Yesterday I found a fan I savaged from a 486 and plugged it in into the motherboard (sob) while the machine was on. Now nothing works. When I boot up, All I got was the black screen and a front led. I can’t even get to my bios. Sometime when I reset the CMOS I got the beep (3sec pause... repeat). -The power supply checks out, the voltage looks right. the led on my mother board is on and so is my cpu fan. -My graphic card is integrated. And I’ve tried a pci card with no success. -the fan is a DC 12v 0.15A with a little 3 prong plug please help, I don’t know what to do!! @_@

Are you sure it came from a 486. Three prong plugs hadnt been invented when 486s were current and besides the CPU fans were only 20mm. Absolutley usless in a modern machine. If it is a three prong plug the third prong is for speed measurement. Plugging it in with the power on may well have blown the motherboard or the speed measuring circutry and now the BIOS thinks the CPU fan has stopped and is shutting itself down to protect the CPU. You could try resetting the CMOS which may disable the CPU Fan Power off on Failure option which will may alow you to start the computer. Plugging anything in with power on is always a gamble. Sometimes you will get away with it, sometimes it bites and I am afraid it looks like you have been bitten. Stuart

thx stuart today, I drove the machine over to a friend's place, played with the ram, and it worked. Malfunc