Problem with Dell C521

starM

Hi,

I have a Dell Dimension C521 Desktop PC. When I put my computer on, it makes huge fan noise - the monitor light is on but it does not transmit sugnal from the base unit to the monitor. I have checked cables and they are connected to Base and monitor fine. I also removed monitor cable from the base and connected to my laptop to see if monitor is working. My laptop screen appeared on minitor so its nothing wrong with the monitor itself.

Any idea what should I do?

Thanks
MS

Hammyman

Does the hard drive light flash erratically or is it solidly on/off?

starM

Hammyman wrote: »

Does the hard drive light flash erratically or is it solidly on/off?

I can just see the power light which is solid on. No other lights.

rdpro

Open the case, check for bulging tops on your motherboard capacitors (the battery-type things sticking up) - it's either some of those failing or a faulty processor (the fan on full blast is commonly associated with a cpu failure in my experience).

Edit: a further test is to unplug all hard drives/cd drives, etc. and try again (might be a poorly power supply, so cutting down the power required might boot the pc).

Then take out the memory and try again. If you don't get multiple beeps when you start the PC without memory, your processor has failed.

prowla

You don't mention if there are any beeps.
I think my C521 got a bit stroppy like that when I put in some incorrect memory (it doesn't like ECC memory).
My suggestions is as per the above, but start by taking out the memory and go from there.
(Remember to unplug the PC when swapping memory - machines often have power to the motherboard even when they are shut down.)

millwalll

If you are getting no display and the tower has a dedicated graphics card. You could remove this and use the on board one to test the graphics card, its good chance it could be this.