This Dell won't shutdown!

[crazyman143]

I found myself a Dell Dimension 4600 series, In fact, I saw it on the side of the road and thought that looks pretty new so I'll pick it up, lol.

To my surprise, at first glance it actually seems to work alright. It booted up and started a Windows Xp home edition OS.

However, later I went to shut it down and I found that even after it seems to have shutdown completely, the processor and Powersupply fans never go off. The hard drive light also stays on solid, even though the power light has gone off. The only way to stop it is to unplug it, and then as soon as I plug it in again the fans start right back up.

I'm worried that this is a motherboard problem, which of course isn't worth fixing, but I though I'd see if anyone on here had another idea.
Thanks!

 

[Tommy Boy]

I'm having the same problem with my HP Pavilion 7920 "beater". It won't go off after everything is shut down. I'm thinking it might be the power supply. Then after I plug it back in, it won't start up for a while, you need to leave it unplugged for a bit then it'll start up. Then sometimes when I press the power button, it will come on, but nothing will come up on the screen and the cd-rom light stays on. I dunno, I'm going to replace the power supply, I'll let you know.

The thing where it comes on after you plug it back in is a setting in the bios to power it back up after a power failure.

 

[crazyman143]

hmmm, yeah I've just been looking in the bios, but only seems to have a couple of power management options which I've tired. another interesting thing it does is when it's "off", it continous to make these strange beeping noises at random that seem to be coming from the hard drive, but even if I unplug that hdd it stays on. hmmm

*edit: unplugging the hdd causes the cd drive to do strange things instead, lol

 

[freestyler105]

I found myself a Dell Dimension 4600 series, In fact, I saw it on the side of the road and thought that looks pretty new so I'll pick it up, lol.

To my surprise, at first glance it actually seems to work alright. It booted up and started a Windows Xp home edition OS.

However, later I went to shut it down and I found that even after it seems to have shutdown completely, the processor and Powersupply fans never go off. The hard drive light also stays on solid, even though the power light has gone off. The only way to stop it is to unplug it, and then as soon as I plug it in again the fans start right back up.

I'm worried that this is a motherboard problem, which of course isn't worth fixing, but I though I'd see if anyone on here had another idea.
Thanks!

Lucky! Trash picking can be good though...

Try swapping in a different PSU though. That'll narrow it down.

 

[kjman87]

when its unplugged, push the power button...that should erase all the "memory"

then plug it in and tell me if the fan goes on again

 

[crazyman143]

holding the power button while unplugged seemed to work, but after a few seconds of being plugged in the fans started again, and now I have both cd/dvd drives unplugged from the motherboard, and while the comp is plugged in the are constantly turning and clicking. strange!

 

[CompMan]

that is very weird, it sounds like a PSU problem, I would pick up a cheap one, what are the specs of it anyway?

 

[crazyman143]

I'm not exactly sure... I'll do a check with belarc advisor when I have time later tonight. The last couple times I've plugged it in it's been working right too, wierd. apparently pretty inconsistent, but If I get a hold of a psu that I know works yeah I'll try swapping at see what happens.

 

[TibsBeatAll]

Sounds like a PSU problem, my computer did that once, and it was a PSU. however, i don't know about the strange beepings, clicking noises. hahaha, Only thing that went wrong with mine was not shutting off correctly.

 

[superman22x]

Sounds like a wierd problem, but I agree, PSU proly. Or maybe its in the little switch behind the button on the case. Maybe its slightly damaged or something so that it thinks its being pressed. Or IDK, that sounds dumb nevermind, lol.
If you decide not to keep that dell, I'll take it off your hands, lol.