I've got an old computer that suddenly won't start. It's an IBM PS/1 model 2155. I got it new in 1993 and used it until 1996, when it was replaced and went into storage. I dug it out (literally -- it was buried in a decade's worth of forgotten crap) a few days ago. It started fine, loaded DOS, loaded Win3.1, it ran the games I wanted to play, and it shutdown without issue. Later that day, it did all that again. The next day, I pressed the power button and nothing happened.
No POST, neither on-screen nor beeps.
The hard drive doesn't spin. The floppy drive is never accessed, even if you take the hard drive out. The CD-ROM drive does nothing, but it will open and close when you press the eject button. The keyboard lights up for an instant, then goes dead. Unplugging the keyboard, mouse, and gamepad changes nothing. The only things running are the power supply fan and the on light.
I've made sure everything is well seated. Both sticks of RAM are firmly in place. The sound card, modem, and scanner card are fully inserted into the riser and the riser into the motherboard. None of the cable connections are loose.
The old CMOS battery was slightly corroded, but changing it didn't help.
I don't have any means of actually connecting the hard drive to a different computer, but I have tried just attaching it to a different power supply and it spins up and sounds normal.
Taking out either stick of RAM doesn't change anything, neither does taking out both of them (still no beeps). Removing all the drives doesn't change anything. Removing the riser and all three cards on it doesn't do anything.
I checked the power supply with a multimeter and it's working fine.
I admit that I'm not a hardware guy and have already exhausted everything I know to try. Does anything leap out to those of you more well-versed in the subject?
No POST, neither on-screen nor beeps.
The hard drive doesn't spin. The floppy drive is never accessed, even if you take the hard drive out. The CD-ROM drive does nothing, but it will open and close when you press the eject button. The keyboard lights up for an instant, then goes dead. Unplugging the keyboard, mouse, and gamepad changes nothing. The only things running are the power supply fan and the on light.
I've made sure everything is well seated. Both sticks of RAM are firmly in place. The sound card, modem, and scanner card are fully inserted into the riser and the riser into the motherboard. None of the cable connections are loose.
The old CMOS battery was slightly corroded, but changing it didn't help.
I don't have any means of actually connecting the hard drive to a different computer, but I have tried just attaching it to a different power supply and it spins up and sounds normal.
Taking out either stick of RAM doesn't change anything, neither does taking out both of them (still no beeps). Removing all the drives doesn't change anything. Removing the riser and all three cards on it doesn't do anything.
I checked the power supply with a multimeter and it's working fine.
I admit that I'm not a hardware guy and have already exhausted everything I know to try. Does anything leap out to those of you more well-versed in the subject?