[jeffr6596]

I am the director of a developmental disability agency.  I purchased a few desktop computers from the state where I live.  I knew when they sold them they had to "clean" them.  I assumed they would still boot or at least boot from disk.  I get nothing on the screen.  No bios, no f2 shortcuts, no booting from a windows xp full version cd,  etc.  I pulled the hard drive from the computer and connected to my current desktop through sata/ide cable. Nothing!

 

I don't know what he did when he cleaned it.  Neither does he because I called him and he said I just clean them and I can't share that process because of security reasons.  At this point I have 5 boat anchors.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

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What make and model are we talking?  Laptop or desktop?

 

Do they power up?

 

Do you see anything when they boot?

 

What did they have on them before they were cleaned?

 

Have you verified that the RAM is still there?

 

When you pulled the hard drive and connected it to your working PC was the drive visible to your PC?

[RKinner]

What make and model are we talking?  Laptop or desktop?

 

Do they power up?

 

Do you see anything when they boot?

 

What did they have on them before they were cleaned?

 

Have you verified that the RAM is still there?

 

When you pulled the hard drive and connected it to your working PC was the drive visible to your PC?

[jeffr6596]

What make and model are we talking?  Laptop or desktop?

 

Do they power up?

 

Do you see anything when they boot?

 

What did they have on them before they were cleaned?

 

Have you verified that the RAM is still there?

 

When you pulled the hard drive and connected it to your working PC was the drive visible to your PC?

 

 

 

HP DC7900 small form factor Desktop

They do power up

Nothing happens on the screen (tried multiple monitors)

Previously had vista on them

RAM is still present

HDD was not visible to my pc

[RKinner]

Do you get a green or a red light once it powers up?  Do you hear any beeps?  

 

Is there any sign that they might have had a graphics card installed that might have been removed?  (any empty slot covers missing?)  It's possible that it had a graphics card installed which automatically disables the built-in graphics. Then the card was removed.   In that case you need to clear the CMOS.  

1. Turn off the unit.

2. Disconnect the AC power cord from the outlet and/or system unit.

3. Remove the chassis hood (cover) and insure that no LEDs on the system board are

illuminated.

4. On the system board, press and hold the CMOS clear button (switch SW50, colored yellow)

for at least 5 seconds.

5. Replace the chassis hood (cover).

6. Reconnect the AC power cord to the outlet and/or system unit.

7. Turn the unit on.

From 4.4.1 in http://www.hp.com/ct...l/c01549447.pdf

 

 

If that was the problem then it should at least talk to your monitor when it boots up and it should let you go into the BIOS/CMOS setup and set the boot order so that it will look at the CD/DVD first before the hard drive.

 

The hard drive probably no longer has an MBR.  In that case you can usually see the hard drive in Disk Management but not in Explorer.  (Right click on (My) Computer and select Manage then Disk management (under Storage).  Then look in the bottom right pane.  You may need to scroll down to see it.  It will not have a letter.

[jeffr6596]

Do you get a green or a red light once it powers up?  Do you hear any beeps?  

 

Is there any sign that they might have had a graphics card installed that might have been removed?  (any empty slot covers missing?)  It's possible that it had a graphics card installed which automatically disables the built-in graphics. Then the card was removed.   In that case you need to clear the CMOS.  

1. Turn off the unit.

2. Disconnect the AC power cord from the outlet and/or system unit.

3. Remove the chassis hood (cover) and insure that no LEDs on the system board are

illuminated.

4. On the system board, press and hold the CMOS clear button (switch SW50, colored yellow)

for at least 5 seconds.

5. Replace the chassis hood (cover).

6. Reconnect the AC power cord to the outlet and/or system unit.

7. Turn the unit on.

From 4.4.1 in http://www.hp.com/ct...l/c01549447.pdf

 

 

If that was the problem then it should at least talk to your monitor when it boots up and it should let you go into the BIOS/CMOS setup and set the boot order so that it will look at the CD/DVD first before the hard drive.

 

The hard drive probably no longer has an MBR.  In that case you can usually see the hard drive in Disk Management but not in Explorer.  (Right click on (My) Computer and select Manage then Disk management (under Storage).  Then look in the bottom right pane.  You may need to scroll down to see it.  It will not have a letter.

 

Sorry for starting a thread and then abandoning it.  Two days after I started the thread I herniated a disk in my back and have been out for a while. You were spot on.  The only other problem was they left a jumper on the motherboard which caused a short when I plugged it in and fried the mother board on two of the computers.  By doing what is suggested above on the others I was able to salvage them.

 

 

Lessons learned.  Thanks for your input.

Edited by jeffr6596, 11 February 2015 - 07:22 AM.

[RKinner]

No problem with the delay.  Life gets in the way sometimes.  Glad I could help and thanks for the feedback.