rescun3351

I came home the other night to find that the keyboard on my Win98 machine wouldn't work, so I restarted from the Start menu. Once the computer powered all the way down and started booting, I immediately got the initial black screen with one line of text at the top: "RAGE128 PRO GL P/N 113-63109-100". Then, it just freezes at this point and never advances. It's ran fine for the past 3 years without any issues.
I took the cover off and made sure to clean everything very well, thinking that maybe excess dust could be causing problems, however, it didn't help.
The machine is a Dell Dimension 4100 with a Pentium III processor, obviously an ATI Rage video card and pretty standard stuff for an older Dell.
I tried booting from a bootdisk, and the restore CD, but it never gets to the actual boot screen from the "RAGE" screen, so that didn't work either. I really don't know what the problem could be since I'm not the best PC diagnostic guy, just know enough to be somewhat dangerous.

Anyone have any ideas before I buy another new computer?
I appreciate any help.

OldGrayGary

Hi rescun3351


It's likely a hardware failure, as most of the hardware is likely from the 1998-2000 timeframe, and is now eight years or so old.

If you aren't hearing a single "beep" during the first few seconds upon starting the computer, and the PC never proceeds past that initial Bios banner, then it's not able to pass the Power-On Self Test (the "POST") that standard PCs run every time you start them.

Try unplugging any extraneous peripherals (printers, cameras, scanners, multifunctions, PDAs, USB flash memory drives, external hard drives, etc.) and see if the PC can progress any further in the boot process.

If not, the Dimension 4100 has some diagnostic lights that might help. These are located on the back of the computer - very close to where you plug your speakers in. There are four little LED lights in a little rectangle --- depending on which lights are certain colors, they might be able to tell you what part is having trouble. Here's Dell's guide to reading those diagnostic lights --- http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...agnostic_codes

It's not likely to be financially effective to replace failed parts, as such old parts are now rare, and can be expensive. Should you be able to find some old spare parts for free, then repairing your classic might make sense -- but you'd have to be prepared for other parts in the system to fail eventually as well. This sort of thing is fun for PC enthusiasts (I keep various old relics running just for the fun of it) -- but the need for lots of maintenance is a real drag for anyone who'd have to rely on such an older machine for important work.

If it turns out that the PC isn't salvageable, try to get it to a recycler, or to hazardous waste (PCs contain dangerous substances & can't be thrown away in regular trash).

Best of luck!
. . . Gary

__________________

rescun3351

Thanks Gary! I think I'll probably end up just replacing it since I really just use it as a print server for my wireless network, it really hasn't been "up to snuff" for a while, well since XP came along. Thanks for all your help, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking some little problem before tossing it out.

rescun3351

On second thought, I looked at the site you linked and I unhooked everything with exception of the monitor, it booted fine. Pretty much, I tried everything until I figured out that the keyboard was the problem, it must be bad. When I tried a different keyboard, it worked like a brand new one. I guess I'll be buying a new keyboard. Thanks for solving my problem!

OldGrayGary

Hi again

Glad to hear you found such a nice repair. That model Dell is one of their better models from that time period - I liked the case design for that series, too. Looks like you've been taking good care of it!

Congrats,
. . . Gary

__________________