Lenovo problems

ahal

Posts: 54   +0
Hi all,

Last year I bought a circa 2007 vintage HP Lenvo dual core. I was enjoying it for about 5 months when one evening it just halted ... as in, powered off in the middle of everything.

Now I like this machine a lot, despite it's short time in my company. I first suspected the power supply, but that powers up just fine ... if much can be read into that. I put another hard drive in, took out the processor and cleaned the contacts with isopropyl alchohol etc ...

The bottom line is, when I switch it on the monitor displays 'power save' mode, and then repeatedly goes in an out of it. What I mean by 'out' is that the screen stays black, but the green light comes on ... and then turns orange again. The USB ports still recognise stuff at the front (for a split second), the CD seeks, the drive light comes on ...

Having read various threads I went and had a look at the motherboard, and a few of the components look like the heads have 'domed' a little ... but it's hard to tell if they were like that already. I really need a dual core and most of the stuff for sale 2nd. hand comes with 1 gig of Ram which is below what I need (this machine has 3). I can't afford to buy new.

I guess unless there's something really indicative in what I've posted I'll be giving up on it. As I said, I do like the machine and thought I would run it by you guys in case there's something I'm missing.

Thanks in advance.

Tony.
 
Two things: Is it HP or Lenovo?

Second, those "domed" capacitors sounds like they are bad capacitors and if so are most likely leading to your issues. Now they can be replaced but it takes working knowledge on how to do it let alone finding the capacitors in the first place. You might find someone who will do it for you but the $ might not be worth it.
 
Hi Route 44,

Thanks for the speedy response. I should probably point out that this is a desktop ... it carries both the names 'Lenovo' and 'IBM' on the case. Back in the good old days when it used to boot (!), it used to display 'Lenovo' on screen (not IBM) during power-up.

I wouldn't mind but I upped the spec steadily to this 'climax' lol! Therein perhaps lies my problem? I used an PCI-e graphics card (PNY6200) which required 400w minimum, and the Lenovo only serves out around 300. I've heard that crappy power supplies can take just about anything with them ... there's a factory 'Delta' psu in the machine, and I've read that they're not amazing. I'm assuming that sometimes power supplies can mess up and still appear to work? The computer itself was plugged into a powersurge protector.

I'm looking to get into Autodesk 3dsMax game - rendering software, so on a budget that ain't easy. I was looking at buying an old Fujitsu Siemens Econel server and trying to run it in place of a desktop, but my knowledge of servers (practically zilch) will probably lead to a week of no sleep, too much coffee and cigarettes, lots of components everywhere and a few tantrums to get it working. No thanks! Then I found a guy selling:

"Motherboard:
Gigabyte NV-MCP55 nForce 570 SLI
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2383#ov

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 x2 5200+ 65nm Dual Core (basic 2.71 GHZ,after overclocking 3.2 GHZ) With radiator and fan

Graphics:
PCIE NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS 250 512 MB DDR3 256 bits !!
http://www3.pny.com/font-color999999GTS-250-512MB-PCIefont-P2794C396.aspx

Tower (not very good condition)

PSU 480 wat

Memory:
3 GB (2X1GB, 2X512 MB) DDR2"


I've decided to just go with that. At least I can find out if the Lenovo took the RAM (DDR2 667) with it, and indeed the Graphics card. I learned my lesson: save up and buy a Corsair power supply with sufficient output in future! Damn, I love that Lenovo though ...

Thanks again,

Tony.
 
The more cores for rendering the better. What is your budget?

And, yes, a crappy psu will cause serious headaches and can actually damage other hardware.
 
Sadly my budget is in the order of €250 yo-yo's, €300 is more than I can afford. I'm happy enough with yesterday's tech. to a degree. Recommended specs for the software are minimum 256mb. graphics (double that at least I'd say) and a P4 (1.2 or something) which again is probably hugely optomistic.

Right now I just want to get going in a learning capacity on the software (believe it or not, this $3,500 program is a free download for students) so I won't be going the route of 'Avatar' with this software ... yet :p
 
Thanks for your help on this Route44.

As it happens, my luck was in! I went to a local computer store and the guy in there tested the Lenovo. He reckoned a component called the 'IC'(?) ... a thing with three little legs apparently ... was gone, and basically it was beeping no graphics card with a good card etc ... mobo screwed basically.

It turned out also that the motherboards could only be sourced in the U.S. but as luck would have it what was their testing machine? - yup, exact same model! Did a deal and they're going to transfer the motherboard from their own machine (with a view to upgrading that) to mine for €75 total. I'm absolutely thrilled!

Thanks again for your advice and help.

Regards,

Tony.
 
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