P3 desktop appears to power up, but no display on monitor

[theneilcave]

this is a family member's computer, and after lookin at some similar problems on here, I am beginning to think i'm out of my league.

When i turn the power on the computer sounds as if it is booting (the whirring noise).. However that is about all I get. I have a monitor hooked up to it, and there is no output on that whatsoever. I did notice that the fan on the psu is not turning. I am sorry I don't have much more info for you. It is a pentium 3 pc w/ windows 98 installed. The name on the casing is Micron. Any ideas guys?

THanks

 

[theneilcave]

UPDATE-
I removed the one stick of ram (PC100).. tried booting without it... no go. Put it back in, turned it on, and it booted to a C prompt. When I checked what is on that, only one thing is- command.com

help?

 

[dmill89]

Booted to C prompt but no further correct? Did you use a boot disk or is this from the Hard drive?

 

[theneilcave]

no boot disk.. it is booting off of the c drive. I left it on for about 40 minutes while i ran an errand. I came back and it had locked up, no more display on the monitor, the green light on the cd-rw drive was on. I think it's def. gonna need a new PSU for starters, cuz the fan doesn't work and it's got that hot-electrical component smell going on.

 

[iss]

uhhh.....you knew that the CPU fan wasnt working but you left it on for 40 min anyway?

 

[dmill89]

Yah that PSU is probably about dead.However the OS may also be corrupt since It doesn't seem to want to boot to windows even when the systemis obviously getting power.Also since it is on older system make sure to clean all the dust from the case,fans,heatsinks. there is a posibility that the HDD might be dieing

 

[theneilcave]

ISS- yeah.. i forgot that i had left it on, etc... stupid i know

D- so step one, replace PSU, then worry bout the harddrive after that?

 

[theneilcave]

i'm looking at the powersupply right now and it only says it's dc output is 150w max.. is that even normal?

 

[Tedster]

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic53866.html

 

[dmill89]

150W is low but the min for a P3 is 145W so it is acceptable for that system.
I would recomend an Antec,Enermax,PC Power & Cooling, or FSP. Any ATX powersupply should as work any modern PSU should be powerfull enough to run an old P3.
Here are some good options for that system
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104933

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103463

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103934

http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S31ATX (this is probably the Best PSU of the ones listed and PC Power &cooling has a great track record but it is also the most expensive @ $50)

 

[theneilcave]

i went and bought a power supply.. 350 w.. it's a dynex.. probly should've hung around aw hile and waited for replies, but i'm on a time crunch. here's where I stand-

it boots every time now to a c prompt... it goes through the POST. however all that is on the c drive is command.com.

I have the recovery disks, but i can't use the cd drives because it isn't going through the whole boot up process (no autoexec.bat, no win.ini, etc.). SO do i need to create a bootdisk for windows 98 (somewhat of a headache)? I would have to drive to my parents house to even find a computer w/ a disk drive. Any tips?

 

[theneilcave]

by the way- I really really appreciate the help you guys are giving me, and man are u guys quick. THANKS!

 

[dmill89]

You should beable to boot from the windows CD. If not use a DOS boot disk and type "D:"(or the cd rom drive letter if it is a different letter) then "setup" and windows should start to install.

 

[dmill89]

you may also want to reformat the HDD to get rid of what's there. In dos type "format C:/u" (where C is the HDD letter )(with out the quotes)

 

[theneilcave]

ok i either need to:
1) find a bootable cd (the windows 98 cd i have isn't) that i can use as a bootdisk
2) drive 25 miles to get to a pc w/ a floppy drive so i can make one

would it make any sense to throw it into a heard drive enclosure, hook it up to my laptop via usb, and do it that way?

 

[dmill89]

here is an image for a bootable CD if you have a drive there to burn it with and a program that can burn ISOs http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/old/beta9sr2/
choose fdbootcd.iso for a bootable cd

If you want I can Email you the files for a dos 7.1 boot disk which you can burn to a cd if a floppy drive is not avalible.

you can't put it in an enclosure and hook it to laptop since the chipset in the motherboard and other hardware will be different so you will get errors and windows will fail to boot after you switch it back into the P3 system.

 

[theneilcave]

I have it up and running.. the only problem now is the lite-on cd burner doesn't work. i notice a thread on here that is already dealing w/ that particular problem so i won't bore you with it here.. thanks for the help guys.

neil