Help fixing old POS computer..

[Joshh100]

Hey everyone, not sure which forum this belongs under so Ill just post here :D Anyways, what I have on my hands is an OLD pII 350 MHZ gateway.. I thought the thing was dead but I was screwing around with it yesterday and when I had the motherboard in the right position in the case, it would power on.. Now obviously there was some kind of circuit being completed by where I had the mobo touching on the case. I took the mobo out of that position and tried to look at it and see what was going on, but nothing happened.. What do I need to do to keep this thing powered on?!?! thanks in advance.

Josh

[c627627]

Josh, the motherboard cannot be touching the case when screwed on. It was my very first rookie mistake.

Mobo has to rest on elevated brass colored holders where you put the screws in. Open any other computer case available to you and observe how mobo is not touching the case on the bottom.

[Skiing Squirrel]

When I test motherboards, I normally put them on mouse pads or wood. Metal and motherboards with current going through them isn't the best of ideas I think.

[Joshh100]

I didnt have the mobo screwed into the case though.. it was out of the case just sitting on top of it sort of..

[c627627]

OK, that's fine then, what if you put a different power supply into it to test it, and if the problem goes away...

Also, resetting the CMOS (if you know what you're doing) may help.

[Gnufsh]

Interesting... Look around the motherboard for broken traces or loose connections (maybe a cap has broken partway off and only makes contact when wiggled the right way.