Boat anchor

Hi ImnoGuru

I totally get time = money, but I have more time than money.  I just want my data.  I don't think I need a new box, just a way to get it's other hard drive bootable.  I have a network card that connects to the Linux box, so I'll try to see if I can coax it into responding to the Linux, and hopefully run a few DOS operations remotely.  By the way, the power button is working properly again, so all that cleaning must have done something.  But it still won't boot, and still won't look at the floppy drive.

Still, I want to save the machine if I can.  I'm so used to it that I can do more faster than on any other.  It makes the laser printer sing and dance like none of the others can.   The system evolved over the years to undo interferences between programs, snip out messes in the registry, and I still have a few items of old email that I wanted to save, but after I upgraded from Win95  to Win98, they couldn't be opened any more.   No program has ever, not ever, not even once, done what it had promised to do when I bought it, and I've learned to get along with what was do-able.  I really don't want to go through all that again.

D
 

I can see what you mean by that too.(I just want my data.) 

Have you tried to remove the connections from the drive yet, and boot, F2 or Del to get into the BIOS.
You might be able to reset the Bios to boot from A:, (if A: actually works) or replace A: with another that does work.
Can you add you damaged computers drive to the Linux as a slave? You can change the jumpers on the drive to make it the slave.

Have you tried removing cables from the Mobo and replace them with different ones?

Swap the battery for a new battery on the Mother Board, from memory they are a CR-2032, 3 volt flat disc battery.
Actually here is one that I had, was faulty. The encrustation on the edge made a bad contact. I scraped off the residue and cleaned the mother board with a nail file tip and it worked.... Needless to say it has since been replaced.

Your other machines, do they have a CD Drive in them that might be used... (even if its not a burner, you just want one that works at this stage.)
Well lets see where all that takes us Darbak.

Good Luck.

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Yes, I've tried disconnecting one thing at a time, and all but one at a time ... no joy.  Tried the keypresses from the Norton Utilities book, which didn't included DEL ... I'll try that.

Drive A might or might not work -- the light doesn't blink.  Could mean the light is dead, or the drive is dead, or the CMOS (?) isn't calling it.  I think a floppy drive is simple enough that I could swap it out, which is on the list of things to try.  Pretty sure swapping hard drives is more complicated and the potential for damage is greater.  I disconnected both hard drives hoping it would default to the floppy, didn't.

Changing jumpers to slave the computer to the Linux is beyond my technical skills.  I can check other boxes to see if the wiring is similar enough to use.  I have a crossover cable to connect the two network cards, but I've never had need to use it so I don't know how.  Sent a not to a Linux expert to see if it's feasible and maybe get instructions.

I did change the battery a couple of days ago, which made no difference.  I'm getting more and more sure the hard drive is stuck -- on a normal boot it blinks and runs, blinks and runs.  Now it's on steady, and I can feel the drive buzzing.  Maybe I'll try the freezer trick. 

Even if I get nowhere, there are data recovery experts I can pay to work this out.  My philosophy is to never pay anybody to fix anything until I've given my best effort to fix it myself.  That saves me money about half the time -- I know the guts of my washer and dryer really well now, and once I found myself with two dead trucks.  With a little help, I got one transfer case rebuilt and two new gears in the other, and they both worked fine for years.  It's just so *censored* much fun!  Toaster ovens, clocks, yadda yadda.


Darbak

Yep sounds like a real farmer to me..

When I was on the land in the upper part of Australia, and there are no people for a few Klms and town is a 30 minute drive, you get these times that you just want to fix it.

I like that philosophy, basically, it boils down to,
"if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and if it is broke, fix it as cheaply as possible"


For ones investment of Time they get extra money. seems like a fair trade to me.

I knew you'd get it.  The other thing is that there is more and more lying these days about competence.  I had a guy sit and stare at my furnace for half an hour, without even touching it, and decided I needed a new gas valve ($300).  I was moaning about this to my Dad, who said to go to a hardware and buy a little $4 doohickus which was easy to install myself.  It worked, but I had to pay the moron anyway because that's the law in this country. 

I had a hired man last year helping me with doors -- he didn't know how to use tools and broke the door jamb -- snapped off a triangle three feet long.  Fired him, fixed the jamb, and carried on.  But I still had to pay him.

Anyway, whenever something goes out of my hands, especially something that matters (like MY DATA), I worry that it's going to a moron who is using it as a learner project.  You only have to know a half dozen specialist terms to convince a customer you're an expert.  Then they say the total failure is your fault for having fiddled with it instead of bringing it in right away.  You just never know.   But you still have to pay. 

Darbak

a mechanical box

Restoring a box is easy!
Just buy a similar used system that is working...

......and swap out the case!     

I knew you'd get it.  The other thing is that there is more and more lying these days about competence.  I had a guy sit and stare at my furnace for half an hour, without even touching it, and decided I needed a new gas valve ($300).  I was moaning about this to my Dad, who said to go to a hardware and buy a little $4 doohickus which was easy to install myself.  It worked, but I had to pay the moron anyway because that's the law in this country. 

I had a hired man last year helping me with doors -- he didn't know how to use tools and broke the door jamb -- snapped off a triangle three feet long.  Fired him, fixed the jamb, and carried on.  But I still had to pay him.

Anyway, whenever something goes out of my hands, especially something that matters (like MY DATA), I worry that it's going to a moron who is using it as a learner project.  You only have to know a half dozen specialist terms to convince a customer you're an expert.  Then they say the total failure is your fault for having fiddled with it instead of bringing it in right away.  You just never know.   But you still have to pay. 

Darbak

This type of deceit happens in almost all industries- the same thing with programming and such.

As an example there was a job listing for a programming position, that stated "must have at least 5 years experience with .NET".

oddly- .NET was released only a year before that. Not sure how somebody can acquire those four years when it didn't exist...


Like you said, they pretty much use big, but generally meaningless words to try to confuse the customer into thinking there is no way they can fix it themselves. And half the time, they simply reformat the PC.

There are some good ones out  there- but it's tough for them to compete with the less honest types, the ones who have no scruples charging for a copy of windows and then installing a pirated copy. (after all, it will be the customer's fault).


Definitely agree with the last part too. The part that is so annoying is the law pretty much rewards incompetence by letting them get paid for doing nothing.

Sorry I haven't been around for a couple of days... It was one of those rare occassions that I had some work to do.   ( Im exhausted.. I think I'll take a few months off now to recover. )

I'm sure we could all talk about the time/s we've been ripped off with these type of situations. It happens time and time again, doesnt it? 

Well back to your situation, I've run out of ideas for the minute.
It's a shame that all this effort has not delivered even the smallest glimmer of improvement.
Maybe if someone else has some ideas they might join in. 

Thanks guys ... well, at least for the parts I could read. 

I'm whacked, too -- spring on the farm is always crazy, and the new hired man has a big job elsewhere coming up so he wants to get as much done around here as he can.  What makes me tired is that I work alongside him -- with a helper, he gets eight hours work done in only four, and gets it done the way I wanted it so I don't have to pay him to try again. 

The boat anchor project I think is pretty much on hold for a while, until (as you say) bright ideas come in from this source or another.  I'll just have to be patient.

Yep a bit of rain and a bit of sun and then comes hours of fun, on the slasher.

Well Darbak.. We tried. 
Maybe someone else might have a look and have a fresh idea for you.

Good Luck. ImnoGuru.