So, I finally decided to drag out my old custom box, the one I nicknamed “Bridea” years ago. It’s been sitting in the corner gathering dust, seriously, like a monument to procrastination. Figured it was time to see if the old girl still had any juice left.
First things first, I hunted down the power cord, plugged it in, connected a monitor and keyboard. Basic stuff. Found the slightly-worn power button, gave it a hopeful press. And… nothing. Absolutely dead. No lights, no fan spin, just silence. Fantastic. My confidence wasn’t exactly soaring at this point.
Alright, troubleshooting time. Started with the obvious. Is the outlet working? Yep. Tried a different power cord? Still nothing. My gut feeling immediately went to the power supply unit, the PSU. Those things can just give up the ghost quietly after sitting for a long time.
Digging Inside
Had to get the side panel off. Man, the dust bunnies inside were legendary. Spent a good ten minutes just blowing and wiping things down. Took a look around inside. Checked if any cables had mysteriously unplugged themselves. Looked for any obviously fried bits or bulging capacitors on the motherboard – seen that before. Everything looked visually okay, surprisingly.
Just to be sure, I did the usual dance:
- Pulled out the RAM sticks and pushed them back in firmly.
- Did the same for the graphics card.
- Double-checked the main power connectors to the motherboard.
Button press number two. Still dead as a doornail. Definitely the PSU, then.
The Swap
Luckily, I had an old spare PSU stashed in a box of random parts. It wasn’t pretty, and probably underpowered for what “Bridea” used to be, but good enough for a test. Disconnected the old PSU, which was a pain with all the cable ties I used way back when. Plugged in the spare PSU, connecting just the essential motherboard and CPU power for now. Cables everywhere, a real rat’s nest, but hey, it’s just a test.
Okay, moment of truth. Hit the power button again. Success! Sort of. The case fans spun up, lights blinked on the motherboard. Heard that little ‘beep’ from the speaker that means it’s starting the boot sequence. Progress! The old PSU was officially declared deceased.
New Problems Arise
So, it powered on, technically. Got video output, the BIOS screen flashed up… and then it just froze. Stuck. Couldn’t get into the BIOS setup menu consistently either. Sometimes the keyboard worked, sometimes it didn’t respond. Felt like maybe the CMOS battery, that little coin-sized battery on the motherboard that keeps the BIOS settings alive, had finally died after all these years. Makes sense.
Pulled the CMOS battery out, left it out for a minute to clear the settings, popped it back in. Didn’t have a fresh one right there, but sometimes just resetting it helps. Powered it on again.
This time, it got past the initial screen! Started looking for something to boot from. Which, of course, it couldn’t find. Either the old hard drive is dead too, or I wiped it before storing it. Can’t remember. Honestly, it’s probably dead.
So, What Now?
Well, “Bridea” is on. It lives, breathes electric fire, sort of. At least the core components seem functional, which is better than I expected. But it’s a long way from being useful. Need to grab a new CMOS battery for sure. Then figure out the hard drive situation – probably need a new drive and install an operating system from scratch.
It’s always like this with old hardware projects, isn’t it? You fix one thing, and two other problems pop up. But hey, at least it powers on now. That’s step one checked off. Now for the real work. Ugh.
