dell desktop contstantly shutting down

helms1963

Solid State Member
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Location
Birmingham USA
My dell dimension 2400 keeps shuttin off and orange light on front comes on solid. The diagnostic lights on back all remain green. Someone suggested the motherboard They said you could tell by the capacitors would look like they come out of the freezer. Well the capacitors look fine. What would the next step be for checking out problem a little further. Thanks and any help will be greatly apreciated
 
Decided to change psu mine has 200 watts best buy had a 350 watt guy said it should work. Well I installed it. It had an extra 4 pin wire said to hook to mobo mine didn't have a place for it I tryied it any way powered up thought it was going to work. Wouldn't work. So I put old one back in. So now its given me F1 or F2 set up utility I have no clue what to do next anykind of help greatly appreciated
 
Generally the F1 F2 option you see is because the cmos has reset to the defaults meaning it goes to the date/time of manufacture instead of today's date/time. If you go into the bios and check the date/time and it's to the original date/time the you should replace the cmos battery, usually a #2032 coin size battery on the mother board, you can pick up the 2032 battery's almost anywhere they sell batteries. You'll need to reset the date/time after you replace the battery, always disconnect power and ground yourself before you go inside your pc


The probable reason your cmos battery died is because the power was off for an extended time. Replacing this battery will keep the right date/time but it most likely will not solve the original problem

Well I installed it. It had an extra 4 pin wire said to hook to mobo mine didn't have a place for it
I have a Dell 2400 on my bench and it does have a 4 pin power connector on the left side between the cpu and i/o connectors on the back. you'll need to remove the fan hood on the inside to see it
 
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Yeah mine had that 4 pin plug beside the green hood too. I had forgot about that one. One more thing I forgit when you power on know you get 2 beeps. Hey thanks Abunch for advice
 
Went into bios clocks working and date is correct but just about everything else in there says enter. Not sure what to do. Any help always greatly appreciated
 
I have no idea what to enter. Is there like a default setting are do you have any idea where I could find the info to enter. Thanks a buncch I really appreciate all your help and patience with me as for as that aspect of computer I don't know much. Thanks again
 
It could be over heating problem, take off the heat sink clean all dust apply new thermal paste, make sure fan is in proper working order. this should sort the problem.
 
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