If by "battery" you mean CMOS battery, that will display diagnostic codes on the screen. No such codes appear now. In 2008 I replaced the CMOS battery; the screen codes told me exactly what was wrong. A that time I could do the repair myself, but I know my limits. The present repair is beyond my ability. On Thursday, July 10, 2025 at 12:25:33 PM EDT, Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote: Battery. B On Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 11:46 AM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hello and welcome to the group Just a quick question or two and a couple of pointers on what to check.
You say the fan comes on so you know it has power. Do you see any other lights on including keyboard lights?
If you see no other lights and no signs of life other than the power fan,it seems to me as if you have AC power only and you don’t have any DC power.
Which means the power supply is not functioning properly, probably a blown fuse.
With the storms we’ve been having lately I wouldn’t be surprised.
Because of its age, the power supply needs to be tested completely and to be made sure that it has parts that are 100% reliable.
This, I am sure, can be done at any of the up upcoming repair workshops at InfoAge wall Township nj.
While we do not have all of the parts to fix everything, we can certainly help you test it out and see if the power supply is working properly.
Other things can be tested as well if the power supply works, sometimes a deep dive can be done, depending on how much time there is. If you’re handy with a multimeter,
You can do a quick test checking for 12 V and 5 v @ the connectors for the floppy drive or hard drive or even the motherboard. I personally have not been to attend any of the workshops recently and this weekend has a big swap meet up in North Jersey, so I will not be there at a workshop on Sunday for sure. So I figured this might get you started !
Mike Rosen
Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.
On Jul 10, 2025, at 11:33 AM, cuesnj--- via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "cuesnj@aim.com" <cuesnj@aim.com> To: "vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org" <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Bcc: Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:01:37 +0000 (UTC) Subject: REPAIRING IBM 386 PS/2 PC Jeff Brace (see below) referred me to your groups as ones that might help me with the issue I described in my Jul. 8 email to him. Would be delighted to hear from you. Jesus A. DiazElizabeth, NJ
Hello Jesus, Our local chapter (MARCH) which operates out of InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, NJ has a discussion list where you might be able to get local members to help you: https://lists.vcfed.org/mailman/listinfo/vcf-midatlanticWe also have a repair workshop once a month: https://vcfed.org/repair-workshops-at-infoage/. The next one is this weekend. There are lots of people that can help.There is also our online Forum: forum.vcfed.org where you can post your questions to the world and get answers. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Jeff Brace
On Tue, Jul 8, 2025 at 12:02 PM cuesnj@aim.com <cuesnj@aim.com> wrote:
I have an IBM 386 PS/2 PC that has served me well since I bought it years ago. It's having a problem now: When I press the power switch, I hear the fan (if I put my hand in front of the fan, feel the air coming out of the machine). On the screen I get the words NO SIGNAL. The normal DOS-loading screens do not show. The floppy drive light does not light up. Because A - - - > C is the boot sequence, that the floppy light does not come on suggests the boot sequence does not begin. All data are backed up; I'm at no risk of losing anything. I'm considering repairing the unit, if that's possible, for the reason I go on to describe. I taught college for 30+ years, so many files in the PC are formatted in Word Perfect 5.1 & an early version of Microsoft Word. Though I retired from f/t work I adjunct regularly. Occasionally, an old file, in its original version or edited, is what I need for a class or another project. On my Windows 11 machine I have recent versions of Word Perfect & Word, where I can open these files. But this requires substantial reformatting, which takes time. In other words, in my Windows 11 PC I can open & print the fifes archived in the 386, but have to devote a lot of time to reformatting. I would like to print files directly from the 386, where conversion and reformatting are not necessary. Basic documents make it through the conversion process better than those that are heavily formatted. Most of my documents are heavily formatted. I know that recent versions of Windows claim they run DOS programs. In the Windows Search function, look for "open an MS-DOS program from a command prompt window" and/or ""allocating system resources for an MS-DOS based programs." I have not tried these options but, even if they work, I would rather spend my time on things other than learning the tricks to run this option. Repairing a 386 doesn't make financial sense, but it makes time-efficiency sense. Taking the machine to a repair shop would probably not work; these shops work on newer machines. Among the members of your organization, are there people who might take the challenge?
Jesus A. DiazElizabeth, NJ