PC experts: need a bit of help

[pillguy]

Hi Guys,

I am trying to resurrect a Dell Dimension 8300 that got hit by lightning a while back.
Symptoms: does not work/power on/ no lights.

Per dell forums:
Usually a lighting strike can damage, in this order, power supply, modem/NIC, motherboard, memory and maybe the processor.
Dimension 8300 won't boot.

I replaced the mother board and power supply: and get this: a green power light on front of motherboard and the drive lights would come on when I booted, but there was no response from the video card. Power only is plugged in.
Symptoms:
Green light on motherboard
No diagnostic Lights
No light on front power button (except amber color)

Which indicates something else...


I decided to go back to the old motherboard, but I seem to have a bit of a challenge removing the chip from the cooling sink.
Instructions say to soak in 90% isopropyl alcohol and soften glue.
heatsink - How to unglue microprocessor from heat sink? - Super User

My concern is that I cannot put chip back on motherboard and flip the lock down mechanism.
Documentation



Is this OK to do and what else can I do to diagnose the problem if it not turning back on.


Thanks

 

[KLF]

Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go thru for a computer that is probably almost 10 years old. I have several Dell desktops that are a lot newer than that, on my scrap pile, heading to the recycler soon. They all work fine, just too old for us.

 

[nspctr1]

Do you have a monitor plugged in? What error msg does it give? Usually the amber light shows that the cpu is searching for the keyboard and boot sequence. It may be attempting to boot from the disc and not HD.
Need more info.

 

[jonheld]

Uhhh, you realize that for $300 you could buy a new 64 bit machine that is 20x faster than what you have now.
Or you could spend $100 and get a 8300 off of ebay.

Why would you spend time/money on an old computer? What are you trying to do?

 

[Bogo]

X2, why are you bothering?

To get your data off the computer, take the hard disk out of the old one, and put it in an external USB case. Make sure you get the right type of external case for the hard disk you have. You'll likely be needing a SATA one, but it could have had IDE. You'll need to reinstall all your programs on the new system. Some may need to be repurchased to be compatible with the current OSes.

 

[Elbert]

I doubt you can save it....as noted remove hard drive and pull data off the hd from a 2nd machine making the old hard drive teh slave to the current master. its its an IDE setup.

not tracking why you can't get the processor off the heat sink? Seems like you would use the same heatsink? WHy go back to old motherboard?

What is keeping you from installing teh process on the "old" motherboard?

try a cheapo vido card to boot or rob one out of another machine for testing