Dell desktop going down

grumpycrab

A friend has a Dell desktop which is 2.5 years old and appears to have a h/w fault (when its running its fine; if he turns it off he cannot turn it on for a half an hour or so - just doesn't boot - don't know full details - sounds like power-supply to me...).

If it is indeed a h/w fault what's the procedure for using the sale of goods act in this case (non-business use). I'm sure closed's proably covered this before - a provious link will be fine. Cheers.

macman

Battery? It's a desktop PC.
Dell will not help you on a claim for a PSU on a 2.5 year old machine. A new PSU is £20 upwards, I believe Dell now use generic ATX PSU's, so no need for a bespoke Dell one.
However, this does not sound (from the limited info given) like a normal PSU failure, we need to know what happens when the power button is pressed on restart. Is it completely dead? Any lights, fan noise?
What do the diagnostic lights on the rear show?
Model would help.

grumpycrab

macman wrote: »

...we need to know what happens when the power button is pressed on restart.

I've limited info until I see the machine tomorrow. Sounds like it gets through the BIOS and fails to load/find boot sector. But try again in 30 mins and it might work. Will get more info later. I want to try running the hard disk off a separate supply and/or different SATA cable/connector. Will come back with more info when I have it.

Hammyman

macman wrote: »

Battery? It's a desktop PC.

Desktop PCs have batteries in them which retain BIOS settings but it won't be that.

However, this does not sounds (from the limited info given) like a normal PSU failure, we need to know what happens when the power button is pressed on restart. Is it completely dead? Any lights, fan noise?
What do the diagnostic lights on the rear show?
Model would help.

Agreed. Faulty capacitors around the CPU on the mainboard sounds like the best bet.

macman

Failing hard drive or corrupt OS then? If it's intermittent then more likely to be a hardware issue.
I was slightly confused by your first post, which implied that it wouldn't power on at all-now you are saying it will, but won't boot to the Windows desktop?
First thing I'd try is to reboot in Safe Mode, if that works it eliminates most hardware issues.