| Author | Message | ||
     Jramsey |
The wife was playing a card game on the desktop and said the monitor went screwy louie with a bunch of diagonal green lines then went blank and one of the fans started running wide open and couldn't shut it down so she unplugged it. Now when I plug it in the fan kicks on and won't shut off and the on-off button stays yellow instead of turning green and of course the screen is blank, but when I disconnected all the wiring a test message displayed on the screen so I hooked the wiring back up and message disappeared, disconnect again and the message appears again....... figures. I really don't want to take it to town without some idea of whats wrong because the the shops in my local are mostly parts changers and don't want to tie up a fortune in a 5 year old computer. Any ideas? | ||
| Indy_bueller |
What wiring did you disconnect and what did the message say? My gut feeling is your motherboard has gone bad. | ||
| 99buellx1 |
Integrated video I'm assuming? Sounds to me like the motherboard went. Open the case and look at the capacitors on the board. If they are bulged on the silver disk on the top, the board is shot. Like this: http://www.mikerepairscomputers.com/blog/wp-conten t/uploads/2009/07/Bad_Capacitor_01.jpg Couple of those actually popped in that picture. | ||
| Jramsey |
>>What wiring.... USB for the mouse,monitor,printer, power cord,speakers ... all the stuff to get it out of the desk. >>What did the message say? Dell test check, it had 4 colored horizontal bars, green,blue,yellow and white in a square box that just floated randomly around the screen. >>Open the case... Had a friend who's pretty pc sharp (he builds his own from components) take a look and he didn't see any bulged caps. He did say something about a video card might be bad but didn't have one to fit the Dell, so we couldn't try it . Thanks for the replies. | ||
| Froggy |
That is just a generic monitor signal message you will get when the monitor is not connected, hence why it went away when you plugged in. On the back of your PC is 4 numbered lights (1-4) that turn amber, green, or off. When the computer isn't working, take note of the combination and post it here, as that can narrow down the failed part. | ||
| Jramsey |
No numbered lights or lights of any kind on the back, just color coded plug jacks. The only amber/green light is the on/off power button. Before the crash when the power button was pushed to turn on the fan would run for about 5-10 seconds then shut off and the power button would turn green and it was good to go. The fan that is running all the time is the one at the bottom front that appears to cool a big Aluminum heat sink. | ||
| Froggy |
My bad, your model has them in the front, its just 1,2,3,4 that light up green or off. | ||
| Drfudd |
reference this link: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dimc 521/en/SM_EN/tshoot.htm#wp1043338 thats the troubleshooting manual for a Dell C521, the 4 lights will indicate what is wrong with it, might be a loose card, or memory stick or something. | ||
| Jramsey |
My 521 only has a power light and 1 status activity light. Plug it in an push the power button, fan comes on, status light blinks rapidly about 8-10 times then goes out, power button light stay's amber and pushing it does nothing and have to pull the power cord to shut it off. | ||
| Drfudd |
If the power button is amber and no diagnosis lights come on reference webpage below for location: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dimc 521/en/SM_EN/about.htm#wp1052632 they are located above the power button, next to the front panel USB ports. if none are lite up then its a pre-post failure, if the motherboard isn't fried you should hear a pattern of beeps coming from the small speaker inside the computer. reference the bottom of this page for what they mean: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dimc 521/en/SM_EN/tshoot.htm#wp1043338 if you don't hear any then I would say the motherboard is toast. dell might sell replacements but the cost of a new computer these days its best just to get a new one. | ||
| Jramsey |
Drfudd, I appreciate your input but my 521 doesn't have the the 4 diagnostic lights #9 in the link you provided. | ||
| Froggy |
It does have them, that means none are lit, and you have a pre-post hardware failure, probably the motherboard. | ||
| Jramsey |
Pulled the entire wrapper off and the faceplate no led's no lights as shown in the manual, I guess I got a bastard, that's what a pc noob gits for buying a pc from the '05 Bevis and Butthead tv ad. Thanks for all the replies. J.Ramsey | ||
| Delta_one |
I just hope you had all your gear on when you crashed  sorry for the thread jack just hope I made you snicker in light of your computer woes  | ||
| Drfudd |
I agree with Froggy, you probably can't see them because they are not lit up. Sorry about your luck, trust me I have broken more computers than you'll ever own, it sucks. at a previous job I worked as the tech for a property office for a major university, among my other duties I handled all of the computers the various departments didn't want anymore. I have handled just about every computer brand known to man and I must say my favorite is dell, easy to work on and the best motherboards of any OEM, hands down beats gateway and HP. but things do happen and computers do go toast. if your gonna buy again I do recommend Dell. But all is not lost, the hard drive in your computer is probably still good, so you can take it out and put it in a new one and have access to all the old information on it. |
