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IBM Aptiva E-Series 190 New fan help
Jaded God - Sep 28, 2004

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  Jaded God Sep 28, 2004
Hey.. My old 128 mb Ram, 13 gb harddrive comp that I have had for years.. I would like to restore it. What happened was it would give me blue screen errors of death when trying to reinstall any OS. Crashes on XP install and all that shit. I had my friends mom who is a network tech and she couldn't even figured it out.

I was thinking I burnt something from always having it on and dust and particles accumulating.

I opened it up tonight and there is more dirts and dust over everything than you can imagine. I opened up the power supply and I was thinking of adding a new fan and unsoldering the old one.. Or do you think maybe all I need is a good clean and some compressed air along with maybe a new battery on the motherboard.

Thanks guys.

 ExCyber Sep 28, 2004
Yeah, I'd suggest a good cleaning, followed by a nice solid run of Memtest86... and a "drive fitness test" or similar process, which can be done with a free download from some HD manufacturers, or a tool like Spinrite....

 Alexvrb Sep 29, 2004
Yeah, the more likely causes of this kind of consistent BSOD on windows install are bad RAM or bad drive. Your PSU shouldn't need anything more than to be cleaned out to do its job for a short period of time. Meaning if the old fan is still pushing air, and if it was the PSU that is causing the problem, it isn't just because of cooling. The PSU would have to be so shot, that a new fan wouldn't help it. But again, I would suspect memory or HD first.

The memtest Ex linked to has a bootable ISO, which is incredibly handy since you can't get Windows installed. Try that first, and then HD utilities if that gives you a clean bill of health.

 Jaded God Sep 29, 2004
So I should burn an ISO image of Memtest86 and put it in my cdrom before boot up and will it read and do its thing before going into windows or crashing?

 Krelian Sep 29, 2004
Yeah, Memtest86 will start right in after POST, go make a sandwich and let it make a pass or two and pray for 0 errors.

Same goes for the Hitachi/IBM DFT, it'll startup and ask if it needs to load any SCSI or SATA drivers then it'll have you agree to a EULA and scan your channels. Choose the drive and then choose Advanced Test.

~Krelian

 Jaded God Sep 29, 2004
Well when I just recently moved to my new condo a few months ago.. I tried powering it on with my power supply plug from my newer computer... It wouldn't even turn on.

So I am going to go de-dust it and spray compressed air all through it and see what happens.

Can a system really not start if there is so much damn dust all over it. I mean there is just bunches of dust on the power supply inside. Cant even like see shiny metal barely.

 Jaded God Sep 29, 2004
Ok I dusted it out and got a nice little shock from touching the pcb board on the power supply without the metal cover on lol. Anyways the pc won't even turn on... I don't know whats wrong here are some pictures of The computer...

I took out the cdrom for cleaning so that is why that isnt in there.. And I think it was hooked up to P5. I have cables that are just not attached to things?? take a look and see if you can help me.. I also have no idea where those two blue/white/black intertwined cables coming from the mobo go. I never screwed with the inside and it used to boot up when I used to use it but crash. Not I cant get it to turn on.


















  Alexvrb Sep 29, 2004
*groan* You don't go touching the guts of a PSU without good reason. I would have just blown compressed air through it to get the worst of the dust out. Dust is bad because it can cause fans to perform poorly, clog things up/block airflow. But it's not like it's exactly a wonderful conductor.

 ExCyber Sep 29, 2004
Make sure that that the power switch connector and the main motherboard power connector are properly seated.


  
	
	

		
		

			I also have no idea where those two blue/white/black intertwined cables coming from the mobo go


That's probably an audio connector for the CD drive, assuming you have onboard audio.

 Jaded God Sep 29, 2004
Well if your taking about the wires that go from the powersupply box to the motherboard they are in attached firmly.. What could be wrong and why couldnt it be booting up... No green light no power when i switch the pc on?

I would really like to fix this to use for mame and extra storage.

 Alexvrb Sep 29, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Jaded God@Sep 29, 2004 @ 09:20 PM



Well if your taking about the wires that go from the powersupply box to the motherboard they are in attached firmly.. What could be wrong and why couldnt it be booting up... No green light no power when i switch the pc on?




[post=120054]Quoted post[/post]

That's half of it. The other thing he mentioned involves wires that go from the mainboard to the front of the chassis. One of those connectors should correspond with the power button. The rest are for like reset, LEDs, etc. Make sure those are all in solid. Umm, and stupid question... you do have the switch on the back of your PSU set to 1, right? I had to ask. If all of these things are OK, then perhaps the PSU has kicked the bucket. Sadly, that still may not mean that the (aging) computer is free from other problems either. But let us know how it goes.

 Jaded God Sep 30, 2004
Well the wires I see from the PSU that go to the mobo are in firm. I don't know about what wires your talking about that go from the PSU to the Power on/chassis? Also do you see that picture where I am holding the wire "P5" from the PSU? That was plugged into my cd-rom drive. But to the right of that in the picture is another one called "P6" where the hell is that one supposed to go?

And yes I have the switch on the back on, I have flipped it on and off and tried to power up.

Also if my PSU is dead do I have to buy a PSU for that computer specifically or can I buy like a universal one? And how much do you think it would run me?

If you can point out any of the things I should check via a picture I can take some more. I would really appreciate it. I haven't put together a pc from scratch, but I have basic knowledge of IDE cables and such.

 Curtis Sep 30, 2004
Judging from the pictures you've provided, your PSU is a non-standard size and shape. You'll probably have to get a replacement from IBM, or you might be able to use a PSU designed for a Small Form Factor box.

If you're lucky you'll have enought room to squeeze a normal power supply into the box, but I can't tell from the images you have provided.

 Jaded God Sep 30, 2004
Well do you guys think it's the PSU? I can post more pics Curtis, just tell me what you want to see.

 Curtis Sep 30, 2004
The space where the PSU goes, both with and without the PSU in it would be nice. Just an overall case pic would be good - so I can see the relative size of all the innards.

 Alexvrb Oct 1, 2004
Few quick things:

I didn't say from PSU to chassis, I said from motherboard to chassis. It won't turn on if the power-on button isn't connected to the motherboard properly. The last time I saw the power-on wire run directly from the PSU to the chassis was in AT standard PSUs. So check those wires.

Measure your PSU for us. Three dimensions. Also, a good picture of the cable(s) that go into your motherboard from the PSU would be nice. It's probably a single, standard 20-pin ATX connector. Plus maybe a picture of the back of your PC, where the power supply is mounted.

The P5 P6 cables are both the same type. That's the standard 4-pin (12V and 5V are both available on each cable) cable used to power most current optical and hard disk drives, sometimes fans, etc. You could use either one, and they don't all have to be hooked up. They often leave you extra in case you want to add more drives or whatever. Although most OEM machines don't have a whole lot in the way of extra plugs or power, in general.

Anyway, I still think your PSU is cooked, but at least we'll get you to a point where you know where you stand. Oh, and try a different power cord and (if you have one) different power strip. Just to eliminate those as possible problems before we have you slap in a new PSU.

 Jaded God Oct 4, 2004
I am going to try and get a new PSU. But if I got shocked from touching the pcb green board without the cover on with it plugged in, I would think it would be conducting electricity some what.

 Alexvrb Oct 4, 2004
Any ATX compatible power supply from another box should work temporarily. Even if you can't fit it into the computer, you can hook everything up and see if you can fire it up.

 Jaded God Oct 5, 2004
Yea thanks for the advice alex, I will try it out when I get another psu to test.

 it290 Oct 5, 2004
I don't suppose you have a multimeter so you could test the PSU?

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