Ask the Experts / AAAGGGHHH....Crappucino for my PC

Ok, Saturday night I'm browsing, building and all the typical shit and out of NOWHERE, my screen goes black and the LED on the monitor goes amber. I tried, unsuccessfully, to reboot (probably a dozen times) to no avail. Yesterday, I wake up...try it again and it....like.....WANTS to boot but, somewhere during the process (and I am seeing the boot screens and everything), it goes black again. I repeat the process again about a dozen times and my PC finally reboots and I'm on it for like..6-7 hours, thinking everything is ok when.....yep, goes black again. It was late, I was buzzed and I just said fuck it I'll try tomorrow. Tried another dozen times or so today and, absolutely nothing. I turn it on, hear the 'beep' and the LED stays amber.

Thankfully, I saved my old Compaq with Win98 that's allowing me to post here (wife told me to toss it but I just hid it in the garage). Fucking NOTHING runs with Win98 anymore (flash, java...everything says it doesn't run on this OS) and, I know...I tried all day to update shit.

Worst part, to me anyway, is everything I've done in RCT for the last 3 years (which is just about everything I've done) is on the malfunctioning PC. ODH, KKTR and EVERYTHING I'VE DONE since I actually kinda figured out how to do this game properly. All my objects, trainers....everything. Which would kind of motivate me to just say fuck it. And, I DON'T want to do that.

I first thought 'video card' but, when it DID boot up yesterday, everything worked fine. Thing is....I can't tell (because the monitor never turns on) whether my SYSTEM is booting up or not. I'm using the same monitor here so, it's not the monitor.

The defunct PC is running XP Home with AMD Sempron processor and a VisionTek (ATI)X1550 256MB card.

I won't say that I'll suck your dick if you can help me here but, I'll try to get Kevin to. Wait......bad motivation. I'll just be EXTREMELY thankful to anyone that can help me figure this out.

It's seriously like my RCT 'career' is in your hands.

Edited by K0NG, 07 September 2009 - 10:08 PM.

Hmm, what you could try is taking the HDD out of it, and put it in another computer, and boot from that one (if that works), then you can copy your data (RCT stuff, Music, Videos etc) to an external HDD. Then that is saved, after that you can do 2 things, try to fix your pc yourself (if you know how to) or bring it to a computer repairman to fix it. But the first thing I would recommand is trying to backup your pc. 

But I am not that smart with computers, so maybe someone else can give their ideas too? 

(Btw, a tip for in the future KONG, buy (if you have not one yet) an external HDD, and save your parks every 2 weeks / every month to it  

External HDD's are not that expensive anymore (Here it is 80 euros for 1 TB (1000 GB). 

Already thought of that (switching the HDD) but, the CP I'm on now has a different OS (Win98 vs XP) so, I'm thinking that won't work. I'm not a complete idiot here....just half....so, I HAVE thought through/tried a few options. I just don't want to do something that paralyzes both comps and leaves me stranded on an island with a soccer ball named Travis as my only friend.

Edited by K0NG, 08 September 2009 - 02:25 AM.

Already thought of that (switching the HDD) but, the CP I'm on now has a different OS (Win98 vs XP) so, I'm thinking that won't work. I'm not a complete idiot here....just half....so, I HAVE thought through/tried a few options. I just don't want to do something that paralyzes both comps and leaves me stranded with a soccer ball named Travis as my only friend.

Yes, it will work even with a different version of Windows. If you hook it up as the primary drive, it'll boot from it. If that works, great, burn your stuff to CD and fix your PC. If it doesn't boot like that, hook the original HDD up, hook your broken computer's HDD up as a secondary drive, then access the files. Even if Windows doesn't know the file type, it'll still let you copy the files.

-ACE

There are lots of things that you could do, but you are limited to what you have. Troubleshooting a problem is all about trying things to find out where the problem lies and then fixing it. To me it sounds like the power supply is probably at fault, but I would hate for you to order a new one and not have the problem fixed if it isn't.

Since saving your parks sounds like the ultimate goal, you could give the swapping harddrives a try. I'm guessing both harddrives are IDE. Here is a picture of what the IDE connection looks like, it's the top one:

http://www.spywaredr...sata-ide_lg.jpg

The bottom one is SATA, IDE is older and most likely what you have. You can take the harddrive out of your XP machine, change the jumper setting on the back to slave, put that in your 98 machine, boot it up and then just copy the files that you want saved to the other harddrive.

To possibly get your XP machine working again you could take off the side panel, and take a picture of the power supply and post it here. From there I could suggest a replacement power supply from newegg.com and it's pretty simple to replace. Really, working inside a PC is like a 5 piece jigsaw puzzle once you are have compatible parts. A Power supply will probably run you about $30 shipped, depending on how much power you need to replace.

These are all things that you could do, maybe you could just find a pc repair shop nearby and tell them you don't want anything on the harddrive messed up. Or, bring the PC to Missouri and I'll hook you up. Heh.

so the screen doesn't start?
sound like the problem I have. do you have an onboard videocard in your computer also? if so try to take out your normal videocard and plug the monitor in the onboard videocard. then boot it again and see if that works. if so its a videocard problem. if not its probally a mobo problem and your screwed. then you first need to make sure you backup your data by the way described here above.

[f [ts not the video card it could be a power supply problem.

I'd be willing to be Kevin Enns' life that it's a power supply issue.

The first thing I'd do is connect your hdd to your 98 box. Use one of these. I'm not voting for or against that particular model, but you get the idea. You just slide your current hard drive in, connect the power and ide cable.... then connect the box to your usb port on your pc. Bing Bang Boom, you've got yourself an external hard drive! copy your data to the old 98 box, then your free to wipe your old harddrive if you wish.... reformat, and it's a clean slate to keep and use with any pc that you end up settling with.

Sorry Todd, you just killed Kevin (in a perfect world, anyway).

Spent a couple hours today doing trial and error shit....I actually had a spare power box that was the same as what's in my machine, even though my HD IS SATA (but has receptacles for IDE)....

It all points to my MoBo. Which, actually, is ok because the fucking current board only has AGP and PCI slots (no PCIE...which has caused me to stress over video cards already more than once. WHY this relatively new machine (2years old) has NO PCIE slot is beyond me) so I'm actually HAPPY that I have to replace the MoBo now so that I can use the MONSTER PCIE video card that I won in a poker game.

So, now that I know what's what.....I'll hit Fry's tomorrow, score a new MoBo and get back to building.

I want to thank everyone that took the time to help me here.

Seriously...it's MUCH appreciated.

BTW, Todd.........do you realize that you offered to BE Kevins life? ( I figured that you meant "bet", so I left it alone until I re-read your post again.)

Edited by K0NG, 12 September 2009 - 01:00 AM.

sweeeeet:]]

thats good to hear!

Actually...it's not all that sweet just yet. I decided that I'm gonna have an 'expert' diagnose it ($9.99USD) before I purchase anything. I'd hate to buy a sweet new MoBo only to find out that that's not actually the problem. Even though I think I'm gonna replace the MoBo either way so I can get that badass video card installed. Still could be the RAM or maybe even the CPU itself so......I wanna make sure and, finding someone that will do the diagnosis for $9.99 (applied to a MAX of $39.99 for ANY repair plus the cost of hardware).....although I might just pay the $9.99 for the diagnosis and do the repairs myself once I KNOW what the issue is. I figure that's probably the best way to go. Better safe than sorry.

One thing that I DO know for sure.....not touching RCT for 10 days really lessens the 'need' to fire it up.
Last time I had something like this happen, it was almost 2 years before I played again. Not that that will happen this time but......it's easy to see how one can be spending FAR too much time playing a game on a daily basis when that game is taken from one........even temporarily.

OR....maybe fate just stepped in at the EXACT time I needed to get a little break from RCT, recharge my batteries and get a fresh start after the last few months of sort of being overwhelmed by the game. Who knows? Maybe I'll even finish something!?!?!?!?!

Edited by K0NG, 14 September 2009 - 02:16 AM.

Double post but, so the fuck what. Finally caught my neighbor (who does computer work but, is always out of town doing it) and he somehow got my onboard graphics to enable. Took about 10 minutes for him to determine that it's actually my hard drive. SO, I've pretty much lost everything. I DO have all of my utilities and everything on the Win98 comp (which I copied over to my main comp when I got it....I have one of those USB "Netlinker" things that transfers files from one comp to another) but, it only works with functional drives so, I think I've lost everything that's on that HD. Sucks...but what doesn't, huh?

Good news is...he gave me the MoBo to go along with the video card I won from him (guess he felt bad for me) so, my "new" comp will be a motherfucker that should even run RCT3 with minimal lag. Not that I'm into RCT3 but, at least I know I'll be able to play that when I get bored with RCT2 instead of just porn surfing. Ehhhhh....that just hit me...I lost all my porn too! AAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

Anyway....couple of DDR2 sticks, a new, better HD and I'll have basically a brand new, MUCH better machine to play with.

Sucks that I'm losing everything that I did in RCT2 for the last 2 1/2 years but, that might be a good thing......I can get the objects and shit...HATE losing a couple of things like ODH (which I WILL re-do and submit, it's ingrained in my head) and a couple of other newer things...plus anything I had that actually were finished and won contests, but, I can always DL those from the sites.

EVERYTHING happens for a reason...I accept that and think that a fresh start on my part might not be such a bad thing after all. I just know, right now, that I CAN get RCT going tonight and get busy again.....and, that makes me happy.

If it's never happened to you.......reading these forums and seeing others build and show things and having your hands tied in as much as YOU can't do a DAMN thing but see others people's work for ten days........

Damn, I might need RCT Rehab.

Then, I read Wolfmans posts and figure that I'm ALL good.

Edited by K0NG, 14 September 2009 - 10:00 PM.

:[

dang man, thats rough to hear.

i'm glad you have a good attitude about it though.
i'm happy you're not all like, 'ehh i lost everything, so screw it.' lol


so i guess i just gotta wait even longer for ODH:/

Edited by In:Cities, 14 September 2009 - 09:52 PM.

dont know whats wrong with your HDD but if the disk itsself isn't damaged you could send it to a recovery service or try to buy a same type of disk and replace the chips etc from one to the other.

So.. does this mean RCT noob can take RCYRF from LDW?

^ Sure, why not. Everything I did is history so, who whoever wants to do whatever is fine with me.

Losing the majority of my RCT work would have a huge impact on me. It's not just a computergame, it's a hobby and an art. I'm sorry to hear this has happened to you...

The fun will return quickly, however. I experienced something similar years ago, and having a fresh start with RCT is very motivating. If I didn't lose my old project back then, maybe I wouldn't be here like this now.

And for that reason also I have 2 backup disks, one internal and one external, all my important stuff I copy to that every week once. 

(Yes, I lost a lot of data a while back, even my almost finished design (not advertised). 

Hey i too know the feeling of losing everything to a bad hard drive i don't know if this helps but when you get your pc up and running i would be willing to send you a copy of any custom rides or scenery dats i have which is a hell of a lot.

Then, I read Wolfmans posts and figure that I'm ALL good.

Yeah? Well...
WHATEVER!!!


Anyway, if you survived loosing all your parks, and you STILL feel good about it...
You've already completed the 12 step program of RCT Withdrawal.
Noplace to go but up... right?

Edited by Wolfman, 20 September 2009 - 03:19 PM.