Can't get into Hard Drive of Older Desktop Computers

by Willie Everette
(Hollywood SC)

I am trying to redo some older desktops, all models, names, etc (10) has been up and running 2003 or so was new. Computers were donated to the COMMUNITY center, we are attempting to bring them back to usable condition. It is a community center we will be attempting set up a computer center lab to teach older folks how to interact with the computer no younger children allowed, being a computer teacher too much laughing when I mix the group.

Anyway I want to be able to take my laptop, plug USB cord into ports on them and see system hardware and get an idea what is wrong or preventing them from starting. I am a teacher of MS Office, Windows and naming the parts of a computer, I know how to store, and use restore. That's about it, oh I can change out parts, just don't how to tell what bad beyond what the computer tells me, my Dell laptops tells me what's wrong and the part that needs changing and I order the part and replace it.

Thanks for you reading the above and thanks in advance for whatever help you can give.

God bless,
Willie Everette

Answer

When I get charity computers like this that you really don't know what you've got, I take a different approach then what you suggested. I'll guide you through what I do. It shouldn't take you too long.

First, try and power on the computer. If it boots at all, you get something on the monitor, you're already in pretty good shape. If this is the case, go into the BIOS settings and load fail safe or default settings. Then go into the boot order and set your CD-Rom to be booted from before the hard drive. At this point, just put your Windows disk into the drive and perform a reinstall. You really don't want to know what's on the computer anyway.


Second, if you push the power button and the computer doesn't turn on, check to make sure the power supply is supplying power to the motherboard, this can be done by looking for any lit LED's on the motherboard. If this is the case continue to make sure you have RAM, a hard drive, CPU, and that they're all connected. If somethings missing, try and use pieces from another computer that doesn't power up.

If there is a CPU in the motherboard I leave it. It's easier to swap the other pieces, do that instead. To find out what RAM fits, just do a Google search for the motherboard part number, that should get you the full specs. There should be a sticker on each stick of RAM that let's you know what it is. Hard drive, and CD-Roms are all swappable as long as you have either a free SATA or EIDE port. If it's EIDE just remember to set the jumpers to CS.

Good luck, take your time, and if it's for a community center, maybe you want to make it a training event for people, have fun with it. A mystery PC is kind of like pirates treasure.