[CentOS] OT: (a) Biostar or MSI mainboard? (b) all Celeron CPU's OK?

On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 9:53 PM, John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com> wrote:
> Lanny Marcus wrote:
<snip>
> the PSU in your Dimension 2400 (a celeron system with the i845gv
> chipset) may not work with a PCI-Express motherboard as they've changed
> hte PSU spec to require significantly more +12V than in older ATX
> designs.   Also, Dell is fairly notorious for using PSUs that are just
> barely adequate for the system as originally configured.

John: Now that the holidays are over, I plan to take the box for the
motherboard repairman to look at the motherboard and power supply.
Hopefully, Monday or Tuesday.

I did discover that the fan (Exhaust?) for the  CPU Shroud is dead. I
have suspected a heating problem....

Today, I wanted to put in another hard drive, in case of a disaster
when the box is in the shop. I now know why the Dell (Spanish
language) manual does not show how to remove a hard drive in the
Dimension 2400 series. Took off the bezel, expecting to find 2 or 3
screws holding the HD in place, as in our Compaq Evo and 3 other Dell
Dimension boxes. No screws there. They must have some special method
of installing hard drives in the factory and/or some special tool. It
is going to go to the shop with my hard drive in it, instead of one
that has nothing important on it. I did a backup today... I could see
two (2) screws. One I could get to. The other one, they must have a
special tool in the factory.... And, they never anticipated anyone
replacing a hard drive in a Dell Dimension 2400 box? I'm sure it can
be done, but not like in our other desktop boxes, where it's a snap.

I won the box in a raffle, which is like a gift from God, so I can't
complain, but that's another reason (in addition to the USD$237 cost
of a new motherboard delivered to our house) I probably will not buy
another Dell.

Hoping he can figure out why the four (4) Diagnostic Lights on the
motherboard are Yellow (the Capacitors I can see look OK, if that's a
way to judge them...). If nothing else, the damage was probably caused
by overheating.....

All of the other symptoms, some of which were major, went away, after
I seated all the connectors, RAM, etc.    :-)

If the Power Supply needs replacing, hopefully any Generic ATX PSU
will be OK. As you wrote, they stopped using Proprietary connectors.
That is a big "PLUS".  :-)

I saw a Foxconn sticker on the motherboard, which surprised me. I
think years ago, Dell put  Intel OEM motherboards into Dimension
boxes.

Thanks for your help on this! Lanny