Dead computer help.

from GalCiv3 Forums

Per title one of my desk top puters is dead.

What happened is I left it with no electricity to the unit (turned off the surge protector).

I could be mistaken, but believe it is a dead battery the one that keeps the clock going when unplugged, if there is even one in it.

What I need is advice on how if possible to get this computer back up and running.

It has one and only one game on it that I wish to play but the came needs the CD player to run and I am just not good enough on puters to jump through all the hoops to get it to work.

It is a game from 95-96

personal computing
70,885 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

I'm guessing it no longer sees a hard drive? CMOS battery dead on an old motherboard?

If that is the problem you need to figure out how to interrupt the boot sequence (what key combo to enter as it starts to boot).

Once in CMOS you need to reset the hard drive settings if they are lost, but if they 'see' the hard drive already don't touch them :).

Anyway I'd search the net for the info on setting up a hard drive in cmos/bios on your brand of motherboard/computer. If it is so old that bios lacks autodetect, you will also need the info about the hard drive (C/H/S/ (cylinder head sectors), etc, but that is going back awhile. If it is all original you should be ok.

All that said this might not be the issue, but it was a common problem in the 90's.

**** Caution, I haven't worked on an old rig in decades, and my A+ cert expired over 20 years ago :). 

Good luck

 

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

What brand/model? Did you shut it down before turning off the power to it? Have you tried supplying power and then just turning it on?

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

DrJBHL - If gypsy has another desk top with a compatible empty Hard Drive slot, couldn't he just pull the hard drive out and install in the other computer as a secondary drive.  Pretty sure he could get the new computer to play the game. 

Reply #4 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting zichella1, reply 1

I'm guessing it no longer sees a hard drive? CMOS battery dead on an old motherboard?

If that is the problem you need to figure out how to interrupt the boot sequence (what key combo to enter as it starts to boot).

Once in CMOS you need to reset the hard drive settings if they are lost, but if they 'see' the hard drive already don't touch them :) .

Anyway I'd search the net for the info on setting up a hard drive in cmos/bios on your brand of motherboard/computer. If it is so old that bios lacks autodetect, you will also need the info about the hard drive (C/H/S/ (cylinder head sectors), etc, but that is going back awhile. If it is all original you should be ok.

All that said this might not be the issue, but it was a common problem in the 90's.

**** Caution, I haven't worked on an old rig in decades, and my A+ cert expired over 20 years ago :) . 

Good luck

 
Believe it is CMOS battery puter will not boot

Reply #5 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting DrJBHL, reply 2

What brand/model? Did you shut it down before turning off the power to it? Have you tried supplying power and then just turning it on?
 

It was off and yes I did resupply power to it will not boot.

Reply #6 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting scifi1950, reply 3

DrJBHL - If gypsy has another desk top with a compatible empty Hard Drive slot, couldn't he just pull the hard drive out and install in the other computer as a secondary drive.  Pretty sure he could get the new computer to play the game. 

Thought of that have an external drive but would then have my drive and CD player both needed for the game on USB as I also have my mouse and keyboard on USB am running out of ports. Add that I have no place to set both the CD and Hard drive.......

Really need to know if you think if I went to a puter repair they could get it to run. I ask because it is 100 miles round trip to the nearest puter guys. 

Reply #7 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Do you get a post? Does it display some info on the screen when you turn it on? 

If you get post, watch the screen and it might say something like 'hit F4/F8 to enter bios' or some other key /combo. 

Or is it making noise / powering up but not putting anything on the screen? If so just to make sure, is the monitor working and powered on prior to you trying to boot the computer? 

 

Reply #8 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

There used to be a program for windows called something like 'CD virtual drive', not sure if it is around anymore.

The concept was you could copy a cd to a virtual drive that would act like a cd reader. Once you copy the cd onto the virtual drive/ hard drive, you would not need the physical cd reader plugged in any more.

Anyway I'll drop off now. Sounds like you are getting help.

Reply #9 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Last thing, if you just need more usb ports, and throughput/speed is not an issue, you might be able to use a USB Hub. You should be able to get a 4-8 port hub fairly cheap from Amazon, rather than driving 100 miles. 

Reply #10 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting zichella1, reply 9

Last thing, if you just need more usb ports, and throughput/speed is not an issue, you might be able to use a USB Hub. You should be able to get a 4-8 port hub fairly cheap from Amazon, rather than driving 100 miles. 

Problem is space with USB no place to put externals. 

As for driving I have to drive further to the nearest Wally World. 

And the best of the grocery stores in my area is the same.

The driving does not bother me and I will call the repair guy first just wanted to get an idea if fixing it was doable.

Thanks for the input, all of you.

Reply #11 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

The puter has a patch on it that is crucial and hard to find or else I would just try to run a game from 95 on win10.

There is a way to DL the game, but it is so far above my skills Mt Everest would be an mole hill.

Still would not have the patch though.

As said thanks for the advice.