Member Avatar for akirson

This is a Dell Dimension 4500 that was working fine, and then was switched off for a few months. Now, when plugged in, the green LED on the mobo lights up, and there is faint green glow behind the power switch, but pressing the power switch does absolutely nothing. The disks don't spin up, no beeps, nothing. Also, the LEDs next to the Ethernet port don't light up at all. Usually they light up even when the computer is powered down.

I tested the PS - works fine
CMOS battery - AOK
Switch on the front panel - OK
No visible signs of blown caps, swollen caps, no evidence of anything burnt.

I tried resetting the CMOS by removing the battery for a minute or two - no go.

What is the absolute minimum config to see if it will turn on? There is no built-in display adapter on the mobo - separate card. It should show signs of life even without hard drives, right? What about RAM?

Any help will be appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by coolraj003
Member Avatar for coolraj003

Try starting it with just the mobo, psu and cpu with heatsink/fan. See if it gets you some display. As you say the psu is ok, it should power up. No memory means it wont go far but definitely take you to the BIOS. Have a check. Is it fails then it could most likely be the mobo and thats what i am inclining towards as well.

Raj

Member Avatar for sittas87

Welcome akirson
mind me askin how did you test the PSU? you say theres no power at all?
??

Member Avatar for akirson

I tested the PSU by plugging it into a tester. It beeped and all the voltages are present.

Member Avatar for coolraj003

you can always double check by hooking up with another PSU if yu have access to any and see if it brings any change. But yeah make sure you boot it up with just cpu(with heatsink/cooler) and mobo without any ram installed and see what you get. Do let us know and we ll look into it further.

Raj

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