dell dimension dying; asking advice re affording replacement

catalina66

Hiya ... having the most godawful time trying to format ... pc won't catch that is in install mode/the OS disk ... goes into windows ... removed nvidia card and drivers fine ... still can't get main DVD drive back (from itunes wrecking it) despite having removed itunes, which was a pure pig to uninstall, as uninstallers went wrong so had to manually delete thru regedit. Noticed itunes linked with GEARaspi, which I felt must be why it's hooking the DVD-ram drive and making it vanish. Deleted those entries ... no joy ... then deleted actual pioneer entries, as Windows supposed to find DVD-ram drive and reinstall ... no ... system going SO slow is unbelievable. Been on two hours now, and no DVD drive to use for format. Can't format, or do anything. Still got two extra virtual drives somehow ... formatted those. Complete mess. Can't format, so can't bomb out today to local store to see about a PSU, as can't format anyway! Had good look in machine again; definitely no leaky capacitors or anything.
Please help!
Thanks, Cat

Laz123

I don't know whether you've tried this, but if your hidden partition is still active you can return to factory settings by pressing Ctrl and F11 together on bootup.

My Dimension 3100c is 7 years old and still going strong but I maintain it well.

gonzo127

ok first thing first, do you have a USB stick, if so i would test your system with one of the linux live disks, http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download follow usb stick installation instructions and then the 'try it' instructions. Basically this will allow you to test the hardware in a different environment to windows which will negate the possible driver issues that you might have in windows and so might show up other issues.

the other thing to consider is that NO PSU is 100% efficient, and in fact most of the best ones only have a rating of 80-90% and most of the generic 'included' PSU's only run at about 60-70% which means in all reality your current 250w PSU can probably only run at about 150-175w consistantly, ok it might be able to hit higher for short periods of time but it will be unstable if running at the higher power draws for longer, which would explain the intermittent problems in some way.

this is always interesting reading http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/psus/2010/02/22/600-700w-psu-review-round-up/1

closed

You don't need the disc if the restore partition is there, see post 33, if that doesn't work, find the manual for your system on the dell website and lookup factory restore, on more recent machines it's accessed from f8 - this will only work if you haven't wiped the partition last time you reinstalled.

What are these virtual drives you have formatted?

If you've got the same hardware as at purchase, a new psu isn't going to help.

check the dvd ram drive is visible in bios, you may need to press F12 at boot to boot from the cd

Toxteth_OGrady

closed wrote: »

If you've got the same hardware as at purchase, a new psu isn't going to help.

I believe the OP has added an 8400GS graphics card and a RAM stick since purchase.

closed

they've removed it now - post 32

it's presumably been working some time with this card in, so the psu has managed to pump out enough juice to run everything. none of the symptoms in post 1 sound psu related

the machine has a long history of dvd related problems resulting in multiple replacements , no idea what's going on unless it's itunes related, but continually buying new hardware seems a haphazard way of resolving it.

the lowest rated psu i've seen in a dell is 300w.

Toxteth_OGrady

@closed,

I think it is a possibility (5 year old oem psu with little headroom and unusual smell near psu) but without being there with a tester it's impossible to be certain.

I recommended steps for the OP to take in Post #2 in that order. Seems like OP is stuck at Step 2 but that is the next logical thing to try. I would have got to psu test/replace in step 5.

catalina66

You guys are great ...

Laz123: I'll have a go at Ctrl F11 on bootup. Many thanks and fingers crossed!

gonzo127: many thanks. I only have a little 1 meg stick, or that would have been such a great thing to try. And can see how the PSU must've been under a bit of strain more. Read through the article ... many thanks ... the SilverPower and Antec sound great, but the cost would be getting towards the cost of a refurbished Dell, so, just incase it isn't the power supply that's the main culprit, looks like may need to go for the refurbished. Seller's got 100% feedback over a good amount of time, so it's looking like that's something I must keep in mind while trying to format and suss out this system.

closed: many thanks. Haven't wiped the partition, so will definitely try what you're recommending and check if the drive is visible in bios. Didn't know about pressing F12 to boot from the disk ... really appreciate. And, yes, it was me with the 'lots of dvd drives going kaput'! The pioneer'd been doing fine til iTunes got it's piggy paws on it! I got the ipod in late March, so maybe there's a bit of a fault with the hardware generally? It's like the krypton factor! Glad you feel it's not PSU related.

toxteth_ogrady: so many errors flying out of this pc right now! Never known a machine chuck out so many. You're all being a great help. Graphics card is out. Tested ram. Not sure what else to unplug except dvd drive itself. Been getting 'secondary drive 0 not found' errors for a while, odd keyboard failure error.

Many thanks again. I'll get to work!

Toxteth_OGrady

Your manual can be found here. Scroll down to PDF Documents and click on the link for Owners Manual. THe instructions you need to follow are on p.44.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim1100/EN/index.htm

gonzo127

closed wrote: »

they've removed it now - post 32

it's presumably been working some time with this card in, so the psu has managed to pump out enough juice to run everything. none of the symptoms in post 1 sound psu related

the machine has a long history of dvd related problems resulting in multiple replacements , no idea what's going on unless it's itunes related, but continually buying new hardware seems a haphazard way of resolving it.

the lowest rated psu i've seen in a dell is 300w.

DVD drive and PSU could be related, depends on the PSU, but it could be very likely that the rail that the DVD drive runs on is a unstable rail and so the voltage has spike's every now and then, when under strain, which fries the drives. just remembering that generic PSU's do not nessesarily comply with the standards set for the components