Amptron nightmare (Shall I blow it up?)

[bluewest11]

My brother asked me if I would take a look at his girlfriends computer before he returns to uni this September. I was told all that needed doing was to format C and reinstall Windows 98SE because it was running a little slow. So I agreed to this 30 minute job. The computer was brought to me and I was shocked to see the condition it was in. There were no screws in the case, the case was filthy, there was a big hole in the front were a CD ROM or Writer should be. I brought the computer to my work room and decided to give it a run. I romoved the case to take a look inside only you find to my horror it contained the worst possible motherboard that could ever have been installed. It's either an Amptron or PC CHIPS all in one piece of s*#t. Who ever manufactured this board was too ashamed to leave their company name or logo on it. There was no drivers disk with the computer (he said he had lost it) or manual. There was so much dust inside the case and all over the components you could grow potatoes in there and wires all over the place. I plugged in my monitor and mouse and keyboard and proceded to give it a test run and surprise surprise the HD had errors and the boot sector was knackered. I used a win98 boot floppy and reinstalled Win98SE over the existing files which eventually got the thing working after scandisk fixed the errors. I then proceded to locate all the necessary drivers which did not take too long thanks to this brilliant site. Now, I knew I could not leave the inside of the box in the disgusting state it was in so I took the box back downstairs to clean it up. I removed the CPU fan to blow out all the dirt and dust and proceded to vaccume everything else with a Dyson vaccume cleaner. The computer now looks brandnew, I even cleaned all the sludge of the 64meg stick of memory. Only problem now is the damn thing wont boot. The power comes on and the lights flash and the CPU fan begins to spin but nothing comes up on the monitor. The bloody thing WILL NOT BOOT, not even into bios, the monitor does not kickin at all. I have tried a different memory stick and checked all the connections but nothing happens. There is nothing wrong with the monitor as I am using now on my computer. Is there any body out there who can assist me with this problem. I have had enough for today and will try again tomorrow, my head is hurting. Any input regarding this matter will be greatly recieved. Thanks for your time with this post.

[bluewest11]

PS: I have tried re-setting the BIOS.

[charlescpu]

Hum...maybe it's just the power supply!

Had the same problem one day. Maybe you should ask to your brother's girlfriend if the computer made a big "BOOM" and just closed one time.

This is probably the power supply if this is right.

Also you should try a new motherboard because when it's cheap, you pay for the cheapest part and the chip often burn.

So, good luck!

[JungleMan1]

Amptron is PC Chips under a different name.

From what I'm reading, it appears as if you have on board video, the video probably went bad. I was working on a friend's computer a few days ago and it wouldn't display anything, turns out the mobo is shot and he needs a new one because it has onboard video.

yes blow it up, or throw a PCI video card in there and sell it to some AOL-using 10 year old girl in a colored case with substandard parts, and tell her it's a new iMac

Get a quality made Epox, Gigabyte, Asus, or one of many other good manufacturers' products. What CPU type does it use? Slot A? Socket A? Socket 370? We can recommend a good replacement...

[bluewest11]

[quote]Originally posted by charlescpu:
<strong>Hum...maybe it's just the power supply!

Had the same problem one day. Maybe you should ask to your brother's girlfriend if the computer made a big "BOOM" and just closed one time.

This is probably the power supply if this is right.

Also you should try a new motherboard because when it's cheap, you pay for the cheapest part and the chip often burn.

So, good luck!</strong><hr></blockquote>

I had the thing working before I cleaned it up. There is power because all the lights flash and the fans are working. Its just not activating the monitor now. Nothing at all shows up on screen. Maybe it would have been better for me if the damn thing had gone BOOM! before it arrived here.

[bluewest11]

[quote]Originally posted by JungleMan:
<strong>Amptron is PC Chips under a different name.

From what I'm reading, it appears as if you have on board video, the video probably went bad. I was working on a friend's computer a few days ago and it wouldn't display anything, turns out the mobo is shot and he needs a new one because it has onboard video.

yes blow it up, or throw a PCI video card in there and sell it to some AOL-using 10 year old girl in a colored case with substandard parts, and tell her it's a new iMac

Get a quality made Epox, Gigabyte, Asus, or one of many other good manufacturers' products. What CPU type does it use? Slot A? Socket A? Socket 370? We can recommend a good replacement... </strong><hr></blockquote>

I forgot to mention that there is a voodoo 2 PCI graphics card installed but I have tried removing it and using the on-board but neither seems to work. This guy has been using the computer assuming that the voodoo card was being used as primary display adaptor but there were only SiS 530 VGA drivers listed in device manager under display so I assume he has never benefited from the voodoo 2 upgrade. There is no option to disable on-board graphics in bios nor any jumpers on the board to disable on-board graphics according to the manual. You can only choose PCI or AGP in bios as primary display adaptor. Never the less, I cannot even get into bios at this time for a mess around.

[bluewest11]

Here is the boards spec:

S7 with a K62-450 processor

SiS 530/5595 chipset.
Onboard 64-bit graphics accelerator.
Onboard 10/100 Base-T Ethernet adapter.
Onboard V.90 HSP 56K Voice/Data/Fax modem.
Onboard 3D Surround Sound system.
Integrated hardware monitoring circuit.
Advanced ATX power management with support for Wake on LAN, Wake on Modem, Wake on RTC and keyboard power controls.
100/66 MHz FSB for the latest socket-7 processors.
100% Linux compatible (Linux drivers available).
Baby ATX form-factor.
Onboard Serial, Parallel, USB, PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, Microphone, Line-in, Line-Out, and VGA ports.


I'll bet you are all drooling now!

[JungleMan1]

did you try an AGP card? I see you mentioned PCI and onboard but not AGP.

[geeksRus]

you blew a ton of dust and dirt around in the case and now it won't boot...yank all connections to the board and clean all contacts...pull the CPU and blow out the CPU socket...use new drive cables if you have em.
good luck!

[Anna]

Its possible during cleaning that you may have knocked some of the jumpers off like maybe the CMOS jumper.

Also check that all the cables etc are plugged in snug.

Good Luck

[bluewest11]

There is no AGP socket to try an AGP card, the boards AGP capabilities are only on-board. There are only two PCI slots and one ISA slot on this marvelous board.

I will strip the whole thing down again later today and do as suggested regarding cleaning all the connectors and check the processor and socket for any dust that may have eluded my powerful vaccume cleaner. I cannot understand how any computer can end up as filthy as this one was. I have never sealed up a box before to prevent dirt and dust escaping from inside the case before like I had to do with this one when I first inspected it on its arrival. ARRRRGHH, some people aren't fit to own a computer.

[bluewest11]

[quote]Originally posted by Anna:
<strong>Its possible during cleaning that you may have knocked some of the jumpers off like maybe the CMOS jumper.

Also check that all the cables etc are plugged in snug.

Good Luck </strong><hr></blockquote>

I suppose there is the possibilty that I may have accedently done something with the vaccume cleaner. I will check everything when I strip it down later today. I have a special vaccume cleaner designed for computer maintenance but it would have been quite useless for this job, only the Dyson carpet vaccume was upto this very dirty job.

[bluewest11]

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate PC CHIPS for being the first ever MB manufacturer to make a MB I cannot get to work! Keep up the bad work PC CHIPS and I hope you have very few years left before you go bust! Good riddance and I will never accept a job again if it entails working on the s#*t you manufacture.


Thanks to those who offered suggestions with this post!

[orange]

Oh these integrated boards are just great aren't they! Ok, i've always found that the ram sockets on these POS boards cause loads of problems - try the mem in a different socket, or remove and refit it to its current socket several times to try and ensure a good contact. Make sure you disconnect and remove everything except the ATX power supply loom, the soft power switch and the memory. Make sure the RESET switch is not jammed in. If your still getting no display then its either bad PSU, bad memory, bad CPU or bad board. May be wise to try removing the mobo and running it out of the case, perhaps your cleaning spree moved something behind the mobo that is causing a short.

P.S. The Voodoo2 card is a 3D card only, it has no 2D capabilities so disabling the onboard gfx wouldn't prove anything.

[bluewest11]

[quote]Originally posted by orange:
<strong>Oh these integrated boards are just great aren't they! Ok, i've always found that the ram sockets on these POS boards cause loads of problems - try the mem in a different socket, or remove and refit it to its current socket several times to try and ensure a good contact. Make sure you disconnect and remove everything except the ATX power supply loom, the soft power switch and the memory. Make sure the RESET switch is not jammed in. If your still getting no display then its either bad PSU, bad memory, bad CPU or bad board. May be wise to try removing the mobo and running it out of the case, perhaps your cleaning spree moved something behind the mobo that is causing a short.

P.S. The Voodoo2 card is a 3D card only, it has no 2D capabilities so disabling the onboard gfx wouldn't prove anything.</strong><hr></blockquote>


I'll take note of what you suggest orange and give it one last go tomorrow before I order the dynamite . I think the bloody thing was held together by dust and dirt or maybe I sucked up the MB and left all the s#*t in the box, Who can tell the difference when it involves PC CHIPS???

Thanks for your time with my post!