Computer Will Not Start

I have a Cicero pc that I'm trying to fix for my friend. Supposedly there is an infamous problem with these early Cicero model pcs, where as the capacitor gives out in the power supply and fries everything in the pc.

When you turn on the system the power supply starts and blows faint wind from the fan as if it's struggling. The power led will not go on, all that shines is a red light on the front panel of the case which I assume should be for the hard drive activity.

There is a ram led light on the motherboard that keeps blinking when you turn the pc on. You cannot hear the hard drive spin at all, usually with the case open you can hear the hard drive spin in any pc. And hard drives usually have a little light on the bottom of them that blinks, which is not happening in this case. When you turn the pc on the cdrom won't even open if you press eject. The monitor shows absolutely no signal... The screen is just black and the activity light on the monitor is orange meaning there is no signal comming in.

The only thing that works when you turn the pc on are the fans (exhaust and heatsink fan). I bought a new power supply that I switched with the old one and the pc will still not start. You can tell this power supply is working though because the wind from the power supply fan is heavy and the power supply is obviously new. So compared to the old psu you can tell that the old one is ruined.


Any help? Can anyone help me diagnose this? I believe the pc is dead what do you all think?


Cicero Desktop Pc (Model# CA122A-5) ---- Canadian Made


What can I do with the little support of the web sites associated with this pc (www.medionusa.com & www.seanix.com) since Cicero has been moving from company to company. They have no information on this pc at all. Let me know what you think and what more information you have about that "infamous" problem with the older Cicero pcs.

 

Hi ya superstar.

Ok...
First...
I don't think the power supply failure was a fried cap.
Such a failure usually doesn't fry the Motherboard.
And the symptoms of this failure are:
Vibrating but not spinning fans... no lights... modem chirping.
And with a new power supply it would have lit back to life.

Still sounds like a power supply failure.
More likely the power regulator went.

My diagnosis...
MB fried... read it the last rights... salvage it for all the parts you can... give it a proper burial in the dust bin.

That's what I think anywho.

 

I will read it's last rights and ask my friend if I can keep some of the old parts! I wonder if the pentium 4 chip could have survived through that?

I'm about to test his hard drive in my pc... But yah I think his pc is dead too. Ram led light keeps flashing on the mobo but I still think it's dead because why would the ram go bad all of a sudden? The pc should have been able to boot with the new power supply even just into the bios. But it still had the same synthoms. I'm just wondering if the pentium 4 cpu made it through. I'd love to keep that! I'd obviously ask him for it.

 

Try to see if you can snag a MB to test it with if you can.
P4's aren't cheap.

A repair shop might actually help you with that also.
Although they might do it for a price...
It would be worth the price of a new P4

 

Yah that's true. I'm going to attach his IDE hard drive to my pc now and see if it still works. If it does I hope it doesn't have virus' on it because the last friend I helped with pc probs got a virus that mashed up his bios...

 

I just attached his hard drive to my pc. It was recognized by the bios but it didn't boot at all. Hmmm.... All I know is that his pc has a P4 processor and mine has a P3. Maybe his hard drive is programed to start on the P4 processor or something? I dunno either that or it's fried to and just acting weird. It didn't boot at all.

By the way I know his model pc comes with a recovery disc that installs windows. Maybe his windows only works on his pc? I know for sure the recovery disc installs windows Home Edition.

What do you think?

 

Hard drives aren't processor excessive.
They just need to be interface compatible.
IDE... SCSI... SATA... etc.

It also depends on how generic the PC is whether a HD from one computer will boot from another.
EX:
If you put the HD of a 2004 Dell into a 1999 Systemax it won't get past the first boot screen.
But if you plug the HD of a 2002 Wintergreen into a 2001 Cybertron the computer will boot up almost unmolested.

I would just piggyback the HD onto your P3 computer as an extra drive.
That way you can boot up and see if the P4 HD can be read.
Whether it can boot into a computer or not...
If it can be read as an extra drive... it's probably good.

And you can use the system tools to completely check the HD for errors... viruses... etc.
After witch... the drive can be prepared for either OP system installation or extra drive usage.

So what I think you should do is plug the P4 drive into your P3 computer as if it were just an add on drive and see if it can simply be read.

 

I can do this even though it has an o/s on it? Cool


The following is my diagnosis of his pc. I am printing it out to give to him. I'm basically going to try and tell my friend that it's better if he buys an all new computer instead of replacing all the major parts, etc & having to pay for labour costs by a technician.

----------------------------------------------------

Current Local Parts Value:
(Note: These are the exact parts inside the Cicero computer, at individual store value)
80 GB Hard Drive $50.00
256MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM $50
450 Watt Power Supply Unit $35
Intel Pentium 4 2.53Ghz Processor $50
CD-RW/DVD Drive $20
Floppy Drive $10
Socket 478 Motherboard $40


Current Computer Value:
CICERO CA122A-5
http://cgi.ebay.com/CICERO-CA122A-5-INTEL-P4-2-53GHZ-DESKTOP_W0QQitemZ300013209160QQcmdZViewItem
$227


Computer Model Information:
CICERO CA122A-5 (discontinued model)


History:
The older Cicero models had an infamous problem with capacitor in the power supply going awry and then frying the motherboard.
Resulting in complete and permanent computer failure. (ie: all dead or failing components, no response on boot, etc)
This model is also known for the power regulator going out and causing the same permanent damage.


Company Info:
Primarily Futureshop.ca in Canada sold the "older models" of Cicero computers. However Futureshop didn't manufacture the "older" Cicero computers.
At that time the third party Canadian based company Seanix did. The newer, more recent models of Cicero brand computers are "under new ownership."
The international company called Medion, which is a German company, which sells multimedia pcs, and consumer electronics products currently manufacture them.
This company has been shifted and sold various times which is an obvious sign of a bad computer corporation.


All Brand New Computer Pricing:
Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
40GB Hard Drive
512MB DDR2 RAM
CDROM Drive
Win XP Genuine
$299

Computer Depot
905-455-8111

--------

Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz
512MB RAM
Video Card
80GB Hard Drive
CDRW
32 Bit Sound Card
Floppy Drive
Keyboard & Mouse
$290

PC Village
416-975-9268

--------

Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
256MB RAM
80GB Hard Drive
LG CDRW
DDR64 MB Video Card
Keyboard, Mouse
Speakers
$268

U Computers
416-250-5588

 

Oh and you really sure it won't ruin my windows xp because I'm loading another hard drive with an o/s on it as well? The reason I asked the question again is in order to make sure my o/s doesn't get damaged and I didn't state that clear in the post above. Plus this thing only lets you edit your post for ten minutes.

(Read my post above to if you please)

 

It won't hurt.
Actually the running XP won't even see the other HD as an OS.
Just another drive.