BleepingComputer.com: Need Help With Old Computer

So I'm one of those guys that likes to just mess around with old computers on his spare time. My current computer has Ubuntu, so I'm not stuck in the dark ages.

Well here's my situation: My friend gave me an old Dell OptiPlex G1 computer with a 450Mhz Intel Pentium III processor, with 64MB of memory, and about a 20GB hard drive. It had Windows 98 on there originally, but I wanted to whipe it clean and start fresh for myself. So I found my Windows 98 Cd and I decided to turn on the computer so I could do what you would go about doing when installing a operating system. I have everything hooked up correctly (the only thing I have is a keyboard, mouse, and monitor hooked up to it). I turn the system on, but the monitor's ON/OFF light is orange, and i get a message on the screen with "Please check input" or whatever. I tried wiggling the wire, but still I get nothing. I've tried to restart several times last night, and a few tries at it again today after school. The hard drive's activity light flahses about a few times seconds after I press the power button, but I get no display, and the monitor's light stays orange. The computer is on, but there's no hard drive actitivy either. The hard drive can't be dead because it's obviously turning on.

Does anyone know what to do? Thanks for your time.

This post has been edited by johnnyxxxcakes: 24 September 2008 - 10:06 PM

How about a video card?

Back in those days...onboard anything was nonexistent, if memory serves me well.

Just found this: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...specs.htm,seems that it actually does have a whopping 2MB onboard video capability (from the days when 8MB cards were popular).

My guess would be that you need a video card, PCI...which are not worth the money that you would pay today, IMO.

It would probably be greater value to just buy a new motherboard/CPU combo (very inexpensive) and move forward.

Louis

Does the splash screen or the BIOS screen show? Try replacing the motherboard battery
Check for bent pins on the monitor plug

hamluis, on Sep 24 2008, 04:45 PM, said:

The computer does have an onboard video chip, which is 8MB. I could take the nVidia GeForce 4 MX out of one of the computers I have just lying around I guess. But 128MB of video memory would be a waste on an older computer like that, but whatever gets it working I guess. If I was to buy a completely new motherboard/CPU combo, that would be hard, wouldn't it? I mean, they don't even make those anymore, do they?

garmanma, on Sep 24 2008, 06:45 PM, said:

Nope, I get no splash screen, BIOS, or anything. I could try to replace the battery as well, but wouldn't that not match up with a battery I may have on another motherboard? I'll check for the bent pins as well.

Mark's suggestions were exellent...the CMOS battery should be a CR2032, a battery which is available anywhere selling camera/computer/etc. batteries. Costs less than $5, is the standard CMOS battery on many, if not most/all, desktop systems.

Louis

This post has been edited by hamluis: 25 September 2008 - 01:21 PM