Old computer will not post.

[spidro]

Computer will not post. It is a Pionex brand with a pentium mmx 166 processor. It has a Biostar mb- 8500 tvx-a mobo. a pci video card. It is 1997 vintage with no manual. On starup it will show the S3 Trio 2 mb video card and then show the amibios 1995 American megatrends logo and then just stops with the cursor blinking. It will not count the memory or let me get into the bios. I have tried removing the processor and reseating, the memory and reseating, disconnected the hard drive, the floppy, cd rom and removed the sound and modem cards. Removed and reseated the video card and checked all connections. Reset the cmos. The Pionex site was no help at all. Can anyone help? I am assuming that to enter the bios is del or f2 but i have tried all the keys.

 

[veryape]

Do you have a boot disc you can use. If so i'd try it out.

 

[Mitzi]

<< Do you have a boot disc you can use. If so i'd try it out. >>



I don't think he can get that far!

spidro : It sounds to me that you've tried all the logical things (disconnecting drives etc). It could be anything really - a faulty motherboard, RAM or even video card. My finger would point to the motherboard - has the machine been switched off a long time? Perhaps the battery on the BIOS is dead - try getting a new one and then clearing the BIOS (I guess if you don't have a manual it may be difficult to find the right jumper).

Personally I wouldn't spend too much time trying to fix it - at the end of the day how much is a P166 worth nowadays - you could spend hours trying to fix it and not get anywhere.