computer breakdown

For the third time in six months, the PC running my CNC mill has broke. First time, the hard disk fried. Second time, CPU cooling fan quit.

This time the computer won't try to boot to any drive. No messages at all from POST on the monitor. For that matter no text at all. Power supply cooling fan comes on, CPU cooling fan on, strange sound from a drive (can't really tell which one). I need an ISA slot, or I'd just buy another box and be done with it. Any suggestions?

Karl

Used Pentium I/II/III system units are ultra-cheap (try offering $5) at the secondhand computer stores. The entire secondhand/surplus computer market is awash with machinery; I've seen large warehouses stacked to the ceiling. Get an old IBM non-consumer machine - the model number

300GL springs to mind. Well, actually nothing really 'springs' anymore but it kind of comes dragging in. Anyway, they were built significantly better 'in the old days'.

My software (Camsoft) needs a minimum 1 GHz PIII computer. You're right the old ones are better, but not fast enough for my needs. I had to special order a white box system built around a motherboard with an ISA slot. Very expensive by today's prices - $800.

Karl

You might try: htef="

" Socket 370 supports PIII up to 1.2GHz. One ISA slot. $79.99.

They may have more.

It sounds to me like the power supply died, probably the 5V feed. The fans run on 12V and the disks may make wierd noises with only 12V coming in. The weird noises might also be the power supply itself. I would swap the power supply and go from there.

Bob

Sounds like maybe the power supply but could be something else holding down the supply. Do you get any beeps? They're part of the POST and can tell you what's wrong if it can't even talk to the display. No beeps usually means no power.

One thing you can try if you don't have an extra power supply is to remove every board but the display board and remove every peripheral but the keyboard then turn it on to see what happens. If that doesn't get you a display it's not unheard of for a video board to work loose in the slot so make sure it's in all the way.

Sometimes reseating memory can also help.

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message news:aKzCe.9277$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Do you really need an ISA slot, or it the card something that can be had in a PCI version for not too much money? I.e. is it a servo controller card, or just an extra parallel port card?

Some of the Dell Optiplex business systems have a single ISA slot available depending on which version of riser board is in them.

Pete C.

I have a 4 AT case power supplies if you need one. 200, 230 and 250 watt.

I only have 1 ATX power supply. It's only 100 watts.

wrote

Swap the power supply, it's easy to do and the most likely item to fail. You should always have a spare onhand, IMO. You can still get boards with an ISA slot or two. Google for "motherboard ISA".

Soyo SY-P4I 845PE motherboard 3 ISA slots from barber.com email for price.

CPU Support: Intel Pentium 4 up to 3.06 GHz and Celeron up to 2.0 GHz Chipset: Intel i845PE FSB: Supports 533/400 MHz FSB System Memory: DDR 333/266 184-pin PC2700/PC2100 non-ECC, unbuffered DDR SDRAM Two 184-pin DDR SDRAM 2.5V DIMM sockets support up to 2GB Expansion Slots: 1 AGP slot 2x/4x

4 PCI slots 3 ISA slots On Board Audio: On board 4 channels AC97 Codec audio solution On Board LAN: Intel® 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet controller On Board IDE: Ultra DMA 66/100 Two independent channels for four IDE devices Supports up to PIO Mode 5 and UDMA 66/100 Two PCI bus mastering ATA E-IDE ports I/O INTERFACE: Two RS-232 serial ports (16550 UART compatible) One parallel printer port (SPP/EPP/ECP mode) One FDD port (Supports 3 mode, 1.2/1.44/2.88 MB FDD Provides IrDA / FIR ports with optional cable for transceiver Provides 6 USB 2.0 ports (2*rear, 4*pin header) I/O Connectors: PS/2 Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports One RJ45 connector Two USB ports One D-Sub 9-pin male serial ports (one by pin header) One D-Sub 25-pin female printer port Audio I/O: LINE-Outx1 , LINE-Inx1, MIC JACK x1 One game port

Hugh

Camsoft uses a Galil servo driver board. New PCI version can be bought for $2500. I've been watching Ebay for these, but too many others have the same need.

I just bought a 1 GHz Dell with ISA on Ebay. I'll try this box when it arrives. I'm also going to repair this old one so I have two on hand. I'll try power supply first.

Murphy must know I HATE computer repair. Seems like this is where all my breakdown troubles have been lately. At least ,knock on wood, the network hasn't had trouble for a while.

Thanks, everybody, for the help.

Karl

Will it run with older operating systems? I took a new board back because it would only run on Windows XP.

Richard W.

Have you replaced the bios battery? Might be about that age - anything after 4 or 5 years can be suspect and meets your described symptoms.