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Vigilante · 10-26-2008, 02:01 PM

SP3 wouldn't do any damage to the computer, but the shut down in the middle of updating might corrupt the OS.

It sounds to me like the system is just plain old. The motherboard needs to be checked for bad capacitors (just a visual inspection for bulging tops will do, check around the socket and above the AGP slot). If ANY caps bulge, the board is dead. It can be fixed by those that have soldering capability assuming all else is fine, but at this point the system is so old that it won't be worth the effort. Buy a new rig and put the old drive in as a slave and copy the old data to the new OS/drive.

The PSU needs to be checked as well internally and/or externally, or replaced. An external check to do is to unplug it from the wall, pull the PSU out completely and ground green to black (standard ATX plug colors, check pinouts if unsure!) using a paperclip or something similar. Then hook a fan or something to a molex, plug it back in and turn it on. If the fan spins, good. If the fan spins for a sec then cuts off, try adding a hard drive to the load and see if it works. If it still spins for a sec but cuts off, then the PSU is bad and/or shorted out. Replace the PSU. If you are not electrically inclined, don't open the PSU or even mess with it. The capacitors can give you a really bad and potentially dangerous shock....trust me I know, I've had one fry my finger LOL. If you are ok with opening the PSU, an internal check would be seeing if the caps are bulging around the output lines, checking for scorch makrs on the PCB around large resistors and cleaning all dust out.

Anyways, assuming you are capable, pull everything out of the case, clean all the dust and crap off (gotta be some, it's a 1GHz system after all) and then reinstall everything. Reason for this is 2-fold: It gets all the crap out, which is unlikely to cause a short but you can't rule it out, and it also creates new metal-to-metal contact. Sometimes when circuits bridge metals there can be oxidation at the contact, which can eventually lead to resistance and bad contact. Obviously unplugging and replugging can solve that issue.

If the system has been a little unstable recently, then the capacitors were most likely the issue. The last shutdown could be the death knell, who knows. Systems from that time (that being slot A and socket A) were plagued with bad caps across many manufacturers, so very few are still running now. I see more socket 7 systems still running than slot A.

10-26-2008, 02:01 PM	#2 (permalink)
Vigilante Broken Arrow Location: US	SP3 wouldn't do any damage to the computer, but the shut down in the middle of updating might corrupt the OS. It sounds to me like the system is just plain old. The motherboard needs to be checked for bad capacitors (just a visual inspection for bulging tops will do, check around the socket and above the AGP slot). If ANY caps bulge, the board is dead. It can be fixed by those that have soldering capability assuming all else is fine, but at this point the system is so old that it won't be worth the effort. Buy a new rig and put the old drive in as a slave and copy the old data to the new OS/drive. The PSU needs to be checked as well internally and/or externally, or replaced. An external check to do is to unplug it from the wall, pull the PSU out completely and ground green to black (standard ATX plug colors, check pinouts if unsure!) using a paperclip or something similar. Then hook a fan or something to a molex, plug it back in and turn it on. If the fan spins, good. If the fan spins for a sec then cuts off, try adding a hard drive to the load and see if it works. If it still spins for a sec but cuts off, then the PSU is bad and/or shorted out. Replace the PSU. If you are not electrically inclined, don't open the PSU or even mess with it. The capacitors can give you a really bad and potentially dangerous shock....trust me I know, I've had one fry my finger LOL. If you are ok with opening the PSU, an internal check would be seeing if the caps are bulging around the output lines, checking for scorch makrs on the PCB around large resistors and cleaning all dust out. Anyways, assuming you are capable, pull everything out of the case, clean all the dust and crap off (gotta be some, it's a 1GHz system after all) and then reinstall everything. Reason for this is 2-fold: It gets all the crap out, which is unlikely to cause a short but you can't rule it out, and it also creates new metal-to-metal contact. Sometimes when circuits bridge metals there can be oxidation at the contact, which can eventually lead to resistance and bad contact. Obviously unplugging and replugging can solve that issue. If the system has been a little unstable recently, then the capacitors were most likely the issue. The last shutdown could be the death knell, who knows. Systems from that time (that being slot A and socket A) were plagued with bad caps across many manufacturers, so very few are still running now. I see more socket 7 systems still running than slot A. __________________ We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill Last edited by Vigilante; 10-26-2008 at 02:04 PM..