Replacing power supply in old dell

[iamloco724]

im looking to get a new power supply for my dell e510 desktop

its a good old desktop that i like to keep around only has one problem and thats the bootup amberlight issue that alot of these dells have

for the most part people fix it with a new power supply so im going to try that first

these are my specs

Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 90nm Technology

4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2

256MB ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series (ATI)

2 internal drive 1tb and 500gb

im looking at these as of now

PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 400W

CORSAIR CX430M 430W

SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W

CORSAIR CX500M 500W

SeaSonic M12II 520

CORSAIR CX600M 600W

so out of those what would you choose or would you recommend something else..i prefer modular

 

[PP Mguire]

My vote is to the Seasonic 520. If you wont be putting any kind of good GPU in it then the SSR-450 would be fine.

 

[Veraster]

My granddad's old Dell desktop had an amber light bootup error. I was able to determine from the error code on the four lights that it was because a pci device wasn't working properly.

I attached a 40mm case fan to the video card's heatsink and after that, there were no problems. You may want to see if you can find exactly what the amber light error code is. There is a chance there is a cheaper fix. If it has to do with something like the video card overheating, a new power supply might not fix the problem.

 

[iamloco724]

My granddad's old Dell desktop had an amber light bootup error. I was able to determine from the error code on the four lights that it was because a pci device wasn't working properly.

I attached a 40mm case fan to the video card's heatsink and after that, there were no problems. You may want to see if you can find exactly what the amber light error code is. There is a chance there is a cheaper fix and that replacing the power supply may or may not help.

do you mean the lights next to the usb ports?

 

[Veraster]

do you mean the lights next to the usb ports?

Yeah the ones on the back. There should be four of them labelled "A", "B", "C" and "D". On a normal boot, all four are green. When there is an error, some are green and some are amber.

 

[iamloco724]

Yeah the ones on the back. There should be four of them labelled "A", "B", "C" and "D". On a normal boot, all four are green. When there is an error, some are green and some are amber.

thats not the issue i have my issue is the power button flicks amber lights and doesnt boot

those lights doesnt even get a chance to go on

 

[PP Mguire]

Oh the power button is doing this?

Clear your CMOS, reseat your cards, and reseat your RAM. Something is hanging your machine up causing it not to post.

Try doing this first:
Unplug the computer from the wall
Take out the watch type battery from the motherboard (take note which side the + goes on, it's usually the top)
Wait about 5-10 minutes.

Put it all back together and if you don't have a post then try doing the other things. Your PSU is most likely fine.

 

[iamloco724]

Oh the power button is doing this?

Clear your CMOS, reseat your cards, and reseat your RAM. Something is hanging your machine up causing it not to post.

Try doing this first:
Unplug the computer from the wall
Take out the watch type battery from the motherboard (take note which side the + goes on, it's usually the top)
Wait about 5-10 minutes.

Put it all back together and if you don't have a post then try doing the other things. Your PSU is most likely fine.

ive done all of that..this is the common problem which people have and its usually either the psu,the front panal or the board its self

i do the above steps with the cmos battery and unplugging it to get it back up the few times its shutdown it doesnt always work but usually after an hour or so i can get it back on

 

[PP Mguire]

Well if you can get it to actually come up then odds have it it isn't the PSU. You can try replacing it but I don't think that's it, but I could be wrong.

I Googled the issue and the first 4 or 5 that came up suggested the battery which just clears the bios which can cause it to hang on something.

 

[iamloco724]

Well if you can get it to actually come up then odds have it it isn't the PSU. You can try replacing it but I don't think that's it, but I could be wrong.

I Googled the issue and the first 4 or 5 that came up suggested the battery which just clears the bios which can cause it to hang on something.

i believe most people are able to get it to boot at some point and the psu be the problem..basically im trying that first cause thats the easiest for me to replace if it doesnt fix it then ill return it and move on to the next thing

which would be the front panal