Is it possible for this to work?
Posted by GoldEducational@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 48 comments
My dad had this old office computer and I’m curious to see if I can get it to work. I plugged in AC cords in the port outlet and monitor, which I thought would make things work, yet it’s still dead. The last few images are what I suspect to be the problem, either the wired are kind of damaged or the green thing is blocking the way or anything else.
Is there a guide I can use to try to get this working again or is it just dead?
MelinaSeeDee@reddit
What are we even doing here, folks? Looks like a normal computer doing normal computer stuff. It's not even clogged with dust.
GoldEducational@reddit (OP)
I got it to run it’s just that the monitor doesn’t display anything, even with vga cables put into it
MelinaSeeDee@reddit
Okay. Have you made sure the monitor even works?
Secondly, that motherboard has two different video outputs. There's ways to force a computer to boot in safe mode or to change video outputs. Likewise, the computer could be trying to use a resolution the monitor doesn't support.
GoldEducational@reddit (OP)
There’s a blue light that glows on the power button so I think that means something
If it is the computer resolution, maybe I would need to get a specific cable that supports the monitor
MelinaSeeDee@reddit
Blue light usually means activity with amber light usually meaning sleep. Are there buttons to adjust monitor settings? It could just be broken.
And what you have is SVGA. Pretty standard. The cream colored port above it is DVI. Your monitor might need to be set between digital and analog. Especially if it has both ports going into it.
MacAddict81@reddit
The computer has no DVI, only VGA, and the single expansion card looks like a modem. Looking up the monitor, it only has VGA input, and a resolution of 1280x1024. Either the monitor is dead, the backlight is dead, or OP has a bad VGA cable.
Here is the monitor manual.
I can't find the motherboard manual, but a search for the part number yeilds this page selling one of the motherboard, that shows the specifications, and chipset specifics.
MelinaSeeDee@reddit
You are correct. I don't know why I thought that serial port was a DVI. I'm glad an adult showed up.
ExplodedPenisDiagram@reddit
If the monitor worked, it would tell you "no signal" or something similar. Not just sit there looking dumb.
tommythorn@reddit
Ah I should have read that. Yes I had guessed the monitor was dead. Not worth fixing, get another.
Away-Squirrel2881@reddit
Replace the motherboard battery (it looks like a silver coin towards the bottom right side of the board)
Bruin144@reddit
Should still Post with a dead battery just have to tell it the time and date
yakeedoo@reddit
The floppy drive cable is supposed to have a twist in it. It's not damaged. Try shorting the power pins on the motherboard as your power button may not work
Boring-War-1981@reddit
Isn’t the last picture the twist in the floppy cable? I mostly only have old PS/2s and they’re slightly different. (One system even lets me have 3 floppy drives on one cable)
NewMexicanBeefNugget@reddit
Why do the floppy cables have a twist in them?
siliconlore@reddit
PC floppy drives are direct descendants of the Shugart floppy drives used in CP/M systems in the 70's. On CP/M you could have up to 4 drives and they were selected with jumpers on each drive. When the PC started limiting you to two floppy drives, this pin swap cabling was what was chosen.
The same standard for communication can even be mapped onto an old 8" drive.
BCProgramming@reddit
The flipped cable twist flips the pins for Motor Enable A, Drive Set B, Drive Set A, and Motor Enable B.
Basically the twist allows all drives to respond only to the drive A commands as the twist will flip device B commands to device A after the twist. The alternative would have been jumpers more or less like IDE Hard drives needed for whether they were device A or device B.
tommythorn@reddit
That’s not an old computer and it looks physically in great shape. It was absolutely be brought back, though the harddrive might be shot and it’s likely that some caps needs replacing.
As always, start by checking power without the PSU connected. If the PSU is an ATX variant, then you need to short two pins on the connector to get it started. With power sorted, you’d want to troubleshoot the motherboard w/CPU, etc. There are many good guides out there.
It is possible the LCD is dead so have an alternative on hand to check.
YandersonSilva@reddit
"not an old computer" lol how's your back doin' over there old timer? xD
tommythorn@reddit
My back hurts :( Obviously vintage is subjective, but anything with an 8-bit byte is “modern” by my standards.
festivus4restof@reddit
That is a model from 2006 and 2007, HP Compaq DX2250. So only about 18\~19 years old now.
BCProgramming@reddit
The monitor doesn't look like it is turned on.
redditshreadit@reddit
So you have a power cable for the monitor?
wheresthetux@reddit
Coming to the thread after you mentioned the monitor was dead. However, you might check the ram seating. On pic 6 I looks like the top of the left stick isn’t fully clicked in.
International-Pen940@reddit
Just FYI there are some computers that won’t boot without a BIOS battery. This is more likely to be the case with some vintage Macs, but I think there are some other proprietary models, especially laptops.
Low-Charge-8554@reddit
What's the expansion card? A modem? try removing that and rebooting. Also reseat RAM check slots. One of those does not look locked in all the way.
Rotflmaocopter@reddit
Dumb question but is the power cord to the monitor plugged in?
GoldEducational@reddit (OP)
Yes
Rotflmaocopter@reddit
Sorry just saw PC plugged into the outlet and only the monitor VGA to th monitor. I've made that mistake before
Erkoseus@reddit
6th pic looks like your left side Ram stick in not quite plugged in . Top white clip is not flush with other one .
SnooPuppers5489@reddit
What happens, do the fans spin? Any beeps? Any sounds? The beeps are codes that tell you what happening…
GoldEducational@reddit (OP)
The fan is spinning now when I replugged it but the monitor doesn’t display anything
SnooPuppers5489@reddit
Does it beep at all?
GoldEducational@reddit (OP)
no
SnooPuppers5489@reddit
It generally beeps to notify you that it posted up successfully. Is the a grinding sound from the floppy? The floppy should grind for a second as a normal part of the boot.
AnrufBeworter@reddit
The beep could be disabled from the BIOS settings, so that might be not an issue.
And for a floppy to grind, it needs to be in the boot sequence, else it may just light up it‘s LED during post once, but stay put.
Hitting the F12 button during startup (can be hit multiple times in succession) will boot into the selection of a boot device, from there the floppy drive canine selected
GoldEducational@reddit (OP)
There’s no floppy in it
SnooPuppers5489@reddit
Even without a floppy disk in the drive. A normal part of booting up is that the computer will check to see if the floppy drive is connected ok. That will result it the drive make a short grinding sound. This sound can help us to know that the computer is trying to boot…. Even if there is nothing on the display. No beeps and no grinds very likely means the motherboard isn’t even starting the boot process at all. I would disconnect the floppy, hard drive, cdrom, and and take out the modem. Then boot and see what it does when it’s just ram processor and mainboard. That will eliminate a bunch of possible causes of it not booting and won’t hurt the computer. It is text book troubleshooting for a computer that age. All the steps we have just taken are.
chiclet_fanboi@reddit
Should still do it.
RetroTechBro@reddit
Throw a 8600GT and a Audigy2 or X-Fi sound card, would make a decent XP machine for sure. I'm guessing it has an Athlon 64 Orleans in the 2GHz range. If it has less than 2GB of RAM bring it up to that. Get a cheap chinese 320GB SSD for the boot drive (I prefer HDDs myself but its hard not to recommend solid state for SATA systems just for reliability for the average person)
That monitor is the exact monitor I have on my workbench setup. When it doesnt detect a signal it cycles between white, black, red, blue and green screens as a self test.
JasonMckin@reddit
Man this sub makes me feel old.
This is a post-HP merger Compaq desktop with a motherboard from the late 2000s.
Best of luck getting it back up!
Sufficient_Internet6@reddit
Yeah - I feel you. I had several of the intel configurations in our corporate network. They had the right ‘cheap yet stable’ ratio we were aiming for.
Not worth the hassle to restore imho.
calc76@reddit
I see the computer power cable is plugged in but I don’t see a power cable for the monitor.
Did you plug the power into the monitor also or just the vga cable?
And does the monitor power light come on?
GoldEducational@reddit (OP)
I just plugged two separate AC cables into the power strip, one for the monitor and one for the PC
lilmul123@reddit
Based on your answers to these questions… it’s dead.
HereComesTheLastWave@reddit
You may want to check that the cable(s) between the front panel's power and reset buttons and the mainboard are in place (probably the two cables in the middle at the bottom, but it's hard to tell without a closer look)
Unhappy-Idea-1956@reddit
Turn the power strip on
GoldEducational@reddit (OP)
It’s on, it’s just very faint
Dense_Cabbage@reddit
The flat ribbon cable shown is the floppy drive cable, it wouldn’t stop anything from working. The twist is actually supposed to be there, too.
Is there anything on the screen when it is turned on? Typically it should give a screen to indicate it is running in some capacity. The fan on the CPU should also turn. From the 6th photo, I can see a LED on the motherboard, so it definitely is getting power of some kind.