Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!brunix!djp
From: djp@cs.brown.edu (Abdullah The Butcher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Mom's PC Died
Message-ID: <44260@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 1 Jul 90 00:17:22 GMT
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: djp@cs.brown.edu (Abdullah The Butcher)
Distribution: na
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 43

Hey folks. . .
    I am new to this group, but since my mother's pc just died and I
have not been able to figure anything out, I figure this would be a
good time to start following it.  Here's the deal:
Hardware is: IBM PC/2 (256k mother board), replaced power supply
(150W), EGA card, Enhanced Color Monitor, the original floppy
controller, 360k drive in right bay, 15M hard drive from Hardtimes in
the left drive, hard drive controller that came with the hard drive,
256k on mother board, additional 256k board to bring it to 512k,
parallel printer adapter.

Syptoms are:  in the middle of working on a lotus worksheet,
everything hung.  The computer has had sporadic problems on startup -
sometimes it just wouldn't boot until it was switched off and back on.
Once everything hung, mom gave up and turned it off.  Since then, it
will not boot.  Period.  From floppy or hard disk.  When it is turned
on, the hard drive led flashes, the led on the hard drive controller
card flashes, the power supply seems to kick in (the fan spins), but
it just never tries to read from either drive.  The screen simply
shows white static.

Things I tried:  it reeked of hard drive controller problems to me, so
I reseated the card.  Nothing.  I pulled it, hoping to boot from the
floppy.  Nothing.  Getting very annoyed, I pulled both drive
controllers, hoping to at least get the monitor to turn black and give
me an error number.  Nothing.

So, I am left thinking it may be 1) a lame power supply that just
isn't doing the job. 2) some problem with the drive cables (not
likely, but it would be a nice cheap solution :-) ).  3) a problem
with the (gulp) mother board somewhere.  Since seems somewhat likely
since I never get through a boot sequence.  

All the same, I am very open to suggestions.  What else might it be?
What other tests might I try to diagnose this?  I will pull boards,
flip switches, etc., all night, but I can't logic probe/solder/do
other board/chip level maintenance.  So please, help!!  Mom is
panicking.  It is pretty important, so answers to me personally would
probably work best.

					Thanks!!!
						Dave Pawson
						djp@cs.brown.edu