Built Computer won't boot

Bituser said:

The $50 New motherboards are from untrusted NZ shops though. I got my current MOBO for $50, the CPU for $40. I see what you mean though. This is a kind of tricky situation. Do you know how we could fix this?

I don't see any way how anybody here can help you to fix it. Not only is it outside the parameters of this forum, which is concerned primarily with Windows 7, there is no sensible way to troubleshoot old stuff like that "from afar". In order to experiment with gear like that you need to know exactly what you are doing, you need to research very carefully in order to get compatible parts, you need the test equipment and software to test things, and most of the time you will still end up with an outdated, unreliable, and less than stellar performing machine.

Basically, it is just not worth it. Practically any trained technician will tell you to throw it in the recycle bin, and most of them would do likewise. There is a point in all these things beyond which it is simply not sensible to go.

Regards....Mike Connor

Bituser said:

I thought it might fit into this forum because my Windows 7 computers will be connecting to the server. I'm going to need to find out how.

I am not the arbiter of what is proper on these forums, and if I could see any way to help you, I would try. I don't.

Resurrecting old hardware, or getting it to work together with new stuff, is hard enough for highly trained technicians with a lot of knowledge and experience, and the equipment and software which allows them to test it. Doing it "on the fly" as you describe, is more or less an impossible task, because you simply do not know what is going on. You might get something workable cobbled together by "trial and error", and you might not.

You might spend a very great deal of time and effort on it, and still not get it to work.

"Cheap" is relative, a lot depends on how you value your time, and what your expectations are in respect to the time spent. If you have no reasonable chance of realising those expectations, which in this case I don't think you have, then every further cent and every further second you spend on it is wasted.

You might be able to salvage some of what you have, but before you even try that, you need to do a lot of research into what parts are compatible with others, and also if the parts you have are even useable. The only way to do that is to have some sort of working "testbed" for those parts.

Working with so many unknowns is more or less doomed to failure.

Regards....Mike Connor

wilywombat said:

Guys , we should be trying to help and that means suggesting fixes and not necessarily panning a system. I am running windows 7 32 bit quite happily on a Core 2 Duo. It is not helpful to those that can't or don't need to splash the cash for the latest and greatest.

One thing you might like to look at Bituser is your PSU which is boardering on under power for a modern system requirement. Try a 600W or greater if you can. With respect to your hard drives, it may pay you to reformat the bigger drive and start again with XP and when you can get at least 2 * 1GB RAM sticks, go for windows 7. Hope this helps... Good luck

Your Windows 7 32 is obviously running on a working system.

He does not have a system, working or otherwise, and certainly not "Modern", what he has is a nondescript collection of ancient and uncertain hardware, which apparently doesn't work when assembled.

What he wants is assistance in assembling that hardware into a workable system. I know of no sensible way to do this, and advising him to buy a new power supply is quite pointless, it will not solve any of his problems, unless the one he has happens to be defective, which nobody knows.

Finally, he does not want to install Windows 7 on it, he wants to install XP on it.

Nobody here has "panned" anything at all. Merely pointed out the futility inherent in such an undertaking.

Regards....Mike Connor

wilywombat said:

No insult was intended in my post.

Nor in mine, merely trying to be realistic.

For many years I was constantly faced with similar problems, as were many of my technicians. In some cases we went ahead and repaired or rebuilt old systems and hardware, after consulting with the customer and getting his go-ahead, usually because for some reason or other the customer was dependent on it for compatibility, a specific function, or some other reason.

In the majority of cases, the cost of troubleshooting old hardware and setting up systems using it, is more than the cost of a new system, often very considerably more.

Private individuals can spend as much time as they like in attempting repairs or builds like this using old stuff, and if you play around with some things long enough you may get them to work, or you may not. If any of the parts are defective, then you wont.

If you do not know which parts may be defective then you also wont, because it makes no difference how you assemble them, the resulting system will not work.

The OP stated that he did not want to spend any more money on the project. Without some new parts of good quality and provenance it is unlikely that the project will succeed. This is mainly because there is no way of knowing which parts may be defective, and the OP has no way except trial and error to test that.

The possible combinations of defective hardware are more or less infinite.

Changing any one component is extremely unlikely to solve the basic problem. You have to KNOW which parts are defective.

Finding one defect in a running computer system is not usually all that difficult. Common sense and logic will usually suffice. Finding two defects which occur simultaneously is a lot harder, finding more defects is impossible without a baseline or a way of checking the components and software concerned.

Finding possible multiple defects in a "system" which will not run at all, is impossible without the right gear. Changing any one component at random is pointless. Not least because if you do that it might well be the last component you change that finally solves the issues. So you might just as well have changed them all to begin with. In the meantime you might well have damaged some of the new components as a result of combining them with old and possibly defective hardware.

Trying to diagnose things without a baseline and the wherewithal to do so is impossible. There is no way to know what works and what doesn't.

Trying to do so is invariably a futile endeavour.

Pointing this out to somebody who is trying it, because he is not aware of the problems involved, is of much greater help than suggesting random hardware changes.

Regards....Mike Connor

Mr. Mike I totally agree with you. Trying to tinker with a antique car/computer might be a fun hobby but not main transportation. I for one understand being tight on money. The OP has already spent money and got nothing for it. Chasing bad money with good money is a waste of money. Informing the OP of this is a service. I got lost on the cheap server.
Google

OH I have nothing against "cheap" per se, always taking into account that with many things you get what you pay for. You can build a cheap system for use as a home server quite easily and cheaply. You can do it for fifty dollars and you don't have to build anything;

Cheap NAS. Attach a USB drive to your network

There are plenty of ways to do it;

http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-home-fileserver

Building a powerful, cheap and silent Linux NAS and HTPC server | tjansson.dk

[Solved] Cheap NAS Build - New-System-Build - Homebuilt-Systems

FreeNAS | Download FreeNAS software for free at SourceForge.net

if you search the web you will find masses of information.

However, all these things presuppose that you have a system that actually works!

I suppose you could build a Rolls Royce from scrap parts if you could find them, and they weren't damaged or otherwise unserviceable, but I don't think you would actually be driving around in it any time soon! :)

Regards....Mike Connor