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Answer» Hello there! I'm having some problems breathing life back into my dad's old computer.
I have a little experience with building a computer and fiddling with the bios, but most of that is limited to my 2019 build, so I'm running into a few walls trying to get this computer running again.
Here's what I do know:
-The computer starts. The power supply is fine, the fans all work, and there's enough RAM to prevent immediate crashing.
-It doesn't boot. There's either a problem with the hard drives, or a problem with the software, or a connection issue with the hardware. I've made sure all the connections (that I can see) are correctly seated, but there might be some missing cables I don't know about.
I don't know much about the actual guts of the computer. I know it has one RAM card right now, and two hard drives, but I'm unsure if those are still useable or not. It sounds like they spin up, so hopefully they are still okay. It also has two CD-ROMs and one floppy disk drive. I believe the motherboard is from MSI (its the company logo that shows up on start).
I'm also not sure about that OS it's running. I suspect it's Windows 98, but this is only a guess.
I've booted it up a couple of times, trying a few different routes to get it to work. The first time, I just let it run on its own until it encountered an error:
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting INTEL PXE ROM
Boot failure from previous device..
Boot failure
Insert BOOT diskette in A:
Press any key when ready
The second time, I tried to get into the bios, but I wasn't able to. I pressed Tab instead to enter POST (which I don't know what that is) and it began auto-checking for PRIMARY and secondary masters and slaves. It found none, and the screen promptly went black.
I'm guessing there's either a software issue, one that will require me to dig through the plethora of floppy disks that are hiding in the basement and hope that I can find the one which allows me to successfully reboot the computer, or there's a hardware problem which I haven't been able to diagnose.
I'm hoping someone here might be able to give me a little direction so I can get this beautiful dinosaur on its feet again ^^
Edit: after some testing and actually touching the HDD's, it seems that they are not spinning up. SINCE the CD-ROMs are functioning (I put a disk in and they spun up fine) its not the power supply. Possibly a cable that needs replacing, or the hard drives have straight up died.
I have some spare ones lying around, but I'm not sure if they'll work in the old setup, and on top of that the floppy disk reader is non-functional as well, so I'd have to somehow pre-load Windows 98 or 95 onto it (I'm starting to think the original operating system was 95 based on the floppy disk I found).
Would this work? Are there some other workarounds that might work? I could use some ideasReplace the cmos battery on the motherboardAllan's advice to replace the battery is a good start. Given it's age it's likely it's petered out by now. Though, even without a battery, EIDE auto-detection should be finding the drives, so I suspect perhaps they may have failed as well.
Quote he power supply is fine
QuoteSince the CD-ROMs are functioning (I put a disk in and they spun up fine) its not the power supply.
Just because the system is able to startup or optical drives spin or open when you press eject and stuff doesn't indicate the power supply is good, just that it is supplying some power. It could very well be bad power that is disrupting the correct function of the system. (I don't NECESSARILY suspect that, it's just that I think you've eliminated it as a culprit prematurely)
QuotePXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
That means it couldn't find a boot device and fell back on Network boot via, presumably, on-board Ethernet. Probably the Hard Drives have failed.
QuoteI pressed Tab instead to enter POST (which I don't know what that is) and it began auto-checking for primary and secondary masters and slaves. It found none, and the screen promptly went black.
What happened when you pressed DEL? POST= Power On Self-Test- basically the message you received - almost certainly a CMOS Checksum error due to the dead battery - was asking you to either enter setup or to continue (run POST).
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