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Old pc keeps switching off during boot

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First post, by grahamcole23

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Hi folks

I’ve got a situation with an old Evesham pc that belonged to my Dad. Typically I need to get access to some old files on the hard drive that are only available using the software on it. This is an old filing cabinet system called PaperMaster Pro 98. Dad scanned everything into this software.

The PC will fire and go through POST and get through some of the start up processes but then switches off. Every time I switch the machine on it will only stay active for shorter and shorter periods of time. The power switch isn’t great so I have tried the power switch from an older pc that he had to no avail.

He also had an older Evesham Pc which I can fire up. However the problematic pc is on a SATA drive and the older computer that fires up doesn’t have a SATA controller on it and I don’t think the board is capable of running it.

Does anyone have thoughts on what I may be able to do to fix this problem.

I have previously tried cloning the drive but the software just won’t work in the emulator.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated

Reply 1 of 2, by elszgensa

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> I have previously tried cloning the drive

So you already have a backup? That's good. If not, make one ASAP.

> but the software just won’t work in the emulator.

Well, if that proggie is all you need then imho virtualizing it (and then possibly migrating the data to a later version that runs natively) would be the way to go, so I'd focus on troubleshooting this. Which one is "the" emulator? How did you configure it?

But if you insist on sticking to the physical machine, the first thing I'd do is try it with another, known good PSU.

Reply 2 of 2, by VivienM

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Depending on how old this machine is, I would look at the CPU cooling. Starting around the early 2000s, processors had crude safety mechanisms to avoid burning up where the power would just get cut if the CPU temperature got too high. (Newer processors have much better throttling mechanisms and may run at 1/8th their proper clock speed infinitely despite having poor cooling)

First machine I ever built was a socket 478 Willamette P4 and I mounted the HSF wrong - that thing wouldn't even make it through the full BIOS POST before turning off. Fixed the HSF mounting and that was the end of that.

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