!!!i Need Help!!!!

atvrdan · 03-05-2006, 12:33 PM

Ok, to start with sorrry if this is in the wrong forum. Now with my story. My friend had a Dell and it died on him. He gave it to me and im trying to fix it but if i cant im just going to take the HDD and the Ram out of it and put it into my computer. The problem with my friends computer is when you plug it in and push power absolutly nothing happens. No fans come on or anything. I know that its getting power though because a little light comes on on the motherboard. Does anyone have any ideas as to what it would be? He said that one day he turned it off and the next day he tried to turn it on and it didnt do anything. I know that its kinda vague so if you have any questions just ask. It is a realitivly new computer (about 1 year old).

Now my second question. If i take off the HDD it has an operating system and everything on it. If i just put that in my computer as a secondary drive what will happen? Also what will it take to add this second HDD? do i need to buy anything extra such as cables or any wires or something? ALso if i have 2 different types of ram will they work together? They ram in my computer right now is RAm bus or something i think and its supposed to be alot faster than any other kind of ram. The ram i was going to put inside my computer is DDR 400

Nitestick · 03-05-2006, 12:49 PM

to me it sounds like the power supply is half dead. lights on the motherboard do not mean it is functioning correctly. if its not the power supply then it is probably the motherboard. sorry to tell you about the rambus ram (a.k.a RD RAM), you got suckered by Intel's marketing department. if you have one of the old P4's with RDRAM then your stuck with RDRAM sorry. the hdd will work if it is IDE because (i'm not 100% sure) that SATA was never on any of the RDRAM motheboards. if it is IDE then as long as you have no more than 4 drives (as in total of hard drives+cd drives) you should be able to connect it to a cable already in your case.

Biggie578 · 03-05-2006, 12:55 PM

Just b/c the light is on, dosent mean that the psu is giving enough power to the system. Mabey the psu died but there is still a tiny amnt of power going thru it for the light. This auctually happened to me, the psu would boot the pc for 1/2 sec, then it would shutoff cuz there was not enough power. Try replacing the psu and see if it works.

To use the HDD, u will need an IDE cable if you have your CDROM and existing HDD on the same ide chain. If they are not, u can add it as a slave to either chain, make sure to set the jumper. It will be seen as a hdd in windows with all the same files n everything, just make sure taht your orig hdd is set to boot from first.

And as long the RAM is the same type (most likley 184 pin DIMM DDR SDRAM) they will both work, however, all sticks will run as fast as the slowest stick. Example; I have a stick of DDR 400 RAM and i add a stick of DDR 266, both will run at 266 speed.
How to identify your RAM.
http://www.dewassoc.com/performance/..._ID_memory.htm
Good luck witjh your problem.
P.S. Make an informative title next time

atvrdan · 03-05-2006, 01:03 PM

Ok thanks. Yes, i got my computer right as p4's were coming out so it is one of the older P4's. If i put the other sticks of ddr 400 in and theyre not compatibal will it fry it? Is it worth risking to put to other sticks of ram in to see if they work? ALso i could, in theory, boot from the 2nd hdd to see whats on couldnt I?

atvrdan · 03-05-2006, 01:06 PM

also what is the PSU? Is that the main power supply box where you plug the cord into the back of the computer?

and i have 2CDROM drives, one hdd, and a floppy. Does the floppy count as a drive or not?

Nitestick · 03-05-2006, 01:07 PM

don't bother. if you have RDRAM then the memory slots on the motherboard don't even have the same number of pins as DDR ram. they are incompatable

atvrdan · 03-05-2006, 01:21 PM

ooo alright. Also i dont guess that a PSU from a computer made 10 years ago would work with the one i'm trying to fix would it? The computer im trying to fix is a P4 but i dont know what speed, it just has the sticker on the case.

and you dont think the motherboard is fryed do you? Is there any way to tell?

Nitestick · 03-05-2006, 01:37 PM

no it will not. current psu's are called ATX power supplies. 10 years ago it was a standard called AT which was replaced with ATX around about 97 or 98 i think.

atvrdan · 03-05-2006, 01:54 PM

One more question, If i put the hdd from the broken dell into my gateway can i lay the hdd just in the bottom of the case if there arent any slots to mount it? It wont hurt anything will it?

Nitestick · 03-05-2006, 02:04 PM

i wouldn't do that for anything more than a solution while testing the drive. there are circuits on the bottom of most drives and they could short out against the case. if you have a spare cd drive bay you can get adapters to mount a hdd in one

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