Member Avatar for SeattleSam

The broken machine is a
Dell Dimension E310
No O.S. installed yet
512 Megs Memory (two chips)
On-board Video, Sound, Ethernet, ports, etc.
Intel Pentium 4 Processor

The machine won't start -- at all. Neither the CPU nor the PSU fans come on.

The four diagnostic lights on the front panel are of no help, because none of them are lit.

There is also no orange light, flashing or otherwise, on the front panel.

There is a solid orange light on the motherboard.

No fan activity unless I short pin 14 on the connector to neg when the connector is disconnected. When I do that PSU and CPU fans both come on, but nothing else happens.

There is nothing connected to the motherboard except for the CPU and the on-board peripherals, which I can't disable. I've tested this with and without the RAM inserted.

The power supply is brand new, but it appears that the old one was okay also.

How can I breath life into this machine?

There's no access to CMOS of course.

  • 4 Contributors
  • 7 Replies
  • 343 Views
  • 2 Years Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by gonzocolt45
Member Avatar for slapperboy

1.make sure that the power supply works on another machine.

Could be that the motherboard is fried.

Member Avatar for sittas87

WeLcOmE SeattleSam
is this a new custom build pc that never worked before or did it work/run before?
lets take it from there

Member Avatar for SeattleSam

No. It's a standard-issue Dell. My friend leaves it on 24 hours a day. Went to use it one day but it was totally dead. It had XP, but there's no operating system now, because I disconnected the HD and everything else.

Member Avatar for sittas87

Sure,so with you jumperpins in tact,wiring for power button MUST be correct (modbo will give you a guide)otherwise it will not do anything ask a buddy for a PSU(known good one) start up only with HD cpu and attached to mobo.no external cards etc..
post reply after that

Member Avatar for SeattleSam

I probably wasn't very clear. I shorted the pins on the large PSU connector only. The small 4-pin connector was still connected to the motherboard. When I applied power, the PSU fan and the CPU fan both came on. Then I attached the large connector (Still shorted) to the motherboard. Nothing happened then.

Member Avatar for sittas87

Im with ya now
-------------
Sorry for the late reply:
So Seattle Sam if youre PSU works fine on another mobo then Im let to believe its youre mobo or some unlikely other prob.aunistly Ive never worked that much on dell machines to come across that this is a common known prob with them

Member Avatar for gonzocolt45

I'm having the same damn problem did anyone find an answer?

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