HELP! Computer has died.. Any ideas!

[BingBloke]

Hi everyone,

Just wondered if any of you clever poeple have an idea of what has happened to my computer.
The Dell computer is 2 years old & is relitivley hight spec still.
Duel processor mother board ( but only one processor currently fitted)
2GB Ram
I think it has some sort of quadro graphics card..
etc..
Used in a design office for heavy duty 3D modeling programs.

Its been freezing up occationally & doing the odd fuuny thing, but this morning it came up with a "encountered a serious error" message & now wont boot up.
The computer unit lights show whan you swith on & the fan powers stright up (then turns off it think). But not Monitor signal.. No Bios.. Nothing!

What do you think?

Wouldnt think ram beacuase it would surely still get the bios screen to show.?.?.?

Any help appreciated!

Thanks

Steve

 

[mkaibear]

Without further info, I'd suspect the PSU. The fact that it powers up briefly and then goes down I might suspect the motherboard, but my gut feeling is the PSU.

 

[BingBloke]

Hi there,

Thanks for the quick reply!

PSU.. Power supply unit?

If it was the power supply, the lights would still come on then?
It doesnt shut off completley, the fan just slows right down (possibley stops).

There is no beep either!?!?!? I though it would beep if there was a problem?

Is there a way to check the power supply or mother board?

Cheers for assistance chap!

Steve

 

[rook]

You can get a tester for the PSU. Not a bad tool to have being as the basic ones are around $10. If you do get one I recommend one that tests 24 pin PSUs.

 

[mkaibear]

The lack of beep makes me suspect the motherboard a bit more, thinking about it.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's almost certainly one or the other. Do you know how to use a multimeter? It might be worth testing the PSU.

 

[gent]

Open the thing-up and have a look at the caps on the Motherboard, it's one of the more common faults on Dell's.

Also (while you're in there) have a look for excessive dust build-up.

 

[Shodar]

The 3 top things to check based on your information:

1) Power Supply.

2) Motherboard.

3) Processor.

Based on past experience, and best guess, sounds like the computer was having heat problems, either due to dust buildup, or a fan stopped turning... in either case, chances are, something overheated and finally burned.

--Shodar

 

[BingBloke]

Thanks for all feedback!

Yeh, I opened it up and it was a little dusty, so took it out to the factory floor and blew all the C£^P out with a compressed air gun.

What should I check for when looking for fried caps on the motherboard?

If the graphics cards gone, is there a way of booting up without it? I mean isnt there a built in basic graphics system on the motherboard???


Cheers

 

[utaka95]

I have replaced countless power supplies - and most behaved just as you described. There is enough residual power stored in the caps and inductors to spin up the fans and such, but that's it. As far as bad caps on a motherboard,
they generally have an x or cross in the top to relieve pressure, this will be ballooned up, or there will be yellowish or brown goop leaking from the bottom of the cap (where it meets the board). Any that look like a balloon instead of a soda can are bad.

 

[nobly]

Check the PSU first. Its the cheapest to check either w/ a tester or another PSU.
Also make sure the PSU fan is running.
If the motherboard has no power, how is it supposed to beep?

If you heard any pops or funny sounds, that would be a bad indication of things going south...

I'm guessing you're out of Dell's warranty? Don't want to void it or anything.

 

[Anoobis]

So you're saying the machine turns on and lights up but you get nothing on the monitor, right? A fan that spins up and then throttles down at boot up can be a very common and normal thing. Did it always sound like that before? Many GPUs spin up at boot up then immediately spin down. Ditto with PSUs.

It could be the PSU, but I would also suspect the graphics card. Do you have another you can swap in real quick to see if you get a signal?