I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 years

[sam_sam_sam]

I have some old desktop computers that all seem to have the same exact problem

They all have at least one blown open capacitor on the mother board

One of does not have any blown open capacitors

But they all have the same problem in that it does not recognize the hard drive or the CD rom drive and the computer seems to be drawing a lot more current than I think it should

All the cmos batteries are dead and have gone back to default data and time
You can get into bio setup on all of them

What could be the problem with them and is it easy to fix

How would I go about troubleshooting this problem

The switching power supply has been recapped and all the voltages look good
except the 12 volt rail is a little low at 11.58 volts

[R_J]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

Not enough information. What type of drives sata, ide, other? do the hard drives spin up? do they show up in the bios?

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

Not enough information. What type of drives sata, ide, other? do the hard drives spin up? do they show up in the bios?

No they do not show up in bios

The hard drive feel like they spin up but not as fast as I use to the hard drive LED light does not light unless you put the jumper on cable select then it light but stay on the hole time

The cd rom drive spins but does not spin up fast the green LED light is flashing like normal

They are ide drives

[R_J]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

What is the voltage on the 4 pin molex plug going to the drives? it should be +5 and +12 volts

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

What is the voltage on the 4 pin molex plug going to the drives? it should be +5 and +12 volts

5.1something volts
11.58 volts

[R_J]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

The voltage going to the drives seems to be ok. check that the ide cable is connected properly, pin 1 on the board to pin 1 on the drive. If the cable is not keyed it can connected backwards. Pin one should be marked by a line on the cable
Are you sure the drives are working? Try loading bios defaults, Ususlly the drives should show up in the bios, even if they have issues

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

The voltage going to the drives seems to be ok. check that the ide cable is connected properly, pin 1 on the board to pin 1 on the drive. If the cable is not keyed it can connected backwards. Pin one should be marked by a line on the cable

The cable is keyed and it has a red line

Are you sure the drives are working?

No I am not sure that the hard drive work but it should still show up in bios
Unless the hard drive controller is not working correctly at all

Try loading bios defaults,

I did that a few times and did not work I also did some other ways that did not worked either

Usually the drives should show up in the bios, even if they have issues

The cd rom drive dose not even show up either

Which is making think that there is something wrong with the IDE controller

But the question is what is wrong with it and where is it on the mother board

[petehall347]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

did you set the jumpers in the drives ?

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

did you set the jumpers in the drives ?

Yes and did not make a difference

Or no jumper at all or cable select did not make any difference

On both hard drive and cd rom drive

[R_J]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

What is the motherboard make/model and who is the bios maker? This will likely help in resolving the issue.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

I will post some pictures tomorrow

[R_J]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

I will post some pictures tomorrow

Make sure to include the motherboard number in case it's not in a picture

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

Update on this computer mother board setup (model number is a IBM 8183 WGX )

The C-MOS battery was dead was the number one problem ( I did not think that you have to have a good battery to able to recognize hard drive in either IDE or SATA drives CD or Hard Drive )

The bios setup is not straightforward like what I am use to ( I am use to the bios recognizing the hard drive )
I had to use a sata hard and IDE cd rom drive for it to install Windows XP correctly

( or all of my IDE hard drive have some kind of issue that I have not figured out what this issue is
because I have a e-machine mother board that does not have a problem recognizing the IDE hard drives so what up with this crap )

To find the driver for this mother board is the biggest pain the ass IBM does not have them on there website l found them on there forum website and to unpack another pain in the ass because you first have unzip the file then you have unpack them but when you unpack them they are not in folders for the item that you want to install them you have to find the install icon and put them in a folder and put a shorted cut to make it easier to install them

Then installing the drivers another pain in the ass because this is not straight forward either the Ethernet card there are two different one that were used and to find the installation icon just about drove me MAD finding it

The chip setup installation icon was almost has hard to find

The sound card installation icon was not quite as hard to find

To find all of the installation icon you have to go into every folder to find them ( really )

I have them on a USB thumb drive so now it should not be as much as a pain in the ass the first time

One final note

I do have every device drivers installed and everything seems to work correctly the only thing I have not done yet is going on the internet with it yet

This brings to a very big question and that this what version of Windows Internet Explore do I use for this

[stj]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

dont use windows explorer.
look here:
https://get.geo.opera.com/ftp/pub/opera/
look in the "win" folder

[R_J]

Re: I have some old desktop computers that I got that been in storage for about 3 yea

If you are using windows XP , what service pack is it at? It needs to be sp3. before I would connect to the internet. You can download SP3 with another pc and place it on your usb drive and install it from there.
Right click on My Computer, Click on Properties, It will list the Service pack under General, System:

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