found this old computer from 2006 at goodwill, doesn't have display port or hdmi, so i dug up a vga cable and its not working, the screen is completely black, what do i do? im not sure where else to ask this because none of my friends are answering me, i tried to use a vga to hdmi if thats any help, the usb ports also seem to not work either? the mouse and keyboard dont seem to do anything when plugged in to any ports im like frustrated lowkey, the thing TURNS ON, is running actively but just nothing. lights are on but no one is home it seems..ill post a photo of the back when this is up
back pic
blown caps, corrosion, whatever
use a normal vga screen don't use any adapters.when the thread gets deleted ask your favorite LLM.
>>109839377Unplug everything and try to reseat memory. While you are at it take a look at capacitors on the motherboard to see if they are bulging.
>>109839399how would i go about finding one without spending an arm and a leg LOL..>>109839404how would i do this without being able to see anything
>>109839404wait i read this wrong sorry omg. i will attempt my best anon! ill update when i unscrew everything
>>109839413Unscrew thumbscrews, take side cover off, memory modules are next to the CPU.
>>109839425shes really dusty ill have to find air later but here is her inside
>>109839377Does the keyboard and mouse lights up? [sensor for mouse, and caps lock for kb]If not, prolly failed to POST. send pic of what's inside
>>109839470no they do not light up at all, pic above is inside of her!
>>109839457wow actually a sata drive, i was expecting IDE/PATA. I think a little dusting and ram reseating would work. give it a try op
remove the bios batteryI have seen some motherboards do weird shit when the battery is so dead that it turns into basically a shortbut with no battery at all it shouldn't prevent powering up
>>109839413monitors with vga ports are typically free
>>109839457Be sure to hold the fans if you use an air compressor while dusting it out. Don't let fan spin because you can damage them at high high pressure.I see some caps and they look fine to me. Also you can try replacing the CMOS battery as well.Memory modules next to the AVC fan. I can only see the slot tabs behind the cables. There's tabs on both sides of the ram modules which you need to pull outside to push the RAM out of the socket. Plug and unplug it a couple of times. Then try turning it on.
>>109839479ill have to run to Walmart for some air to dust it which might take me a while hopefully the thread isnt gone before im back haha>>109839490what do i do with it? find a whole new one? or just remove and clean than put it back?>>109839491where?!>>109839499i plan on removing them to clean when im able to get the air for it, im gonna try to clean it out completely than remove all parts i need to
well thats the problem right there.
>>109839518just take the battery out and leave it out if you don't have a way to measure itif that helps, then you can look into buying a new cr2032 battery to replace it withthe only thing that won't work without the battery is saving any bios settings that you change, and keeping the time accurate
spins?
>>109839523LOLOL im not at my own house, this person doesnt clean often but hes helping me with certain things, its a shared home with his brother and dad who are also really messy theres way more socks under his desk too its so bad
>>109839535i dont know if the battery is the problem, ill remove it during cleaning though and try to measure for you..?>>109839536yes both the fans spin, it turns on with bo problem and runs the only problems im having are the usbs and vga not working
>>109839518might want to get some thermal paste, if you don't have some ready. Maybe find some vga monitor back at goodwill too
>>109839377impressive amount built-in options, even for that time.
>>109839568shits run with only two fans. Miss my xp pc
>>109839568it's a media centre pc, pretty popular trend in the mid-late 00's. while it literally says that on the front, what gives it away otherwise is the prominent video /inputs/ and firewire.>>109839457it's a bit hard to see from the photo, but does it have any ram?also if it doesn't have a pc speaker, try installing one so you can hear if there's any POST beeps.a vga to hdmi/dp adapter should work, though keep in mind those may require external power to work, since vga doesn't enforce providing power as standard, so ensure the adapter is powered. ideally you should test the adapter on something you know works or use a vga monitor first. it shouldn't be hard to find something like a 15" office lcd monitor for next to no cost and they all do vga. crt's may be harder to find but nobody wants old lcd monitors
>>109839479sata became common pretty quickly from 2004 onwards, i would expect at least a sata hdd in a prebuilt from 2006
>>109839457chuck a discrete gpu in there and it'd be better than the gaming pc i did in 2006 lol. couldn't afford much but i got an athlon 64 3500+ (single core), 512M ddr2 ram (got more later but had to sacrifice that initially), and a 7600GT 256M gpu. assuming that still has the sticker athlon 64 x2 4200+ and 2G ram, all it'd need is an appropriate gpu to be very decent
Update???
>>109839816im trying to figure out currently what im going to do, i dont have a micro center near me if i were to replace the battery but i might try best buy and see what they have-- im about to run to walmart to get canned air and possibly look around goodwill for a monitor thet can take the vga i apologize for taking so long i have to deal with a dog whos being dramatic ^^
>>109839885walmart or goodwill prolly have this cmos battery, just ask for button/pin battery
>>109839377My old desktop was the exact same case, except it had a Pentium 4 instead of Athlon. It had a terrible issue where it would sometimes turn on with fans at full speed but not actually do anything. Solution was to unplug it, press the power button for about 30 seconds (draining the caps) then plugging it in and trying again. Sometimes had to repeat this process 2 or 3 times to get a successful boot. It's a massive longshot since your system is fundamentally different, but might be worth a try.
>>109839885so when you turn it on, the keyboard and mouse won't light up, and you get no picture on your monitor?is that right?
>>109839902they're all CR2032 button cells, very common size and you should be able to find them anywhere that sells batteries, even supermarkets
>>109839981ps. by size i mean the 2032 refers to 20mm in diameter and 3.2mm in thickness (the CR refers to the chemistry, specifically a lithium primary cell)
Hey OP, currently rocking a gen-1 Celeron machine with DOS. If you are getting no on-board video, it's entirely possible the onboard graphics shit itself. Try plugging any old PCIe video card you may have laying around into that slot, and see if you can get video out of that. If that fails, it's possible the CPU has died. Power on but no video at all can often be a dead CPU. No CPU, no POST.
>>109840092Oh, and if you do end up having to replace the CPU, go ahead and replace the fan or entire cooler, those fans don't last forever. Also you can expect those CD/DVD drives to crap out sooner or later, just FYI. Anything with moving parts is a ticking time bomb on old PC's.
>>109839975yes>>109839902i will look if it becomes a problem! currently i have to save money for gas lolol, ill probably look tomorrow if it:)!!ps monitor and duster found!
>>109839518>what do i do with itput it in your butt.it's how you mine buttcoins.
That HP tower series was my first dual core system. I remember how nice it was to not hear my audio skip each time I loaded a new page or something. XP Media Center Edition was a good experience as well.These days it's sadly just DDR2 e-waste. Unless you mean to fart around with Loonix. Lot of old components in there. These keyboards came with them.
>>109840102If the keyboard, and mouse won't light up when you turn the power on, and you're not getting a picture on the monitor, maybe it's a power issue?
>>109839377Disassemble the whole fucking thing and clean it, including the insides of all the ports. Replace the PSU and make sure the power switch is functional. If you don't get to POST after that then you need to replace bad components (probably electrolytic caps) on the motherboard.
>>109839377tranny
>>109840159If it was a power issue, his PSU wouldn't even spin up. The mobo lighting up but no video points to dead on-board video or dead CPU.
>>109840195A PC can still light up with a failed/failing PSU.
where do i start taking it apart first?
>>109840202And a bad RAM stick can pass every test you throw at it, but still cause an actual OS to crash out. It's not likely, but I've seen it happen. But I'd still wager the GPU or CPU to be at fault here if the PSU is still spinning up and the mobo is still lighting up.
>109840176What could possibly earn this response to OP's post? Is it a bot?
>>109840229Remove that light blue plastic part holding the HDD caddy in place, then remove the HDD caddy. You'll be able to access the RAM under that. Remove the RAM and put it back in, remount HDD caddy, plug in and test.
>>109840232Honestly, it could be a lot of shit. That's an old box. I would just strip everything down to barebones and replace the PSU to bench test it.
>>109840237omg haiiii faggot (>_<)
>>109840251The reason I'm inclined to believe the CPU/GPU is bad and not the PSU is the current PSU in my old Celeron machine was harvested from an Athlon machine where the PSU would spin up, but I was getting a black screen.
>>109840250i literally dont understand how to take it off, ive tried unscrewing around it and they literally wont unscrew, i feel weak ans retarded for this honestly, i tried just pulling or lifting it as well and still no budge.
genuinely crazy build up behind this fan.
you need to be 18 to post here
>>109839377>i tried to use a vga to hdmiThose cables explicitly only work one way: HDMI input -> VGA output. Use an actual VGA-VGA cable on an actual VGA monitor.
>>109839377reminder that there are modern 2024+ computers that cant do most of this
>>109840410there are vga to hdmi adapters, they are of course not the same as hdmi to vga adapters. can't really mistake one for the other since the genders are swapped
there are three fans in it, it still turns on and runs, fans running and lights are on, vga is connected to the TV monitor, but still nothing, its freshly cleaned to the best of my abilities as of right now since i havent gotten any of the screws to move and i dont want to strip them.
>>109840508Remove both expansion cards and unplug power to the optical drives then try again.
>>109839377If it's not even POSTing, remove the CMOS battery and try to plug it in, then you can figure it out. Install gentoo or some shit.
>>109840508pc screws are very standardised, for just about every part it's going to be a #6-32 or an M3, not hard to replace if you manage to strip one
>>109840300Try lifting that big blue tab in the center of it, and sliding it towards the PSU. Or sliding it towards the bottom of the case. I'm pretty sure you have to lift that tab and slide it one way or another.
