What type of PC case do I have?

Bf109

tonyhague wrote: »

cd drive shouldn't really stop it booting up, just unplugging the power from it would clarify.
take the side off with the pc switched on and read the psu label?!

I'm pretty sure its an ATX now. ATX has been around for a very long time now hasnt it? I remember my old 32mb 333Mhz Celeron PC from 10 years ago had an ATX case.... and this is pretty much the same size.... is micro ATX a lot smaller?

I need to gather up the courage to fiddle with it a bit... may do it saturday morning.... cant face trying to get the thing to boot up in the middle of the working week....

edit - since I realised that I have at least two spare PSUs in the house, its not such a trauma. But is it poss to canabalise a PSU from one machine and stick it in another.... different motherboard designs etc..?

DatabaseError

shouldn't be a problem using a psu from another machine as long as the power is the same, or greater

Simon_M_2

tonyhague wrote: »

cd drive shouldn't really stop it booting up, just unplugging the power from it would clarify.
take the side off with the pc switched on and read the psu label?!

Hi Tony, this is not strictly true*. If you unplug the molex connector from the CD drive the CMOS will still detect the the presence of the drive on the IDE cable. As no power is getting to the drive the CMOS will halt the boot process as it will have detected and error, ie IDE device present but not powered. It is best to remove the IDE cable to determine if the drive is indeed causing the PC to hang.

*Some CMOS will still continue to boot even if they detect an error with an IDE device

DatabaseError

never come across that myself, Simon, i suppose unplugging both cables will make sure (yes, I know there may be a 3rd cable)

Bf109

Ok, dragged the old dell out of the cupboard and butchered it. Now have spare dvd rom and psu. Only 250w output, but then again, I only have a 3ghz sempron and a 6600 graphics card. Hoping this should be enough.

The PSU bit looks fiddly so I'll have a bash at swapping the dvd drive on saturday. hints and tips appreciated.

AHAR

If your old Dell is earlier than a Pentium 4, its power supply may not have the extra 4 pin motherboard connector that I believe all newer systems require.
I've known some Dell systems that had non-standard power supplies so that's another potential gotcha.

Bf109

AHAR wrote: »

If your old Dell is earlier than a Pentium 4, its power supply may not have the extra 4 pin motherboard connector that I believe all newer systems require.
I've known some Dell systems that had non-standard power supplies so that's another potential gotcha.

From when I yanked it out, it did have two plugs into the MB. One 20 pin and one 4 pin. The 4-pin plug is square It dates back to 2001. I might remove the PSU from the other old PC and compare. I did encounter freezing with that old PC which is why I upgraded to this one a few years back. Might the freezing have been a faulty PSU there also?

Bf109

Edit - other PSU not looking so good. The wires into the case fan had no connector, so had to cut the wires. Also, it rattles. Which is generally not good, I take it?

Good news is it defo an ATX and appears identical to the dell. On the other hand, I'm not so sure I want to risk pluggin in a non-standard PSU and risk frying the whole thing.

Maybe just trot off to PC world and put my hand in my pocket..... if the drive swap doesnt help, that is....

SJames_3

I wouldn't risk trying the Dell PSU as it probably has a proprietary mobo connector and may fry your motherboard. You can compare the wires on your Dell PSU to a standard ATX PSU, but I believe that all Dell PSUs have been proprietary since 1998.

Ice_2

most ATX PSU come with 20 pin + 4 pin or 24 pin + 4 pin...you need the 20 pin + the 4 pin, £7.99 on ebuyer.
there are usually 4 molex connectors and 2 floppy connectors 2 + 1 on each block of cable, the molex fit into the back of your cd rom drive dvd rom drives and also your hard drives and the smaller ones fit into the back of your floppy drives if you have any, one for each conponent, this powers the drives along with the IDE cable that links them to the motherboard,
quite simple really, just make sure you don't bend the pins at the back of these components as so many people do, its quite easily done, but a nuisance when it does happen.
step 1
take out the bad drive.
insert the good drive.
step 2
secure the good drive to the case via the screws you should have taken out the old drive.
step 3
connect the IDE cable to the drive
connect the molex (4 pin) to the drive.
DO NOT unsecure the cable from the MB unless you have to for room.
that should be it.
check the jumper config before putting any good drives back in and make sure non are the same.
the jumpers set the drive to master and slave.
middle jumper = slave
right hand jumper = master
left hand jumper = cable select but I have never got that to work.
so go with the old fashioned master slave routine and you wont go to wrong.
hope this helps