TSGL: PC has died ...

[Tilman Brandl]

Hi,

just a question. Recently I've had severe problems (probably Java-related) on my machine (XP Pro SP2). I've done a non-destructive repair which seemed to solve the problems. But then, it started to not *reboot* frequently, when I tried to .. I switched it off for a while, switched off the main switch in the back as well, tried the reset switch (which I believe does work), etc. To no avail.

Today I swapped the system HDD into my older backup machine, which I'm using now. This worked almost flawlessly, as expected. But I would still like to get the main PC to work again, at least as a (third) backup.

I've tried a different XP system drive from my backup-machine, didn't change a thing, didn't start up or show any signs of a Bios etc.. 

Now, of course there could be several different reasons for this. From my experiments I guess it must be the hardware - except the HDDs which seem fine. I've got a new PSU recently, nothing else was changed....

Question: Could a dying CMOS battery be behind all this? I've had the impression that when I left the PC sit for a while shut off e.g. overnight, it was easier to get it to work. Might be the battery did recover some ...? But how ?

Any ideas on this?
(I've ordered a new machine meanwhile)

Tilman