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Dave Kreskowiak wrote: the cheapest way to get it is to take the drive out and put it into an enclosure or hard drive dock for your type of drive. It'll connect to a new machine over USB and you can get the data.
 exactly
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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good info! thank you!
diligent hands rule....
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That's far too broad a question for any kind of specific answer: "won't power up" could mean anything.
Start with what it does do: Do lights come on? Does it beep? Do you get anything on the display? Does Windows try to load?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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no any light, no any beep
diligent hands rule....
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First premise then is dead PSU or blown fuse. If you have a multimeter, I'd start by disconnecting all the PSU cables and checking the 5V and 12V rails. Nothing there means the PSU is dead or the plug fuse (if fitted, they are in the UK) is blown.
If that shows good values, then the motherboard is fried and I'd try a USB IDE/PATA/SATA/ disk reader to see if it's still alive - I'd not connect it directly to any computer I actually liked, which is why I have one of those readers ... they are pretty cheap from Fleabay / Hamazon.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Got it! Thank you OG!
diligent hands rule....
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Back in the dark ages, IBM came out to do a new computer installation for us at the college. They simply could not get the disk drives to power up. After a few minutes, I asked them, "Are they plugged in?" The two CEs looked at each other and then started popping up the floor tiles. They were surprised to see that they had failed to plug the drives in!
Moral: Check the obvious things first: AC power, cord, fuse, power supply...etc.
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19 years  i agree, dropping the HDD into a temporary USB case or different box to retrieve the data might be most practical, unless you have other antique boxes you can scavenge parts from.
Ha, you beat out my best roun'toit record. <grin> You are correct that the cmos battery will need changing first off. Count beeps if any, note any MB LEDs that light up, then search for beep codes and a MB Manual.pdf for that model.
May very likely also need to borrow/swap out the PSU from a different old beater box, before buying a new one.
Good luck ~John
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I moved from east coast to west coast....
diligent hands rule....
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Since you moved I would start by suggesting to disassemble/disconnect everything (PSU,RAM,CPU, CMOS battery, and any IDE/SATA/sound/CD-ROM/etc cables), maybe take the chance to clean everything, and reassemble again. It is most likely that something came loose.
Even if you haven't moved the PC, I would still do it because things might still be loose. On old computers the tolerances for the parts were not as good as today and the attachments were not as secure so, even the vibration of the fans and hard drives spinning might loosen components, specially on weaker cases.
If that does not work, disassemble again and test mounting things one at a time (or use the first disassembly to do that). Below is a small list of steps.
But first some general advice:
Read all the steps before starting to make sure you understand what is going to happen.
Never forget to power off between each of the following steps.
After step 3 reset your BIOS after each step (some motherboards only re-detect fundamental hardware if you reset the BIOS).
On success move to the next step. On failure you probably found the culprit.
1- Start by testing the PSU while disconnected from any device (you can find tutorials online for ATX PSUs. For AT PSUs just press the power button). If the fan spins, it is probably Ok. This test might not work for more modern zero RPM PSUs but your system is too old for that.
2- Connect the PSU to the motherboard without having anything else attached (no CPU/RAM/CMOS battery/etc) except the buzzer and power button (if it is an ATX PSU). Some motherboards will beep if they cannot detect the CPU. That will tell you that your motherboard BIOS is probably Ok. Either way move on to the next step.
3- Connect the CPU and its cooler (you do not want to burn your possibly good CPU) and power on. The motherboard will complain/beep about missing RAM.
4- Insert only one memory module. Check the manual of the board on which slot that has to be or recursively try one at a time. If it does not work with one try another module if you have one. The first module you used might be bad. On success the motherboard will complain about the graphics card (if it is not onboard). If the graphics card is onboard go to the next step.
5- Insert a graphics card. If the motherboard complains about the graphics card, try another. If the graphics card is onboard, disable it if possible (some motherboards have a jumper to enable/disable onboard graphics) and insert a dedicated graphics card. On success the PC will POST and complain about missing boot device.
6- Connect any hard drives and everything else except (PCI/ISA/PCIe) cards since they might be bad and prevent a successful system boot. If the system boots
7- Try to insert every other card, one at a time and boot the system.
8- insert the CMOS battery. I left this one for last on purpose because most PCs will POST and boot without a CMOS battery (not true for most modern laptops) and I have seen motherboards in the past that were not POSTing due to a short/rust in the battery holder/connector. If in step 3 you get no beeps with a known good RAM module try inserting the CMOS battery. When in doubt, test each step without and with the battery.
Good luck 
PS: Just for the record my oldest PC still working is a Compaq ProLinea 4/33 from 1993 running MSDOS 7.1 
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This is the best answer.
Incidently, I have a 2006 HP/Compaq Pavilion SR1820NX running Windows 7 Pro/XP Pro for old hardware.
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Southmountain wrote: back up some personal data from it.
If you haven't had any use for the data in 20 years, I'd say it's pretty irrelevant. Leave it and scrap the computer is my recommendation. 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
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If the machine is that old, it may very well have PATA/IDE disks, not SATA.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Open it up and see first. I'll bet it's sata
My thermaltake black-x came with an adapter for ide. But it's fiddly.
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Peter_in_2780 wrote: If the machine is that old, it may very well have PATA/IDE disks, not SATA.
I still have a working USB 1.0 case from 2004 / 2005.
The 32 GB HDD inside (an old seagate) is still working
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I still have my old Dell Pentium-something tower that came with Windows ME (ptui ptui ptui). Late 2000.
Installing XP when it appeared the next year was a lifesaver.
Under a hundred gigs of 5.25 HDD, 3.5 and 5.25 floppies, CD...
I think I stretched the RAM to 256MB.
I upgraded the dialup modem to 56kbps.
Ah, the good old days....
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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thanks for the link!
diligent hands rule....
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I agree, what could possibly be relevant after 20 years?
Unless games for a retro build?
The less you need, the more you have.
Why is there a "Highway to Hell" and only a "Stairway to Heaven"? A prediction of the expected traffic load?
JaxCoder.com
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Mike Hankey wrote: I agree, what could possibly be relevant after 20 years?
I saved the data of my father-in-law after an issue with an indian call center with an aprox. 12 years old 32 Bit version of FileScavenger.
Some old tools are priceless.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Awesome, definitely worth salvaging.
Good luck
The less you need, the more you have.
Why is there a "Highway to Hell" and only a "Stairway to Heaven"? A prediction of the expected traffic load?
JaxCoder.com
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you are right: games
diligent hands rule....
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I don't know if it related to your issue. But i had an HP Pavillion Laptop from 2005 who started to have strange behavior . He started to not power on everytime , sometimes it powered up , then the last day not , i had to wait few days and it powered up. The delay between the time i was able to power it increased with time until the moment it never power up again.
I thought it was a problem with my power button. I bring the laptop to repair . And the guy check and say me nothing seemed to be wrong with power supply or button. But he just clear a persistant ram and the PC worked again.
I got back the PC and it worked normally for 2 weeks.. and then started to have the same problem...
And at that moment , i just thought about planned obsolescence.
what i did , when i was able to start the PC , i went directly in the BIOS and changed the date . I went 10 years back. We were in 2016 , i set the date backto 2006.
And after that , the PC worked again normally. The problem never occurs again.
the PC worked till 2019 where it died but due to the graphic card.
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Southmountain wrote: 2002. Now I get some time to work on this PC
  that's ... 20 years ago.
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Odds are it is the power supply.
Back around that time, there was a company out of Taiwan that made the majority of the capacitors used in PC equipment (I can't remember the name off hand). These capacitors had a life expectancy of about 5 years before they would swell and blow the top into a dome-like shape. Viewsonic was one of the companies that got nailed by this problem and actually sold a repair kit to replace the capacitors in many of their displays.
You might "borrow" a power supply from some other piece of equipment and see if that makes a difference.
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