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| Thread ID: 116922 | 2011-03-25 19:00:00 | Real Basic stuff | kjaada (253) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1189382 | 2011-03-25 19:00:00 | Have a box that just has the mobo and power supply in it. It was a working very basic PC before parts were removed. If i start it up should I hear the bios beep ? It has 2 sticks of RAM on the mobo so leave them in or take them out ? How can I test if the ram is ok ? Do I need anything else to test bios?It has a vid card fitted. |
kjaada (253) | ||
| 1189383 | 2011-03-25 19:18:00 | Thats all you need the cpu / mobo / ram and video. And a monitor if you want to see something | Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 1189384 | 2011-03-25 19:22:00 | you don't mention a cpu ? if you have a mb, cpu, and ram, you can go into the bios and play around. Without a cpu you can do nothing. With no RAM it should beep to indicate the problem. I forget the typical one but I think it's something like 3 long beeps repeating. A single beep is a good thing and is normal - but only if you have a pc speaker. To test the RAM you would want a drive connected with a bootable disk such as memtest x86 or one of many diagnostic disks you can get with testing tools such as the ultimate boot cd. at a minimum you need mb, cpu, ram, graphics, and a boot device to do more than look at bios settings. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
| 1189385 | 2011-03-25 19:28:00 | Yeah, emphasis on needing the CPU, and the cpu fan if you want to get anywhere. Leave the ram sticks in place - sometimes older systems can be finnicky if the ram is removed and replaced coz of all the dust and oxidation around the contact points. Download a RAM testing utility which is NOT Windows based (eg DOS based, preferably with it's own boot routine) - you'll have to supply it to the computer via floppy or CD - assuming the machine can boot from a CD or floppy. |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1189386 | 2011-03-25 20:17:00 | Thanks guys. CPU is there so will see what happens.If bios beeps then will progress from there. This is just a "suck it and see " play. |
kjaada (253) | ||
| 1189387 | 2011-03-25 21:15:00 | All go to there, I guess next move is to get CD-DVD player going. Power is OK but not 100% sure on the MOBO plug for the IDE cable. Blue on board,blue on cable,black on cable to DVD and other black for HDD? Is that it? |
kjaada (253) | ||
| 1189388 | 2011-03-25 21:28:00 | Normally blue on M/B and hard drive. Try to jumper the Hard drive as master and the CD as slave on the one IDE cable rather than using cable select. | Snorkbox (15764) | ||
| 1189389 | 2011-03-25 22:41:00 | Thanks again guys. I am 98% go now. I should explain that I am 73 years old and shure as hell have forgotten more than I can remember. I had puters way back from before Microsoft.(Atari,lotus123) but it is all very hard to keep up with now the thinking department is failing. PF1 and you people are a real godsend. |
kjaada (253) | ||
| 1189390 | 2011-03-25 23:26:00 | Blue on board,blue on cable,black on cable to DVD and other black for HDD? Is that it? Yes, but it doesn't really matter if the cable is the other way round. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1189391 | 2011-03-26 05:54:00 | Thanks again guys . I am 98% go now . I should explain that I am 73 years old and shure as hell have forgotten more than I can remember . I had puters way back from before Microsoft . (Atari,lotus123) but it is all very hard to keep up with now the thinking department is failing . PF1 and you people are a real godsend . Hells bells mate, you're awesome to have the mettle to give it a go at age 73 . We've got quite a few here in your league . It's hard to keep a decent computer nerd down these days! :clap As far as my limited experience with computers goes, it's got easier over the years . The parts are more universally applied, and what you don't know can be researched on the internet, manuals and drivers downloaded, and the days of configuring jumpers and interrupts and addresses are almost entirely over (with a few exceptions still wrt IDE drive jumpers) . There's always traps for the unwary, and those who leap to buy before doing reasonable research (or before reading the manual), but if you've got enough tolerance for all the jargon and endless abbreviations in this field then you've got a good chance of doing all you want to do with the hardware . If only software development was as easy! |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
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