Dell desktop won't power up - blinking orange light - power supply?

[veedubfreak]

I can name at least 15 different reasons for your failure. Many only know of one or two. Therefore every reply is "it could be this or might be that". Useless.

Either you keep replacing parts on wild speculation (ie those 'could bes'). Or you get numbers so that the few who actually know this stuff will replace with "this is definitively good - not a problem" or "that is definitively bad". See the difference? One word. Definitely. No 'could bes'.

That means you must buy or borrow a multimeter. A tool so ubiqutious as to be sold in K-amrt, Wal-mart, Radio Shack, and most stores that sell hammers. Costs maybe $18 in Wal-mart.

Without numbers from the meter, those who can say - without doubt - what has failed must remain silent. IOW your replies will only be as good as the information you provide. No numbers from a meter? Then start replacing parts until something works. Those are your only two options. The meter typically means 1) solving the problem multiple times faster, 2) spending less money, and 3) actually learning something. Your choice.

It's a dell, there are only 2 things it could be. The psu or the motherboard. It was the psu. We were right. Now, please step down off of that soapbox.

Also, necroposting is bad.

 

[bjae007]

I have a Dell Dimension E510 that as of yesterday, won't power up anymore. The power light blinks orange and the computer does nothing when the power button is pushed or held in. It's about 16 months old and is out of warranty, so I'm trying to diagnose the problem myself.

I did some searching on the internet and found that this seems to be a common issue on these Dells, sort of a long term infant mortality issue. The most common causes seem to be a bad PSU, MOBO or a shorted USB input.

I've done some diagnostic checks/testing so far and am now stuck. Here's what I know.

- The USB ports don't appear to be shorted. I also disconnected the connector for the USB (which includes the power switch ) and it doesn't change any of the results that follow.
- I removed the power supply and jumped Power On (terminal 14, green wire) of the main ATX connector to ground. The fan comes on and all voltages (3.3, 5 and 12v)check out, including around 5.35v at Power Good (terminal 8, gray wire).
- With the power supply back in and everything connected, there is only 3.3mv at Power Good. As I understand it, this would normaly point to a bad power supply; however, all of the voltages check out when the unit is disconnected from everything.

Is is still possible that the power supply is bad, or is it more likely (or definitely) that the MOBO is the culprit.

Any help, including suggestions for additional testing is greatly appreciated.

Gary

I had the same problem and I scanned my motherboard and didn't see anything wrong with it; My Dimension 3100 had in a 1 gb DDR and it had 2 slots; I decided to switch the memory to the other slot and lO and Behold my PC started up and worked fine after that.

This might not work for everyone or for all the pcs with this problem but its worth a try