Emachine back from the dead, hopefully

[eaglestrike7339]

I have an old emachine computer, that seemed to have died of the age old emachine problem: power supply shorting out.

So, i am poking around the web, and see that it has the specs to become a miniserver for my house (celeron D 330, 80gb HDD, 512 ram). I take it apart, mostly for the heck of it, and do an out of case build. To my surprise, with no HDD, CD drive, KB/M attached, it comes alive. It gives me warnings about all the detached stuff, then sets itself on trying to find bootable media.

So, i reattach the CD drive, stick in an Ubuntu linux CD i got ages ago, and poof, the Live CD pops up.

heres where it gets tricky: I attach the harddrive, and it hangs at the E (emachine logo) screen.



I know I am gonna replace something, but what?
a new PS is a given, a Sparkle PSU for 300 watts goes for $30 on newegg,
But will I need a new Mobo or simply a new HDD?

thanks you guys, any help or any responses at all will b great

:EDIT: PS, the stupid thing won't let me into BIOS.

question I am guessing I am really asking here, is that if you have a blank HDD in a computer, will it skip to the next level of boot (eg, CD) in bios?

[patio]

If there were problems with the original OS install on the HDD it could be causing the hangup.
Do you remember if Windows was OK on that HDD before ? ?

The other thing that sticks out is not being able to enter the BIOS.

When troubleshooting older machines i tend to try all the things that don't cost a lot just in case it's a lost cause.
So in this case i'd try the following:
Replace the CMOS battery...about the size of a dime on the MBoard.
Replace the IDE cable for the HDD...heck get 2 of them and put a new one on the CDRom as well.
Borrow a known good PSU and swap it in there...make sure it is the same or greater wattage.

If after all this it still won't boot or let you into the BIOS post back and we'll go from there.

p.s. I'd stay away from those $30.00 PSU's...you don't have to spend too much more to get a quality unit.

[eaglestrike7339]

I definitely assume it is the HDD, since the whole hangup started when I tried to install a variant of Linspire (freespire) and that failed. Before that, all parts were in working order.

worst case scenario, I would reuse whatever i can in a different build with mostly new parts.

Replace CMOS battery : I will see, but upon starting the Live CD it was able to get the time correct within the minute, so i doubt this is the problem.

Replace IDE cable : Will see what I can do, it is a dying technology though. They seem good, have no obvious problems or anything.

Borrow known PSU : I have not been able to find any gamers or system builders in the area, though i will ask around.

Normally, I would also stay away from $30.00 PSUs, but the brand I trust. If you have any recommendations, it would be great to hear them.

anyways, I am sure you have completed a full system build, so this is a questions I would ask of you. If you set the Boot Record to boot from an empty Harddrive, will it try to or will it go to the next in line?

[patio]

Yes...the list is a operator requested priority...if the first fails it moves to the 2nd etc.

Not sure why you want to dismiss the suggestions i posted...probably less than 15 bucks total and you've eliminated 3 possibilities which is the goal of troubleshooting.
When you say IDE is a dying technology that may be true but that's what the machine you are trying to fix has so i don't get the point...

At any rate Best of Luck and let us know.

[eaglestrike7339]

o, sorry about that. I didn't mean to sounds rude or disrespectful, but I was in fact able to get into BIOS once the HDD was unplugged (new development, not known at time of original posting). This would remove the CMOS battery theory, no? Once in BIOS, it shows that the DVD drive is indeed at the top of the list, followed by a Multimedia adapter I removed when I was taking stuff out for the out-of-case build.

swapped in IDE cables from another computer, and the other computer with those cables booted up fine.

[GX1_Man]

If the system remained plugged into the wall, and the time remained correct, that proves nothing. Unplug it overnight and see if the time is correct in the morning.

Frequently when that wonderful Bestec power supply goes out it takes other components with it - sometimes the BIOS is affected, sometimes the whole motherboard is shot, etc. I've seen this lots of times. If the BIOS has issues, there is nothing you can do to fix it short of a new motherboard.

I would try another hard drive in it next and see if it will run, perhaps even run. If it is a small 10 gig hard drive I would then install Ubuntu on that aqnd see what happens.

Let us know. Troubleshooting is a methodical approach to isolate one variable at a time. 

[Kurtiskain]

One small crazy thing to check...Are the jumper setting perhaps Master an Master?? had this problem a year back and it puzzled the heck outta me...also, try putting them both on master on seperate IDE lines CD-ROM secondary of course