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what a day.....i got another problem

C

cycleman77

Senior member
I got an PC than refuses to boot. It is a Micron Millenia which was purchased back in '95. It originally was a P90 and currently is a P166. Its memory has also been upgraded to 96MB and the original 1.2Gb HD was replaced with a 4GB HD. These upgrades are not recent.
The machine was working fine up untill today. It will not even post. It has a PhoenixBIOS and when you turn on the power all you get is 3 short beeps. Does anyone know what 3 short beeps means?
At first I thought that something wasnt seated right, so I opened it up, disconnected everything, and then reconnected everything. I noticed that the heat sink/fan on the processor wasn't seated right. I don't know how long it has been like that. Could the processor be fried?
This PC gets used alot, so I really need to get it back up and running.
lol....i know what some of you are thinking......"what the heck is the matter with you.....scrap it and get a newer PC." Well budget is tight and I'm actually kind of attached to the old thing. Its been 7 years and this is the first major problem with it.
 
phoenix is complicated as they do the whole 1, 2, 3, 4 thing like 1-2-1, 1-2-4, etc

2-2-2 maybe your problem and that is memory.

Regardless run DOCMEM if possible or MEMTEST86

 
I think I know what your problem is: you're living in 1994!

Go to walmart and get a lindows PC for $200. You'll thank me.
 

alkemyst - what do u mean...i dont understand...."Regardless run DOCMEM if possible or MEMTEST86"?????

I thought that the processor could be bad so I pulled the 166Mhz and put back the original 90Mhz chip. The good news is that I dont get anymore beeps. The bad new is nothing happens. No post no nothing. I double checked the jumpers and the cables. Everything is in order. I did notice that when i turn it on the floppy LED does not turn off.
BTW my brother was testing the power supply out earlier and shocked himself. Could he have added to the problem?
Anyother ideas?
 
Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
Try another stick of memory

Which is why alkemyst said to run MEMTEST to test your current memory...
Click to expand...

Listen to X'ey.

But he can't run Any Memory Testers withut being able to post. (He could try it on another OLD machine though)

I think it sounds like your memory, try one stick at a time etc.
 
An old PC is liable to develop contact problems. Put the CPU in and out of the socket and close the handle a bunch of times. The old 90 CPU is liable to get corroded pins from sitting around. It can get thick after a lot of years. Are you absolutely sure you changed the multiplier right? Can you put the 166 back and see if it works like it did? It would be more logical for them to both operate the same on bootup.

You can sometimes find old CPUs like this for practically nothing at computer shows.

Is anything lodged on the motherboard? A screw?

If it will operate on fewer memory modules you can reduce it to the minimum and try different combos of modules.
 
I triple checked the jumpers and I did have them right. I put back the 166Mhz and the beeps came back, however the floppy light still remains on. I think it is just the light because I can not here the drive spinning. It doesnt make any noise. But the drive isn't my worry right now.

I checked the mem modules. There has to be AT LEAST 2 identical modules for it to work. Since i have 4 modules, two 16MB and two 32MB, i could only test the two 16MB and two 32MB at a time. With each test I got the same number of beeps. I dont have any other older mem modules so i cannot try them out.

Just for kicks I swapped out video cards, however it didnt change anything.

I stripped the insides down. There is nothing inside the machine except the necessities. No modem, sound, etc.

I am not willing to put too much more effort into this. If i can't get it fixed soon I'm just going to scrap it.

thanks
 
The light on in the floppy constantly is generally the cable being reversed.

So the video and the memory are not the problem. Only other simple thing to try is a power supply.
I once got a dead mobo to work by setting the multiplier very low. (Hey, I'll try anything.) My best guess on that one was that the on-board voltage regulator was defunct, but could put out enough juice to run the processor at low speed. They used to use very marginal regulators that got super hot. The current a CPU pulls is proportional to the speed. Low speed, less current. If the 166 is later generation than the 90, it could be it pulls less current and that's why it works better. Setting the multiplier low is easy.

However it proved to me it was a bad mobo and not worth continuing to use. Motherboards do go. I think it was only about six years old. I had given it away long ago, and I got it back when the person's computer failed. I couldn't believe it. It is the only mobo I ever had that died, and I took it very hard.
 
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