My Dell PC just died- HELP

maysoo

I was just given a lightly used 5-6 year old Dell Dimension 2300 which has beenunused for the last 7 months. i bought for it a uSB ethernet adaptor and coonected it to my broadband router and spent yesterday downloading all the Microsoft updates for it's Windows Xp including Service pack 3 and then enjoyed it's fast surfing for the rest of the day. I then switch off (with the correct Start etc switch off routine) and when I pressed the ON button today I only hear a single clunck noise (like a safety trip sound) from the power supply, and the front Power & Hard Drive Activity lights are off. If I disconnect the mains lead and reconnect after say 15 seconds I get the clunck sound again ( but I don't get it if I disconnect and quickly reconnect the mains cable). I disconnected and took the power supply out and it still makes this clunck noise on connecting to mains. I am worried that it looks like the power supply had failed but why it died so soon after being left unused for so long? and whether the fault is in some other component inside (which means I would burn out another replacement supply if I buy one) . Any ideas what I should do . I hate thinking about going to a PC Repair shop

spakkker

Try another power supply. You can get them from £10 , ring around. I've had 2 go bad on me and they didn't damage any other parts.
Hope it's not a special dell psu.

spud17

Agree with spakker, the clunk is the overload protection kicking in, although I've never actually heard it before.
By disconnecting and waiting you give it time to reset itself.

Forgot to add, the reason it has failed now, could be that downloading and installing SP3 and the other updates, i.e. fairly intensive use, pushed it over the edge.
It's been lying around for a few months, the fan could be sticky, and caused it to overheat and a component fail.

totalsolutions

Return it under the 28 day rule and ask for a new working model. Just a thought...

PSU gone to heaven or where ever they go...Try another. Nothings free in this world, try for a replacement or your money back plus costs......

spud17

totalsolutions wrote: »

Return it under the 28 day rule and ask for a new working model. Just a thought...

PSU gone to heaven or where ever they go...Try another. Nothings free in this world, try for a replacement or your money back plus costs......

I was just given a lightly used 5-6 year old Dell Dimension 2300 which has beenunused for the last 7 months.

Hmmmmm. :think:

maysoo

Thanks to Spud17 and SPAKKKER,
i think Dell use special power supplies so ity's a case of find someone that has one of these for sale , presume 2nd hand. Are there any reputable power supply repair guys out there?

spud17

They did use special PSUs at one time, but I don't know when that finished.
As to repairing, if it's not a 'special' then it's not worthwhile, even it was a special, I don't think it would be worthwhile.

spud17

Is it a standard tower, or one of the small form factor ones?

I'm not sure they did sff of this model, but if your current psu is
150mm across the AC input side
140mm deep
85mm high then it's a standard ATX size.

200 watts seems to be the standard fitment, a replacement should be at least that.

E.g. one on ebay , nothing to do with me, but if it was me I'd buy a new one, probably around the same money, after checking it had all the correct connections, especially if you have need of a separate cpu connector.

THIS could be useful.

devizes18193

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GPCK_en-GBGB359GB359&q=dell+dimension+2300+power+supply&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK|countryGB&aq=f&oq=