(OT) Computer Seems To Have Died

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Hello,

I have an old IBM Netvista. Lately, it would seem to go into sleep mode but I have all that disabled. I would have to power off to wake it up. Now I think its done. I can’t even get to the CMOS/BIOS. The power light is on but no beeps or anything spinning up.

I have two of these Netvistas and had put on away when I upgraded one of the machines. I pulled the HD from it and installed it in the other. Same thng. I’m fairly certain it was working when I updraded. I’ve swapped out monitors as well.

Power supply or hard drive, any ideas?

TIA

9 thoughts on - (OT) Computer Seems To Have Died

  • Hm. I had to retire a few 10 years old servers and a few 13 years old workstations. But they still were alive (what a shame to retire something that still works!)

    Valeri

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    Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
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  • In my book in the order of likelihood I would list the following:

    1. system board (motherboard, meaning the same, but I still consider
    “motherboard” a jargon ;-) – likely reasons: leaked electrolytic capacitors either filtering BUS leads or around CPU, or microcrack

    2. Power supply

    3. some dead expansion card – remove all you can and try to boot as minimal amount of metal as you can (swap add-on video card for another if you don’t have on board video chip). I would even disconnect whatever cables lead to front (and/or rare) panels – some short in them can cause this too.

    4. memory or cpu (main CPU in the socket 0 – the one the things boots on in multi-socket boards) re-seat memory and CPU if you didn’t try yet and try to boot again. Try to boot with minimal hardware, only one CPU, minimum RAM.

    Good luck!

    Valeri

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  • +1 as well for capacitors … I was “gifted” a NetVista ages ago and discovered leaking capacitors … plus it wasn’t acting quite right. It was properly stripped down and recycled quite some time ago.

    Same goes for the older Dell Optiplex GX260/270/280 series desktops. ;-)

    Check the board for bulging/leaking caps first. Then I’d recommend testing the power supply if you have access to a PSU
    tester (or multimeter if you know what you’re doing and are careful).

  • I don’t think John is saying that on the first day of the machine’s sixth year that thou shalt throw the machine away.

    Rather, be happy that it gave well over the 3-5 year use life you should have budgeted for from the start.

    Between the lower power draw of the replacement over its expected lifetime, the time taken to diagnose it, the parts required to fix it, and the time required to replace those parts, you’ve probably spent more than the cost of a new machine.

    That leaves out the increased productivity from running on a faster, more featureful machine.

  • Certainly, I always agree to happily get from hardware longer life – when hardware gives it.

    Luckily, I rarely have to repair machines during their life (which is almost always longer than expected life before it becomes obsolete). In part, saving on lack of need of spending time and other resources on diagnostics and repair comes in our case, as in everybody’s else, from paying slightly more initially and getting definitely very good hardware. But if the machine is obsolete, when it finally dies, everybody feels relief. But before it dies, it is getting re-purposed for easier task
    (which are always many in every server room).

    And yes, there is downside in keeping older hardware around: wasting precious server room space, power, AC. Well, there no harmony in this World ;-)

    Valeri

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  • Out of interest, I calculated a common case.

    My recollection is that 10 years ago, a typical entry-level headless server would draw about 100 watts at idle. I measured an entry level server a few months ago: it drew only about 35 watts at idle.

    Power costs about 14 cents per kWh here, so 5 years of 24/7 use comes to about US $400 in electricity alone.

    Double that during summer to account for air conditioning to remove the heat generated, with less power needed in other parts of the year, and we