brad wrote:
Cool thanks for the help and the url you suggested. The
Compaq is a P3. That helps in understanding more about the
computer. I will try what you suggested and let you know
if that solves the problem

In the meantime, I do have another problem that could be
easy or difficult and I am not quite sure which one yet.
Here it goes.

Dell Dimension 4400
I turn the computer on and the green light in the power
button turns on like normal; however, nothing else turns
on. There is no sound of a hard drive humming and there
are no sounds from the internal speaker.

Best Buy suggested that it is a hard drive or motherboard
problem but there is a fee to examine it.

Could it be a power source problem. I haven't spent much
time with it yet but if nothing turns on...

Again any suggestions would be great and thanks again for
you help thus far.

Let me know if you need any other additional info.



Hi,

The jumpers will definitely solve the sound card issue. Jumpers are
placed across pins protruding from the motherboard. The pins will be in
groups of 2 or more. As an example, a group of 3 pins, the jumper is set
across pins 1 and 2, and to change the setting you may need to place it
over pins 2 and 3, or remove it(sometimes it is "stored" in place by
being put over just 1 pin). A set of 2 pins is usually pretty straight
forward; it's either over both pins or none(possibly stored over 1 pin
as mentioned before). Again, if you need more help, just post back.

As far as the other computer, there could be several things that are
wrong. If it just the hard drive that has failed, you should still be
able to boot to a floppy. But you should also still get some sounds from
the system speaker, which leads me to believe it's not the hard drive.

Before you take it in, open up the case(PC unplugged) and check for
loose cable and things like that. If the PC is still under warranty, try
Dell's tech support(and enjoy talking to Apu). Otherwise, it's one of
those things that's pretty difficult to diagnose without having the PC
to look at. Could be a faulty internal power supply, bad motherboard or
any number of things, including a loose power cord or bad electrical
outlet. Do post back with what you find out though.

Glad the Compaq info was helpful to you.

mm