Miki
05-12-2005, 09:12 AM
I've spent the past thirteen hours working on these damned machines and I'm ready to take a baseball bat to the whole project. Thirteen hours ago I knew absolutely nothing about computers and I'm still fairly incompetent, so I figured I'd turn it over to people who actually know their stuff.
My problems started months ago when my computer, an Epiq p3-450 with 64megs of RAM, started making weird noises and on occasion restarting for no reason. These problems continued, got worse and more frequent until one morning I turned on my computer and it responded with a horrible noise that resembled a garbage disposal. I quickly turned it off, because I was afraid it would explode or something.
Yesterday I hauled it out, took the cover off, and did the same to an old Compaq P3-450 Evo model (I don't know anything else about it; we had it stuffed in a closet). I proceeded to take the hard drive out of my Epiq; removed the master/slave hard drives from the Compaq and attempted a botched transplant. This resulted in 1780, 1782, 601 errors depending on which jumper setting the hard drive was at, which ribbons I was using, and which IDE outlet in the motherboard I was connecting to the HDD. Suffice to say that I have no clue what I'm doing.
It gets more complicated:
-The configuration of the ribbons was completely demented in the Compaq, but it seemed to run fine nevertheless. My dad and I put the ribbons in their correct outlets with my hard drive and now it won't load past the black error screen that follows the big Compaq picture.
-I have no clue what kind of hard drive was in my Epiq, besides the fact that it's from around 1999. It has logos from Seagate, Infineon, and +Amp, along with some unidentifiable serial/model-numbers. Consequently, I'm not entirely sure if the jumper positions/settings I've been using are even accurate. The jumper was stuck onto pins 5 and 7 when I opened up the Epiq.
-Both computers are somewhat trashed. My Epiq's power supply/cooling fan is shot and the hard drive is still functional but sometimes gives "disk boot failure: insert system disk and press enter" messages. The Compaq's CD-drive doesn't work and its hard drives are incapacitated with viruses.
-I don't want to reformat my hard drive unless I've exhausted all other options. I have a lot of writing saved on it and no copies- technologically challenged, once again.
Since my hard-drive transplant idea doesn't seem to be working (I'm still trying to find a way to access the BIOS, and I haven't given up with different combinations of cables and settings, etc.), I'm pondering taking the working power-supply/fan from the Compaq and using it to replace the dead one in my Epiq. I'm far too poor to take the computers to the shop or buy replacement parts, so I'll have to make do and be resourceful for the time being.
So is this a lost cause? Any help or advice would be immensely appreciated.
My problems started months ago when my computer, an Epiq p3-450 with 64megs of RAM, started making weird noises and on occasion restarting for no reason. These problems continued, got worse and more frequent until one morning I turned on my computer and it responded with a horrible noise that resembled a garbage disposal. I quickly turned it off, because I was afraid it would explode or something.
Yesterday I hauled it out, took the cover off, and did the same to an old Compaq P3-450 Evo model (I don't know anything else about it; we had it stuffed in a closet). I proceeded to take the hard drive out of my Epiq; removed the master/slave hard drives from the Compaq and attempted a botched transplant. This resulted in 1780, 1782, 601 errors depending on which jumper setting the hard drive was at, which ribbons I was using, and which IDE outlet in the motherboard I was connecting to the HDD. Suffice to say that I have no clue what I'm doing.
It gets more complicated:
-The configuration of the ribbons was completely demented in the Compaq, but it seemed to run fine nevertheless. My dad and I put the ribbons in their correct outlets with my hard drive and now it won't load past the black error screen that follows the big Compaq picture.
-I have no clue what kind of hard drive was in my Epiq, besides the fact that it's from around 1999. It has logos from Seagate, Infineon, and +Amp, along with some unidentifiable serial/model-numbers. Consequently, I'm not entirely sure if the jumper positions/settings I've been using are even accurate. The jumper was stuck onto pins 5 and 7 when I opened up the Epiq.
-Both computers are somewhat trashed. My Epiq's power supply/cooling fan is shot and the hard drive is still functional but sometimes gives "disk boot failure: insert system disk and press enter" messages. The Compaq's CD-drive doesn't work and its hard drives are incapacitated with viruses.
-I don't want to reformat my hard drive unless I've exhausted all other options. I have a lot of writing saved on it and no copies- technologically challenged, once again.
Since my hard-drive transplant idea doesn't seem to be working (I'm still trying to find a way to access the BIOS, and I haven't given up with different combinations of cables and settings, etc.), I'm pondering taking the working power-supply/fan from the Compaq and using it to replace the dead one in my Epiq. I'm far too poor to take the computers to the shop or buy replacement parts, so I'll have to make do and be resourceful for the time being.
So is this a lost cause? Any help or advice would be immensely appreciated.