Dell dimension 4100 wont do post

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anitab

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Jun 22, 2011
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A friend accidentally knocked over the system tower of my Dell Dimension 4100. We picked it up and it seemed to be working (it never turned off when it fell). We shut it down that night but the next day we couldn't get it to start. When you press the power button, the CD drives flash amber lights and the green light under the power button goes on. The fans on the power supply and over the cpu go on and the little green light on the mother board goes on. But, the diagnostic lights stay off completely and after a minute or so, the green light under the power button goes out. However, the light on the motherboard stays on as do the fans.

I've tried removing and reinstalling all peripheral boards and the memory. I removed and reseated the primary hard drive cable. I removed and reinstalled the battery (which tested good) as well as temporarily moving the configuration jumper and then setting it back. I tried plugging it in with no boards, no memory, etc. Nothing happens. No beeps, no diagnostic lights.

Any ideas what's wrong?
 
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G
The monitor and cable is fine then if tested on another machine.

The Graphics(display) card posts before anything else with the exception of a soundcard (assuming they are not onboard i mean not part of your mobo so would not post before cpu). Knowing you took out the graphics card i assume you have onboard as there would have been another vga connector to plug into am i right?

If the bios is set to take input from a pci or pci-e display card then the onboard may not work although some mobo's auto switch and in your case.

I would take out a display card from the other computer and try it in the problem dell or borrow one if using onboard on other computer and see if it posts.

You will not see the computer it has not booted into...
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I wasn't talking about the lights on the CD drive when I said the diagnostic lights don't light. I was talking about the 4 lights labeled ABCD on the back of the computer. They do nothing.
 
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If the monitor is not plugged into the computer, but is turned on, it gives one of those messages. But, if I connect the monitor to the computer, it is just blank. So, it is recognizing the connection but the computer, obviously, never gets to the point where it would have something to display on the monitor.
 
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Doesn't appear it is recognising the computer try a different vga or dvi cable whichever you are using as the pins may have been bent or some damage may have occurred.

Try the monitor on another computer to make sure there are no problems with it first tho.
 
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I plugged the monitor, with its own VGA cable, into my other computer and it worked fine. Of course, it's possible there's something wrong with the display card but that's not likely because I tried powering on without the card inserted in the motherboard and the same thing happens -- no diagnostic lights. Also, I have my 2 computers networked together so, if the computer was, in fact, booted up even though nothing shows on the monitor, I would be able to see it on my network places on my other computer. And, I can't. So, I'm sure it is not booting.
 
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The monitor and cable is fine then if tested on another machine.

The Graphics(display) card posts before anything else with the exception of a soundcard (assuming they are not onboard i mean not part of your mobo so would not post before cpu). Knowing you took out the graphics card i assume you have onboard as there would have been another vga connector to plug into am i right?

If the bios is set to take input from a pci or pci-e display card then the onboard may not work although some mobo's auto switch and in your case.

I would take out a display card from the other computer and try it in the problem dell or borrow one if using onboard on other computer and see if it posts.

You will not see the computer it has not booted into windows but failed post possibly your graphics card but no diagnostic lights not sure at moment try another card tho first.

I am out now for the rest of the night but will check back tomorrow.
 
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Solution

Hi,

I'm sorry I've taken so long to get back to this discussion but I decided to swap an identical power supply from one of my old computers into the one giving me trouble to see if that was the problem. First, however, I wanted to back up all my old files.

Anyway, I have done it and there is no difference. So, it isn't the power supply. I still don't get any diagnostic lights.

By the way, I don't seem to have an onboard graphics option unless I don't know what to look for. But, I assume it would have to have pins that look like the ones on the video card in the slot.

Any other ideas would be much appreciated.

Anita
 
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Thanks for your suggestions. I finally solved it. As a last resort before removing the hard drive, installing it in another computer, and throwing this one out, I decided to try looking at the CPU. I removed it and put it back and, amazingly, it worked. It didn't seem to be loose but I guess it got jarred in some way by the fall. Who knows! Anyway, everything is working now but I'm going to back up the hard disk just in case.
 
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