Power issue perhaps?

iwanttosave_2

I've just got a second hand Dell Dimension 1100 form my Aunt, it was working fine at her house.

Brought it home and got it out to give it a hoover out (full of dust) and get rid of the junk on it. However when we got it hooked up, switched it on and the lights came on and fans kicked in however no signal was being received from the monitor. Switched it off, rechecked the leads and tried switching it back on, this time nothing, no lights, no fans.

All the leads in side are fine, nothing untoward on the motherboard or anywhere, CPU light comes on but thats about it.

I've tried the monitor lead in the PC but still nothing so I'm thinking its the power supply in the unit, any other ideas?

Thanks x

robredz

Did you touch any of the internals with the hoover? you may have dislodged something or fried it with static. Is the memory seated correctly?

iwanttosave_2

robredz wrote: »

Did you touch any of the internals with the hoover? you may have dislodged something or fried it with static. Is the memory seated correctly?

Memory is fine, it was one of the first things I checked.

He did use the hoover but claims it was only on the heatsink and round the hard drive casing, he used a clean unused paint brush on the motherboard. If its fried though I would have thought the CPU light would fail?

I've checked all the components and they all look fine, nothing dislodged there.

fwor

An outside chance if it's a few years old is that the CMOS backup battery has died - on some boards they drain quicker while the mains is disconnected.

They typically use a CR2032 coin cell which should be putting out 3V if it's ok.

robredz

If the cmos battery has died, the PC should still POST (power on self test) and go to or prompt to go to the CMOS setup. The paintbrush could cause static.

iwanttosave_2

So what would you try? A new motherboard?

I've read on the internet that you can cross the green and black wires to test the power supply to rule out supply vs motherboard, would this be worth trying?

How much am I looking at if its the motherboard?

DatabaseError

yep, paperclip mod will rule out the PSU
CPU light...er...would that be LAN light?
any beeps, buzzes brrs etc..?

even though all the leads etc..are fine, just to be sure, unplug and replug each one, also remove and reinsert the ram and the graphics card.
is the 4 pin motherboard connecter fit?

robredz

If the advice from tonyhague doesn't solve it consider:

How old is the PC? Dell often use custom boards with onboard graphics and little upgrade potential. if it is more than about 3 years old it may not be worth bothering with.. The power supply may be on its way out and giving enough power to allow a light. I have had a couple of Q-Tec PSU's go this way and Dell are not overgenerous in the output of their PSU.

iwanttosave_2

tonyhague wrote: »

yep, paperclip mod will rule out the PSU
CPU light...er...would that be LAN light?
any beeps, buzzes brrs etc..?

even though all the leads etc..are fine, just to be sure, unplug and replug each one, also remove and reinsert the ram and the graphics card.
is the 4 pin motherboard connecter fit?

Sorry, mean the LED on the motherboard.

No beeps, no whirring, no spinning of the hard drive, nadda.

I've being doing everything from the second paragraph over and over, everything has been pulled out/replaced, pushed in, taken out ect.

I'll have to get some instructions on the net on how to do the shorting of the PSU. I believe PSU's for these machines are quite cheap so I'm hoping its this.

iwanttosave_2

robredz wrote: »

If the advice from tonyhague doesn't solve it consider:

How old is the PC? Dell often use custom boards with onboard graphics and little upgrade potential. if it is more than about 3 years old it may not be worth bothering with.. The power supply may be on its way out and giving enough power to allow a light. I have had a couple of Q-Tec PSU's go this way and Dell are not overgenerous in the output of their PSU.

It is about 2/3 years old to be honest, not sure though. So basically, if its not the PSU then to scrap it?

robredz

Check this out the psu is woefully inadequate 220 watt max

http://apcmag.com/forum.htm?g=posts&m=1601