Problems with an old Celeron 1.2GHZ

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ravisunny2

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I have been having a bad time with an Intel Celeron 1.2GHZ (belonging to my brother-in-law).

The checksum error was cured with a battery change.

But then, Win98 installation would stop near the early stages.

Finally when Win 98 was installed by brute force, MS Office and other software would not install ( the m/c would hang).

It was diagnosed as a problem in the CD reader, so that was replaced by a new CD/DVD combo writer.

Still some s/w applications would not install, and though XP did get installed, the PC behaved erratically, in that it would sometimes boot & sometimes not.

(couldn’t catch any virus with Norton 2005)

So the hard disk was replaced, on the advice of the support person.

Now when the PC does boot (about once in 15 attempts), it seems to work normally (actually no one dares use it too much, now).

I finally checked out the N-E voltage. It came out around 11V ( surely higher than recommended).

The support person says that this is the crux of the problem, and that at his workshop the PC was behaving perfectly.

My cousin, who has been (after doing a course in PC maintenance) practicing for around 8 years, says that the PC should not malfunction unless the N-E voltage meets or exceeds 25 V.

(And one guy actually has no earthing at his place, but his PC seems to work normally !!)

He also said to check for loose contact in the power supply to the motherboard.

Another thing he suggested was to check out the capacitors (which stick out like sore thumbs). Sure enough, one of then seems to be a little puffed up, but the local support guy laughed it off.

Now it seems that I might have to change the motherboard.

And it isn’t funny anymore, because I was the person who introduced the support person to my brother-in-law (based on a reference by an old colleague).

Any ideas, please ?

Junking the PC, is NOT the option I’m looking for..

Thanks in advance.
 
Sometimes replacing a domed capacitor will fix a problem with the majority of the time it is indicative of a much more serious problem. Replacement of the motherboard is probably going to be the only way to fix it.
Such an old board will not be easy to find either.
About the only chance you have is to have a look on eBay, if you should decide to go down that route any need to make sure that you either get a motherboard with ram in it or that the motherboard you get is compatible with the ram you already have.
 
ravisunny2,
Take a look at http://www.retrobox.com You can buy quality used computers under $85 shipped. I have purchased several Compaq Desktop EN systems 833MHz, 256MB RAM. I replace the hard drives with bigger ones and add a CD/DVD Combo Burner. They take XP very well. Check Retrobox out!
 
Now it seems that I might have to change the motherboard.

After having placed an order for a new (ancient) motherboard, it appears that the PC is working just fine!

I'm stuck with the new motherboard.

Do I change the motherboard or leave the old one in place?
 
ravisunny2 said:
After having placed an order for a new (ancient) motherboard, it appears that the PC is working just fine!

I'm stuck with the new motherboard.

Do I change the motherboard or leave the old one in place?

I don't understand your question
 
Obvious, but embarrasing

SNGX1275 said:
If its working fine don't change anything. That should be obvious.

Yes, the golden rule is "if it's working fine, don't mess with it".

But the whole point is that some logical reason must be given.

It is still a mystery as to why the PC was malfunctioning, to begin with.

I don't understand your question

A new motherboard was ordered because the PC was still not functioning properly after change of hard disk etc.

But now, with the old motherboard, the PC seems to be working fine (before installing the new motherboard).
 
The board could be going bad, might be a hairline crack somewhere on the motherboard that happens to be making a connection now, but under different temperature conditions or different wire placement might have just enough force to prevent a good contact. Or that capacitor could be bad (the one you said looked puffed). Or it could be bad RAM. I had a case once where any NT based OS wouldn't complete the install, but 98 (or maybe ME) would, only to give registry errors on every reboot.
 
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