Well 2nd attempt at getting HP system running... Failed!

[Shyguy]

Well It has got to be one of two things, either PSU is dead or teh power switch in front is broke.

I tried 2 differnt Power cords, took the board out of system, & reseated every cable & both PC100 DIMMS, put it back together & even several outlets, no go.

So now, tommorrow I have to see about taking it back to Computer Renaissance & explain to him what the problem is & see if they will do anything about it, I have a 3 month parts & labor warranty on it, so they should replace the PSU, but?

about a week & a half ago I came in there & explained to the store manager what the issue was. I actually told him I'm having problems with it not starting, but i have to try several more things before I bring it in, then I told him that I think teh PSU is dead. well the first thing he said was that it was working fine when they got it in & it was fine when they tested it & put it on display on the sales floor, & then continued to ask me what I did to it. I told him that I simply put it in my car on day of purchase, drove home & put it under my desk, it wasn't bumped, jostled, dropped or anything, I waited several days before I was able to get around to running it. I then opened the case, took out teh 56K modem & put in my NIC, then put the case cover back on, & went to make sure it was selected to 115V & not 230, plugged it in & would not turn on, I pushed the switch several times & it would not come on, no sound, nothing. No crackles, no pops, no sizling sounds, no whirring nothing, sounded the same plugged in as it does unplugged, I had to say that to clarify to him, but he insisted that I had to of done something to it. I told him no I didn't. I think part of teh reason he kept saying that is becasue I had mentioned I wanted to upgrade it when I got it home, by putting in a faster CPU & stuff, but I hadn't even gotten that far, just the NIC. SO he tells me that a new PSU for one of those usually costs around $50, & told me I can bring it in & have it checked out & see if there is something wrong. Which I will do, but as far as I'm concerned the thing is still covered under the 90 day warranty & if the PSU is DOA they should be replacing it for free, besides its a small PSU for a HP mini-tower, & mATX/FlexATX board, & they don't cost no $50, not when I can get a 300+watt name brand PSU for that much. I was just ticked that he kept insinuating that I had done something to it. I hope they don't pull that sh** tommorrow, otherwise I'm gonna be a little ticked myself. I just hope I can get it fixed, & if I can't I don't know if I should return the PC or keep it & fix it on my own & put more money into it, I only paid $80 for the whole thing, but still, not sure.

Oh well, I'll find out tommorrow I guess!:)

[mickwish]

Most likely some fine print will say if you opened the case it voids their warranty, or some such. :eek:

Good luck with it. ;)

Cheers
Mick

[Shyguy]

Nah, it shouldn't as the NIC was also purchased with the case too, so its under the same warranty, but Ive been in similar situations with them, but they had no problem with it. Don't know why they were being so picky & ... how should I say, pissy about it. The only things they don't warranty is Mobo's, CPU & RAM, they only warranty those if they install them, so if you do it yourself & something bad happens, then your screwed, but just about everything else is suppsoed to be covered. Oh well Ive been looking at cases & stuff, I'm thinking that if they don't replace teh PSU, I'm gonna buy a cheap Case/PSU combo & swap all the parts & board out into a new case for it. I already found one, a small Minitower with a 250 or 270watt PSU, for $39 has more room than the HP minitower its in right now, but still small enough, PLus front mount USB & sound ports.

Also found some other case candidates for the Slot 1 board.

[Axel]

Originally posted by Shyguy
Nah, it shouldn't as the NIC was also purchased with the case too, so its under the same warranty, but Ive been in similar situations with them, but they had no problem with it.

You are a repeat problem customer and you admitted to opening the case. From their point of view - you've "done this to them before"...

Salvage works off a shoe-string anyway. Who cares where you purchased the NIC - look at it from the mind of profit motive.... The Warranty, I'm certain, has no clause in it saying they will certify the equipment after you make changes to it, even if you did buy all the parts from them.

I recommend a better solution might be to post specific PC behavior on this site and see if we can't help you resolve the conflict.

One other recommendation I have is to test anything you get from a salvage store "as is" before making alterations. You have much more solid ground to stand on when you have to bring something back.

Now - what HP mini-tower model did you end up with. My job is about 90% HP/Compaq so I see a lot of there stuff. The only HP model that has given us any real grief consistantly in the last few years are recent laptops and the HP Vectra VL420s - we do see several PS's on those die. System won't start - get a repeating beep code of 2 - dead / dying PS....

If it's a really old HP - you might see about spending a few $$$'s and replacing the CMOS battery on the motherboard. It could be dead and not allowing the e-prom to hold any boot information.

If it's a standard power supply and not one of those HP special units - you might always ask here if someone has a spare - we've been known to help folks out with spare parts. - Specify an AT or an ATX motherboard.

As for returning the system - you made modifications to the unit and had the case open. Seriously doubt you'll be allowed to return it for a no questions asked refund.

[PresterJohn]

shyguy,

i hope you can get them to replace it, no charge.

it sounds like you bought a second-hand unit, ie. the original HP warranty had expired. in cases like that, you're pretty much at the mercy of whatever terms you bought it from.

in cases like that, it is best to not admit that you added or changed anything hardware-ware wise. it's probably too late for you but the best way to handle cases like yours is when you bring it back to the store, to just say, it broke. that it was working fine the night before and that it now doesn't boot anymore.

[Roswell_NX]

i would agree with John

Roswell

[Shyguy]

Thats just it, it never booted at all, since I got it, , The other day i did open up the case & reseated everysingle wire & connector & nothing worked, I reseated teh RAM & even swapped the 2 modules around, nothing, I tried 2 other powercords I knew worked, nothing, I tried 2 other plugins in the house, nothing, the PSU is just dead, the fan doesn't even turn, nothing!!!! So I stopped back in to the store told them what I had done, & they said too just bring it in before teh warranty runs out (which is a 90 day Parts & Labor warranty on any used items, & 1 year warranty parts & labor on anything NEW), so I'm gonna bring it in this week.

Axel, its a HP Pavillion 6630.

Also when I mentioned "similar instances" I meant buying parts or stuff that had supposedly worked before hand, when they tested it & put it on the floor, but wouldn't when I used them, like several used HD's DOA, & a 15" CRT not working, plus some other little things (CDROMS, RAM, etc). I necessarily wasn't talking about systems, the only other complete or semi complete system Ive ever bought from them was My old K6/2 450 Rig I had 5 years ago, & never had an issue with it other than the Voodoo Banshee not working with some of my games at the time, as to my main rig, it was essentially an upgrade of my T-bird Rig, which itself was an upgrade of teh K6/2 rig,(Mobo, CPU RAM, case & HD, everything else from the old system was put in to my new one).

I was just pissed that he kept insinuating that I had done something to it, when I had not, other than install the NIC (also there was no static discharge of any sort when I installed it, so thats not an issue), & acted like this happens all the time when I buy stuff from them, which doesn't (I very rarely ever return anything from them, which is good), the last Item I had to return was my previous 17" DELL CRT, which was 5 days past the warranty when I did, & they couldn't do anything for me, so I just left the CRT with them to dispose of it (Tube had gone out on it). & that was late last spring, thats when i had to use my TV for a couple of weeks till I had money for a 15" CRT.

But I think its taken care of now, as they are going to look at it & see what they can do. So hopefully it gets taken care of.

Otherwise I'm gonna just get a newer, slightly bigger case & PSU combo & transplant the internals of this one into that case or I might give My K6/2 500 PC to my brother & his wife, as its already faster than what they got anyways & is guaranteed to run, as I had it running FAD for a month earlier this year, SO I know it works, just have to bump up the RAM (32MB PC100 to at least 96 or 128MB), & add in the extra 13.5GB HD I have & take out the CD burner in his current one & install it in this one & the system will be good to go, already has a 32MB Rage Fury 128 AGP 2x card in it, which should get them by for a while. & this may be the best thing to do, as the case has more expandability, & so does the mobo, it has a 2xAGP slot unlike the HP which doesn't have one at all, also has more PCI slots on it than the HP too. even though the CPU can't be upgraded much faster than whats in it now, in the HP I can only go up a little in that also (500Mhz celeron, was told maybe a 600, 700 max, but most likely only a 600-650 would work in it).

But I will let you guys know what comes of this.:)

[Axel]

if the HP case was a bona fide ATX case and the PS was a standard sized PS - I would have kept the case and dropped an off the shelf p4 478 board into it. The case alone was worth the $80. And it sounds like you had all the other components in hand.

You can get a pretty good p4 socket 478 board new now for about $55 at FRYs Then it's just a matter of getting a chip and RAM and you'd have a pretty good system.

e-bay's not bad for finding p4 478 2gHz+ chips on - same for RAM -

And if you really wanted to still buy at the salvage store - you could have printed out EBAY listings and tried to talk down their prices. - sometimes it works, but then they have rent and salaries to pay and can't always match the prices online because of it.

Hope it works out for you - nothing quite so frustrating as slaving over a system that just won't come up no matter how much technical attention you give it. I'm in much the same place myself with an ASUS board right now - decided to go ahead and scrap it because it just won't pass through the 12 volt feed off of any power supply I drop into it.

[Shyguy]

No, its a mini tower with a Flex ATX board in it, you can barely get 2 or 3 fingers in the damn thing to move a wire here & there, just a little bigger than SFF PC, but its a Celeron based board with only 3 PCI slots on it, so I'd have a hard time finding a P4 board that would fit, let alone a PSU. If I did still use the case if they won't do anything for me, then I could probably stuff a Mini ITX board in it, that would be plenty of room.

But as to talking them down in price, no, one time I tried that & he just laughed, thought i was joking, & one time when I mentioned I could get a Vid card & some other stuff a bit cheaper online, I could tell he wasn't to happy with my comment. They still have P3 based Slot 1 boards (2 of them), with 3 ISA slots on them, that old, for like $110 & won't lower the price, the damn things have been there for the last 3 or 4 years, apparently he thinks they are worth that much? Sure there still brand new, but seriously, he needs to reconsider some of his pricing on some of his stuff there. Anyways, I hope I can get it all straightened out.

gotta go, just got home, & mom said her one brother called & said Grandpa (last remaining grandparent) just passed away a few hours ago, so I gotta get my Printer working again & get ahold of teh drivers for my lexmark printer, so mom can go online & get some tickets to fly out tommorrow or wednesday at the latest.

talk to you guys later!!!

[mickwish]

Dunno about that model, but I have an old HP microtower that is almost as small as a SFF case, that I use as my IPCOP firewall/router box (was a Celeron 366 and I changed it to a Celeron 533). It can hinge out the whole mobo side of the case if you take out a few screws,which makes it a lot easier to work on! :p You might check the HP site for a manual for that model, as it may have something similar. ;)

Cheers
Mick

[Shyguy]

yep mine does that too, still hard to work with though.

[mickwish]

I tried to change some SDRAM once before I worked out how to hinge the side open. :eek: :o

I think it took the scars about six months to fade from my knuckles! :p Not much room in there for sure. ;)

Cheers
Mick

[Shyguy]

LOL, thats why I asked the guy when I bought it, how the hell am I supposed to change the stuff out in that thing. then he showed me how to hinge it open, still kind of tough though as the cable connections aren't very long so you still gotta reach in, feel around to disconnect the damn things.