help with a dell

[cheesegrater]

im a newb when it comes to computers, and i was wondering how do i figure what type of mobo i have with a my shitty dell system, how can you find out?

 

[Crashman]

You have a Dell motherboard. Dell gets their boards specially made by Intel. Very few Dell's use standard ATX architecture, mostly just the old Dimmensions of the PII/PIII erra. Very few Dell's use Micro ATX today. Dell used to use proprietary power as well, until they came out with P4's which needed the ATX12v connector and decided it would be cheaper to use a "standard" power supply. Both the old proprietary and the new standard power supplies have an ATX connection, the proprietary ones were wired differenly though.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Landog]

You can go to this site: www.lavalys.com and download Everest home edition.

It will give you a good deal of info about your system. Crash is right in that it will identify your MOBO as a Dell, but it will give you the chipset info etc...

Cheers,
Steve

P4c 2.6/I875/nVdia 5200

 

[Scout]

Yep... I tried to replace a Dell power supply on one of those old Dell's one time with a standard ATX and "snap crackle pop!" Not a pretty site that little puff of smoke...

Scout
700 Mflops in SETI!

 

[Crashman]

Yes, I had a guy grab a Dell system out from under my hands at a rumage sale, I was like "let me get this, I'll get $50 for it", he was like "no, I'm getting it for the power supply". I said "Dell's don't use a standard power supply", he said "I'm going to open it up and see". I told hime "opening it won't tell you anything unless you look at the color code on the wires, it uses a non-standard wire order on an ATX lookalike connector" and that's when he basically quit listening to me. So after talking to this guy for a few minutes and having him ignore me, I told him I hope he blows his new board. He was building a brand new top end system, hehe, I really DO hope he set the thing on fire!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

Oh, and in case you can't understand why someone would buy an old power supply for a top end system, he said he was getting it just to test the board, his new power supply hadn't come in yet. Come to think of it, I hope he blew his board, then when the new supply came in, his board blew that.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Scout]

As I recall, when I made my mistake, I compared the ATX connectors from the Dell supply and the ATX supply and the colors were all in the same arrangement. So I figured it must be the same, right? Wrong! Those rascals at Dell had the 5V and 12V in different wires!

Scout
700 Mflops in SETI!

 

[Crashman]

Hmm, I can't be sure, but I think Dell might have used Blue for the power connector's 5v lead. Still, I can understand the mistake, if you look at older Intel boards you'll notice they have solder points next to the ATX power connector, those are for the Dell power supply (yes, Dell uses Intel boards, and the only difference between Dell's ATX and Intel's ATX boards were the points where power was connected).

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>