Legend 386XH

[lostDOSlol]

This machine is for my niece and nephew. All it does is beep a few times then nothing. I want it to boot again in linux if nothing else. Help me please.

[Druid6900]

Knowing what the beep code is (short, long, short, short, whatever, repeat) would help diagose the problem. So would the BIOS type.

[lostDOSlol]

I wish I could tell you. I cannot get any power to it now. If I remember correctly it was a short beep, then a long one, then three beeps, then three more, and I think there was another beep.

[Vlad]

Does the screen display anything when this happens? Something like "CMOS Checksum Invalid, Please Run Setup" Or does it say anything about a battery being low or Time and Date Not Set?

[lostDOSlol]

nothing happens. No screen to look at or anything. Now I can't even get power to it.

[Vlad]

So when its firmly plugged in, you press the power button and it does nothing at all? No fans, or drives spin up?

Kinda sounds like the power supply has either a blown internal fuse or has gone bad.

[lostDOSlol]

I figured that too. When I first got it everything worked fine. I took out the hard drive to install a larger one (never did) and in doing so had to remove some memory. While taking out the mem sticks I broke the retainers for four of them (the motherboard came with 8) put the old sticks in the "new" unbroken slots. put hard drive back in and tried to boot. Then the beeping. If I broke the MB then how do i find out what kind it is and where do I begin to look for a new one?

[Vlad]

Goodness. When the RAM slots broke, they probably tore some circuit board traces too. To find out the motherboards model, look for a sticker somewhere on the board. Typical places to find it is near the bottom edge, near the expansion slots and by the power connector. These stickers are usually white and have a serial number too. As for where to look for a new one, I don't really know where you'd find something like that.

[lostDOSlol]

Thanks. I was hoping to get a better answer than that. Better meaning that I could do something about it.

[Vlad]

Well, I can't really see it so I don't know that for sure. Someone else might pop up with ideas too. Best of Luck!

[NathanAllan]

Some machines require that you use ram slots in order, and you can't skip any. So if you're using the other ram slots, it's looking for the ram in the first slots, so it isn't finding any and refuses to turn on. Example: In my machinehere, I have slots 0, 1, and 2. If I fill 1 and 2 but not 0 the machine won't boot and gives me an error. if I have 0 and 2 populated it will boot and access that ram (personal experience).

Can't comment on the broken traces, it's another possibility. Broken plastic in such small areas can cause such big headaches.

Nathan

[Druid6900]

Yeah, probably doesn't have any base memory in the unit now.

The ONLY thing I could think of doing in a case like that would be to put memory in the sockets with the broken retaining clips, hold them back in their working position and shoot a little 5 minute epoxy into the holes in the SIMMs that the pins go through and hold them there until the epoxy hardens.

That should glue the SIMMs to the pins and, although it isn't elegant, it should work and they sure won't pop out.

[NathanAllan]

That will definitely work, though future upgrading will be really risky. If it were me doing that, I would max out the ram so you'd never have to worry about de-epoxying it in the future.

Just have to be careful not to use too much so you don't block the ram chip from making good contact with the socket.

I just recently did something like this with a Quiz Wiz game, the socket had broken so the game "cart" couldn't make good contact. I used gorilla glue (miracle stuff) and set the plastic piece back in place that had broken off and now it works fine.

Nathan

[lostDOSlol]

is there an easy way to tell? If so what is it? It is starting to seem like I should have left well enough alone.

[lostDOSlol]

that last post was in haste. I will try the glue asap. will let you know if it worked or not. I went to a couple comp stores. The first sent me to the next and offered to sell me a Pent2 for $50. That would be easier for me to get them used to working a computer but still not the DOS part. If any of the most recent posts know of a site I could look at for MB replacements I would be much obliged.

Thanx

[NathanAllan]

That P2 sounds like a nice deal to me.

Anyway, what specific model is the legend? Not a Pac Bell Legend, I think, cause those are desktops iirc. I can look around for that particular one if I know what I am replacing specifically.

"but still not the DOS part." Wht do you mean? About it having dos? drivers? Not following that part.

Nathan

[lostDOSlol]

it is a Packard Bell Legend 386XH.
I think I am going to try the glue idea.

[lostDOSlol]

Does that person think hot glue will work?

[lostDOSlol]

When I went ot the second store i told the clerk I wanted to teach them a language they could use in the future. they told me that teaching Linux was a bad idea. There reply was "In 10 years from now there will be a completely different OS." Does anyone else think I am an idiot for thinking this?

[NathanAllan]

not hot glue, you could wreck some stuff like that. Glue in a tube, maybe superglue.

Linux will never be a bad idea, it's already survived for years and you can use it in its origninal form and be productive even now. BTW, Linux is an operating system, not a language. But yes, there will be a different OS in ten years. I don't wanna speculate what the weirdness factor may be about it, but I'll bet that I could still run slackware on a 166 laptop in 10 years and still connect to anything. GRR! :)

The only thing about Linux is that there are so many variations, even now, that make the learning curve a little steep. E.G. Red Hat and Solaris. Not extremely different from one another, but enough that a programmer would have some issues and an afternoon project could take all week. Or at least a couple of days.

Nathan

[Druid6900]

Does that person think hot glue will work?

No, not hot glue (it doesn't bond well to the SIMMs) and not crazy glue as it's too thin and will run down into the sockets.

5 minute epoxy will work the best.

[NathanAllan]

No, not hot glue (it doesn't bond well to the SIMMs) and not crazy glue as it's too thin and will run down into the sockets.

5 minute epoxy will work the best.

right, it was late, not crazy glue or gorilla glue in this case (it bubbles up regardless how small the amount). The same stuff that you use to reattach a rear view mirror, I think. You know, glue the little tab on that you screw the mirror down to.

So how's it coming along?

[Mike Chambers]

don't think i can really help, but i just wanted to let you know that your niece and nephew hate you LOL!

how old are they? if they're very young, it may actually be a good idea to get em started on the old school systems with DOS. i've noticed kids that have been growing up with their fancy GUIs the past 10-15 years or so don't know a lot of very important fundamental stuff... kinda sad.

they think they're good with computers, too.

CLI > start menu

if possible, you should set that ol' classic 386 up with a dual boot. stick a second hard drive in there, have DOS on one and a small linux distro on the other. think debian 2.2 (potato) or something like that. you could go with the latest etch release, but you'd better find a bunch of the biggest SIMMs you can find for that board. :)

i had sarge running on a 386 DX/40 with 32 MB of RAM at one point. if i kept the software list thin, and only installed what i needed it did a halfway decent job. just make sure you don't have much that init.d loads. just the bare essentials. anything else can be started by hand later if you need it.

makes a good IRC client machine, naim, stuff like that. just don't expect to turn it into a web server with fancy SQL databases and stuff lol. i wish i had a linux box to play with when i was a kid. i just finally got started with *nix back in '02 or so.

[Mike Chambers]

not hot glue, you could wreck some stuff like that. Glue in a tube, maybe superglue.

Linux will never be a bad idea, it's already survived for years and you can use it in its origninal form and be productive even now. BTW, Linux is an operating system, not a language. But yes, there will be a different OS in ten years. I don't wanna speculate what the weirdness factor may be about it, but I'll bet that I could still run slackware on a 166 laptop in 10 years and still connect to anything. GRR! :)

The only thing about Linux is that there are so many variations, even now, that make the learning curve a little steep. E.G. Red Hat and Solaris. Not extremely different from one another, but enough that a programmer would have some issues and an afternoon project could take all week. Or at least a couple of days.

Nathan

heck yeah, linux is sweet. i've got a 486 with debian etch and you wouldn't believe how useable that thing is. it only has 64 MB of RAM. KDE/Gnome works, but is a very bad idea. smaller wm's like twm/fluxbox are fantastic on it! that thing gets on the web, any site you want... as long as you don't mind not being able to use youtube lol. i've also booted damn small linux on it, and it rocked.

linux keeps old systems useable due to new software still being developed. you wouldn't have nearly as much fun on a 486 with win 3.1

[lostDOSlol]

Sorry been busy for awhile. Will do what was said (power bow and all) and get back to all. Thanx for the mild, if at all, drama. It was fun.

[NathanAllan]

let us know how your repairing goes, and see if you can get another machine to network to the first one. What's better than one project? A bigger and more complex project, such as networking two machines together. Much fun!

Nathan