My Dell Inspiron 530 will not turn on.

[jnkwink]

The green light on the back is on when plugged in and the orange light on the motherboard is lit but there is no response of any sort when I press the power button on the front. the led on the power button does not light and there is no beeping. Is there anything that I can check to try and isolate the problem? What I have tried is shorting the PSU with a paper clip from the green wire to the adjacent black wire in the 24 pin plug and the PSU fan turned on. I am not a computer guy at all, does this mean that the PSU is ok and the motherboard is bad or is there other things I can check?

 

[rainbonh]

I thought you guys were crazy, but I said what can I lose. I'll be dammed it worked. I held the hair dryer in back of the plug where the power supply is for about 60 seconds.
It seems if my Dell 530 if is allowed to cool it will not power up. I always left it on and will continue to do so, like I use to. Don't know how old the threads were, But this is today 9/6/2016 at 9:30 pm. It's crazy.
rainbonh

 

[Tampabees]

I thought you guys were crazy, but I said what can I lose. I'll be dammed it worked. I held the hair dryer in back of the plug where the power supply is for about 60 seconds.
It seems if my Dell 530 if is allowed to cool it will not power up. I always left it on and will continue to do so, like I use to. Don't know how old the threads were, But this is today 9/6/2016 at 9:30 pm. It's crazy.
rainbonh

 

[Tampabees]

Add me to the list of believers! I have never commented on a forum but having had this work, I am so excited, I have to reply.
Having done a fair amount of research regarding my problem, I was convinced I had a failed power supply on my Dell Inspiron 530. After carefully ordering a replacement from Amazon that was as true of a match to the original component and spending what I felt was probably added expense to do so, it arrived. Much to my disappointment, I attempted to install it without any success. I then took the CPU to Best Buy's Geek squad, only to be informed that it would cost $100 diagnostic fee, the cost of the power supply plus another $50 to install the replacement! I couldn't invest that kind of $ into this old of a CPU, so I came home to do additional research to come across this forum. I was reminded that the CPU failed after we had had a power outage that had lasted many hours. So long that even the battery backup's capacity had expired and the CPU had been allowed to go completely "cold" . As so many others have said, the solution sounded so simple, what did I have to lose? So I did just what was suggested, and unbelievably, it worked!! My CPU is running beautifully again! Thank you so much!

 

[Dr_Nano]

I read this and thought it was a lot of sour owl poop. However my wife's unplugged 530s was dead and not going anywhere. So I got out my daughter's ConAir hairdryer and hit the power supply with it for about a minute (specifically right through the air holes in the back of the PC.

I reconnected the plug and pressed the power button. It wasn't glowing. Nothing happened. I was vacuuming the dust off the CPU fan when suddenly IT TURNED ON. I let it run for a minute and beep (I had removed all of the memory). Then I unplugged it, put the RAM back in, hit with the dryer again, plugged it in, and it turned on again! Wow!

Try it. If it doesn't work then all you've got to deal with is the dust you've blown loose.

Thanks for some diagonal thinking.

 

[Randal_2]

I have this exact same problem.

I was using the computer yesterday and it just turned off. Now it doesn't turn on at all. I also have the green light on the back of the PS, and the orange light on the motherboard.

I cleaned everything perfectly, and sometimes when I push the power button, my CPU fan will start to spin for just a faction of a second, and then NOTHING!!!!!

No PS fan running, no other fans running, no beeps, nothing. Just those two lights.

I can push the power button or push and hold and nothing happens. Is it for sure the motherboard, or PS and how do I troubleshoot?

Thanks in advance, and any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[mannix2]

I can't believe I'm typing this, but after taking the entire computer apart and still no power, I decide to try the hair dryer trick. I was dumbfounded when I plugged it back in and it came on. I pulled the plug and reconnected everything and it fired right back up. This was after replacing the power supply. I'm in stunned disbelief but glad to have it working again. Thank you all for the tip!!

 

[Dell user111]

Thanks so much for the solution. IT WORKS!!!
I unplugged the power cord. Use the hair dryer to heat the head of the cord for 30 second then plugged it in the computer. It WORKS.. amazing!!!!
Thanks a million times!!

 

[Axel rose]

Miss Tyler your on it.....the power in our house went out ...and the old dell desktop took at a crap. I read your post and thought what h....ll ....so I gave it a try an shazaam it worked. Thank you

 

[scvsop]

My journey is that my kids froze the computer watching some damn videos i had on there from 9 years ago. So I did a hard shutdown. Then left town for 3 days. When I returned, I couldn't boot it. I dusted inside (Which has solved this problem before) but still, nothing. So I tried the blow dryer thing and then I got the Amber light, which apparently means 'malfunction'. So I was like, "well, this is 'good news-bad news'." But I unplugged it for a few seconds, and my power area was still hot. So I tried again, and it fired up just fine. Thank you for the blow dryer hack. This is the most random hack I've ever used.

 

[bucksitter]

Six years and eight months later I found this thread after having power-on problems with my now-ancient Dell Inspiron 530. The hairdryer trick works!! Around a minute duration, and the thing wasn't even on the high setting! Directed kind of cross-ways into the fan holes and at the cord socket, with the power cord in place. Will wonders never cease? I made an account here just for this reply. I'll be checking in occasionally, I suspect. Thanks to the OP.