kjoh wrote on 2022-01-20, 16:42:

Good-day, folks. […]
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Good-day, folks.

I have a dumpster-pulled Compaq Deskpro that I can't get a rise out of. It has a PII-400 cpu, 64M Ram, ATI Rage Pro turbo graphics card (AGP). The hard drive had XP on it, and was readable on another machine.

It does not boot, nor provide any video output at all. No beep codes. I have one of those PC POST diagnostic cards, and when I can get anything at all out of it, it reads 99-66-01 (END). None of these POST codes seem to make any sense when I look them up on the web.

I've checked power rails and they all seem to be good. At first, I thought I had a Eureka moment when the Power-Good line measured weird, until I found out the power supply is not standard for that line.

I've checked all electrolytics I can see, de-oxied all edge connectors, to no avail. I do suspect the power supply, and I haven't cracked it open yet.

I would really like to resurrect this beast. Can anyone provide any further steps in trouble-shooting that I'm missing? (picture attached).

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Vogons 😀

It's a fairly basic start, but always worth checking - have you tried with a fresh coin cell battery?

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2022-01-21, 12:38:

kjoh wrote on 2022-01-20, 16:42:

Good-day, folks. […]
Show full quote

Good-day, folks.

I have a dumpster-pulled Compaq Deskpro that I can't get a rise out of. It has a PII-400 cpu, 64M Ram, ATI Rage Pro turbo graphics card (AGP). The hard drive had XP on it, and was readable on another machine.

It does not boot, nor provide any video output at all. No beep codes. I have one of those PC POST diagnostic cards, and when I can get anything at all out of it, it reads 99-66-01 (END). None of these POST codes seem to make any sense when I look them up on the web.

I've checked power rails and they all seem to be good. At first, I thought I had a Eureka moment when the Power-Good line measured weird, until I found out the power supply is not standard for that line.

I've checked all electrolytics I can see, de-oxied all edge connectors, to no avail. I do suspect the power supply, and I haven't cracked it open yet.

I would really like to resurrect this beast. Can anyone provide any further steps in trouble-shooting that I'm missing? (picture attached).

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Vogons 😀

It's a fairly basic start, but always worth checking - have you tried with a fresh coin cell battery?

Hi, thanks for your response. Yes, it was one of the first things I checked, and it was in fact dead. I didn't have a replacement, so during testing I've been providing 3v from a bench power supply.

That's one dusty power supply. I'm going to clean it up and inspect if anything's amiss (eg broken solder joints, etc.)

Replaced RAM?

Prob should recap it anyway. i've seen many boards that 'looked good' but would give no post, until a recap.

>> when I can get anything at all out of it, it reads 99-66-01 (END)

I need to correct something: I goofed when I said "99-66-01", it's actually "99-BB-01". "BB" is apparently "Boot attempt failed(diskette or fixed)", but I'm pretty sure it never gets to the point of reading the disk.

Interestingly, after trying a reset of the CMOS settings, I did get a "16" which is "Battery power was lost". Which tells me something is happening, not sure what.

Maybe the floppy and IDE controllers are not functioning, and it may be that a recap is required (thanks drosse1meyer).

Why is there no video? Unfortunately, I do not have a spare VGA card lying around to eliminate that line of enquiry.