Startup problem

Hey Geeks! Happy Holidays! It's been a while since I've posted...nice to be back (I love computer problems! hehe)

So, I have this computer (Pentium III, 869 Mhz or something like that, 20 gig HD, 40 gig HD, ATI Radeon 850 video card, Soundblaster, 512 MB RAM) that's been sitting in the closet for a while...I was waiting for a router (put off getting it for a long while). Well, I took it out of the closet today to get it up and running (cause I got the router ), and the thing won't go past the Dell screen. It doesn't even show a "press del to enter setup, it just hangs at the blue-world Dell screen. Some background info on the OS...it's a dual boot with Fedora Core and Windows XP Home, but I'm not even getting to the Grub part where I can choose the OS.

Any ideas on what to do? Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks a bunch.

 

Yeah, it was in the closet for about a month.

How does one go about replacing the bios battery? Where is it? And can I find the battery at a local electronics store, or is it a specialty computer store-type part?

Thanks for your reply.

 

Well, I replaced the Bios battery (not too difficult).

But, it still doesn't work. The heat-sink fan is working, but I don't the power-supply fan is running. Could that be the problem?

It's kinda strange since I can't even get into the bios setup. It just stalls as the Dell splash screen. Crazy.

 

reseat everything? can you boot to a disk?

 

I have the Windows XP disk in the drive, but nothing happens, just the Dell page.

By reseat everything, do you mean take it apart and put it back together again?

 

yep. take it apart and put it back together again.

 

Yup, sound advise, but also make sure the fan in the power supply is spinning,and if so when you start reseating everything keep an eye open for any loose screws, metal objects, or other possible shorts.

Then try to power it up with only the bare minimum hardware installed, and if it works then you can trouble shoot as you install the rest of the hardware, good luck to ya, and let us know what you come up with...

 

Ack!! I've never put a computer together before. Should be an interesting project. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

yes, and i should have said also- be careful of static electricity. it can be a problem sometimes.

 

Ok. So I'm dredging up an old thread. But, I just now have gotten around to doing the things suggested in this thread...so really nothing has changed.

I replaced the BIOS battery. I reseated everything: I unplugged all the plugs, took out the cards and the RAM. Then put them back in. But, I still get nothing. Just the Dell splash screen.

The fans are running (both the CPU fan and the Power-source fan).

Any ideas what to do next?

Also, what would be the bear minumum for a system like this (see the original post for specs)? Do I need to connect the HDs? Should I take out one of the sticks of RAM?

Thanks for your help.

Also...a note to the moderators...maybe this should be moved to Hardware.

 

have you tried takin out whats not needed like remove the IDE(HDD, CD-ROM etc.) cables and sound cards just leaving the graphics card in or using onborad graphics if its got it then see if you can get into the bios or just past the dell screen

 

No, I haven't. It doesn't have onboard graphics, so I'd have to leave the graphics card in.

I'll give it a try.

Thanks for the reply, by the way.

 

OK! After disconnecting the HD, DVD, CD, Floppy drive, and one stick of RAM I could get into the BIOS.

What does that mean? Maybe the HDs are bad? Or the DVD drive? Or something else?

 

try plugging 1 item in at a time then when it plays up again the last item plugged in is whats causing the problem

 

OK. It seems to be one of the optical drives--DVD or CD. They look like their hooked together (i.e. the wide, thin cable from the DVD connects to the CD, which then connects to the mobo). Can I disconnect one from the other?

And, stupid question...but, can a DVD drive read CDs?

 

yeah just pull them out, try pullin it straight out and not 1 side before the other so u dont bend the pins it dont matter that much but if u bend the pins 2 far u mite not b able 2 fix it back on (worst case senario that is lol)