4, 2001
4,556
0
Natick, MA
wow, someone is still using a K6-2 chip??? damn.

I would suspect the motherboard is faulty. There was an issue where it wouldn't see the NIC, until you removed it (from the device manager/list) and then installed it all over again. If you shut down the computer, you would have to do it all over again. In the end I just picked up a new MB, CPU (1GHz AMD T-bird), memory (MB used PC2100 :D) and a new power supply (the old one didn't have the rating needed for the new parts).

How much of the Bios/boot screen does it go through?? Is it a mass produced pc (compaq, hell, hpecker) or a custom build? If it is a custom build, see what brand motherboard it is, and see if you can find any new ones that take the processor (good luck there). They would be better off just getting a new system, even if they have 'critical' files on the old one. They can set the old drive as a slave to the new system's master drive and pull their files off that way.

An even better solution WOULD be for them to get a Mac system. Make sure they get the Applecare on it though.
 
topicolo

topicolo

macrumors 68000
Jun 4, 2002
1,672
0
Ottawa, ON
You could always try resetting the CMOS. Look for a dip switch or something on the motherboard that says "reset CMOS" or something to that effect. If that fails, just remove the CMOS battery, short the connections with some metal conductor (screwdriver?) and replace the battery and restart.

Actually, now that I think of it, your CMOS battery might be dead. Those batteries are only supposed to last about 5 years and by the sound of it, the K6-II is that old (or thereabouts). A new battery is like $10. Try that before replacing the mobo
 
buffsldr

buffsldr

macrumors 6502a
May 7, 2001
621
0
Trying to repair a pc is like taking a hamster to the vet. Here's 39 cents, go out and get yourself a new one.
 
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