Hi,

I have recently been given an oldish computer from a friend. I would like to get it running since it has 1G or ram and two 500MHz processors, so it is by no means a slouch.

I need to get a new motherboard but since I have never really played with hardware I don't really know what it is that I need to know to replace one. I know it has to be compatible with the processors and I guess the RAM type if not manufacturer also. What else do I need to know? Ideally it would be easier to do a direct replacement, but I have googled around and been on ebay and I can't find one.

The current mobo is an ASUS p28-05, the processors are intel and the memory is infineon memory workx, I'm not sure if it is SD or DD - how can I find this out?

Any help appreciated
Thanks

You have a couple of options to find out:

If Linux is running on the box already, goto this site:
http://public.www.planetmirror.com/p...geny/discover/

Download, unzip/uncompress the data file and try installing it. It takes a bit of time to use how it works (i.e. documentation sucks).

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If you are running Windows, goto this site:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Run the Belarc Advisor and it will automatically detect everything on the box -- hardware, software, license keys, etc.

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For a drop-in, bootable CD ISO image, goto this site:
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts..._check_sx.html

The Solaris Express Installation Check Tool will determine if your system can run Solaris Express, thus will output everything hardware related to the system (i.e. drives, video, memory, etc).

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Also try out Memtest86. Although it won't give a hardware inventory, it can determine the ram type installed.

Site: http://www.memtest.org/


Hopes this helps.

-- Michael

David

Be careful when replace motherboards. If you look at your bang to buck ratio, you almost always wind up being better off buying new. A new asus AM2 motherboard starts at $55 with AM2 processors starting at $30. That extremely basic system would be much, much faster than the one you are talking about.

Good Luck
Lazlow

Hi,

Thanks for your replies, but something funny happened. I sat looking at the thing and thought it would be silly for me not to try it at least once more to check that it is really broken. Well I plugged in the power supply and it worked! The last time I tried I got nothing! So as it is at the moment I may not need a new mobo - yay

David