Yet another query from a dimbo

[tonysmith1929]

I recently tried to help a local widow with a cooked PC.
The PSU was well cooked, gooey stuff everywhere,

Got a newmatching PSU and fitted it. Power restored to CPU fan, and light on switch, but no life anywhere else, like HD.

Was able to return PSU for refund.
Query is, is there any way I can check/test the HD, possibly by hitching it up outside my own PC ??
If shown to be OK, could it be put in ,with OS etc intact, to my old PC with Win 98se which I have given her to get on with. Cooked PC was XP.......
Any suggestions gratefully accepted, even from the Aussie heathens !!!!!

[Chewy]

There's a high probability when the power supply dies something happened that "fried" a lot of other components, I have wasted a lot of time on similar scenarios, the last time the hard drive and cd/dvd-rom and ram was about all that survived

I have had a bad hard drive that would blow power supplies tho, procede with caution

Best option is inspect the motherboard closely if you see any evidence of a voltage surge pitch it all and don't waste any time or damaging any other parts from another computer

check and make sure there's resistance accross the power leads for the hard drive, if there's a short between the 12v or 5v and ground, pitch the damn thing

sounds like the mobo and cpu are bad?

if you don't have a volt meter or understand how to use one then it's best to forget about the fix

speaking about that, I need to replace my fuse in mine since my son blew it checking resistance on a hot circuit

[tonysmith1929]

yet another query

Thanks Chewey. No sighn of anything on mobo. Will check hd with multimeter. Thanks......

[blutach]

You could just take the HD out of the fried machine and pop it on a spare IDE channel in the new one. See if it fires up.

Regards

[katzdvd]

No sighn of anything on mobo.

Make sure you look closely, especially at the capacitors; The tall "Can" looking things. The tops may be slightly bulged or even broken open, worst case scenario.

[Chewy]

if you do try and run the windows xp hard drive as the boot system drive after verifying it's ok as a slave or secondary drive, then expect some driver issues

usually you have to at least run the windows xp cd as a repair disk from cd boot

of course with an old 98 computer it's quite possible it will plug and play

[tonysmith1929]

Another question

Thanks Blu,Chewey,Katz. Cant run XP disc, as dont have one. The 'old' machine came with its own backup discs which only work on that machine. My own HP is the same.

[Chewy]

you should be able to load drivers from safe mode if it will boot up with that hardware

[tonysmith1929]

Another question

Thanks Chewey, Dont know what we would do without you all.

Re makers backup discs. Surely, as these are legal copies there should be some way to extract XP from them when a machine dies. I know my own HP has a partition for recovery, but if HD goes it aint any good !!!!

[Chewy]

let me clue in on a little trade secret, it's the oem numbers that are important, I reloaded a lady's dell with the generic oem xp home w/sp2 disk and just used her numbers

it was all the dell crap that had screwed her computer up, I wasn't going to reload that stuff

disks and cab files are a dime a dozen, the liscense and certificate of authenticity w/ numbers are what's valuable

[tonysmith1929]

Dimbo

Very interesting, thanks Chewey. Will try it when I get next chance.....

[tonysmith1929]

another query

Re Cheweys last note. I now have the oem numbers, and the PC number, both conveniently stuck to the PC and recovery discs. Which am I likely to need to reinstall on another PC. Note. This is NOT a pirating question. Same owner using a different PC after original cooked/died. Thanks.

[Chewy]

legally we are in a grey area, MS says all oem stays with the original machine, but define the original machine? If it works and you are only running one copy on one machine I would think that you are OK, my experiment validated and updated fine

[tonysmith1929]

another question

Thanks a lot. You must sit there all day and night to reply so quick....Will advise results at later date..... Cheers again.

[tonysmith1929]

Have at last been able to check this...!2v side has 8 ohms resistance,5v side is 3 ohm....
Sound safe ?????