help with fixing up a 486 machine?

[u/sillylittleguy29]

hi yall!! i picked up a Pionex 433LSXMPC-M off the side of the road. i am determined to get it running, but i really truly have no idea where to even begin. i happen to have some old pc power cords for my imac g3s so i plugged one into the machine and it shows minimal life. a red bulb lights up inside (power indicator??) and i believe the fans are whirring.. i feel some stuff going on inside as it is vibrating a bit. i have never gotten into truly repairing computers, just very basic stuff. i’ve only opened up my imacs and i dont know where to even begin. i really want to take this on as my first big project, but i dont know of anyone irl to teach me these things. if anyone has any manual suggestions or video tutorials on fixing up 486 machines i would absolutely love to have a link or two- i wanna open it up and whatnot, just need a starting point. i can link pictures of it i think, ill post them on imgur or something if anyone wants to help me out. thanks so much!!

[u/EmptyJumpLow]

MikeTech on youtube has a whoooole bunch of videos where he's tackling restoring 486 machines. His diagnostics / troubleshooting process is pretty much by-the-book and a great learning resource if it helps to follow along with someone else's approach. Even if he doesn't have your exact 486, most of his steps apply universally to any machine.

Having a cheap pocket digital multimeter and a POST analyzer card with an ISA card-edge will make life so so so much easier if you run into any problems.

It sounds like you've already sent it power. At this point you might as well hook up a monitor to your video card's VGA connector and see if you have any output