A little help with my friends retro pc.

[Ultimate_PIMP]

So my friend just inherited a computer from his grandfather, It doesn't have a HDD and his grandfather said that there are some problems with it.

Now this thing was built by an enthusiast in the early 2000's, Its pretty awesome to look at because it's got a full side panel window with a key hole keeping the innards safe while all this old crappy tech sits inside

The case looks like it was the 900d equivalent back in its day. Its pretty awesome to look at.

 

Anyways his grandfather told him that it doesnt boot, and there could be a problem with either the "CMOS Battery or the Power Supply"

Now if this was a current gen pc i could probably figure this out myself (I came in to pc building right after ivy bridge came out.) but it has some old things inside it that i've never seen

 

I posted this here because i dont think it's any of the things he listed, i think it's the motherboard.

 

The power supply is plugged in to everything correctly, and when you plug the computer into the wall immediatly (without pressing the power button or anything) the fans start spinning like crazy and everything 

turns on, the gpu the cpu fan the floppy disk drives and everything lights up. But when you go to press the power switch on the case nothing happens, everything continues to be ramped up and the only way you can stop it is by unplugging it.

 

His grandfather said that it could have been "hit with lightning".

 

What do you guys think, i think it's the motherboard. we already ordered a cmos battery because of how cheap they are, but i highly doubt that's the problem

[helping]

A dead CMOS battery will not stop a computer from booting.

 

At least with pretty much all modern tech, I'm not entirely sure about that dinosaur.

[Judahnator]

I once saw a system that did something like that, it went crazy without even turning it on. It ended up being a faulty power supply (5v rail wasnt putting out any juice). Try another PSU first, if that dosnt work then its likely the MOBO.

[Ultimate_PIMP]

I once saw a system that did something like that, it went crazy without even turning it on. It ended up being a faulty power supply (5v rail wasnt putting out any juice). Try another PSU first, if that dosnt work then its likely the MOBO.

Sweet, I'll probably pick up a really cheap one to test it out. Really hoping it's not the motherboard

[Cad6500]

It could be the front panel connectors, since it turns on when plugged in to the wall... thats what I think...

[RadSalacan]

Sounds like a PSU problem to me.