11-19-2006, 04:49 AM
Thanks for the replies. I finally had a chance to look at it today. The first thing I noticed- the power supply fan doesn't turn. :angry: It's the strangest fan, too- the fan is underneath the power supply blowing into the case instead of out the back. The fan is screwed to the bottom of the power supply, but it looks like you'd have to open the power supply to remove it- so no swapping the fan for me.
So, it looks like I'll need a power supply. I don't currently have a spare, as the only one I've replaced was a dead one. Although our computers are self-built, they're all dinosaurs now I'm afraid, so we don't have a ton of spare parts. The power supply on the Gateway is 250W, but I wonder if 235W would work (thanks for the offer, Pete!). It has an AMD Athlon 1gHz processor, with a GeForce2 vid card and 2 HD's- doesn't seem like it would suck *too* much juice, especially if I wasn't even trying to run Diablo on it. The plugs appear to be the standard power supply plugs, going to a 20-pin slot on the MB.
The second HD means that even if one of those turns out bad, I at least won't have to spend money to replace one, as I don't need much storage, either.:)
I ran memtest86 for one pass (nervous about having it on too long with no PS fan- I had the case open and a big fan on it), and it didn't show any errors. I ran windows and it was bogged down but didn't restart or anything. It is the same computer that I remember finding tons of malware on about a year ago, and I don't know that they ever did anything about it. About the only thing that looks different this time is there is a new P2P program that launches itself on startup. :o So, reformatting is definitly called for! It also probably wouldn't hurt to separate the physical drives into different lettered drives to protect me if there is a HD problem down the road while I'm at it.
So, it looks like I'll need a power supply. I don't currently have a spare, as the only one I've replaced was a dead one. Although our computers are self-built, they're all dinosaurs now I'm afraid, so we don't have a ton of spare parts. The power supply on the Gateway is 250W, but I wonder if 235W would work (thanks for the offer, Pete!). It has an AMD Athlon 1gHz processor, with a GeForce2 vid card and 2 HD's- doesn't seem like it would suck *too* much juice, especially if I wasn't even trying to run Diablo on it. The plugs appear to be the standard power supply plugs, going to a 20-pin slot on the MB.
The second HD means that even if one of those turns out bad, I at least won't have to spend money to replace one, as I don't need much storage, either.:)
I ran memtest86 for one pass (nervous about having it on too long with no PS fan- I had the case open and a big fan on it), and it didn't show any errors. I ran windows and it was bogged down but didn't restart or anything. It is the same computer that I remember finding tons of malware on about a year ago, and I don't know that they ever did anything about it. About the only thing that looks different this time is there is a new P2P program that launches itself on startup. :o So, reformatting is definitly called for! It also probably wouldn't hurt to separate the physical drives into different lettered drives to protect me if there is a HD problem down the road while I'm at it.
Why can't we all just get along
--Pete
--Pete