Screwy motherboard?
I have an old Dell Dimension something-or-other that used to work perfectly (it ran Windows 2000), but then got thrown into storage, dismantled and reassembled, and basically beat up. At one point I found somebody had been using it as a storage box for screws and things.
Anyway, when I turn this thing on, or try to, absolutely nothing happens. No lights,no fans, and no hard-drive spinning noises. All the cables are connected, and the little LED on the motherboard is on. Should I scrap it or is there something I can do to fix it?
Anyway, when I turn this thing on, or try to, absolutely nothing happens. No lights,no fans, and no hard-drive spinning noises. All the cables are connected, and the little LED on the motherboard is on. Should I scrap it or is there something I can do to fix it?
Comments
See if you can read the motherboard labels next to the jumpers, and locate the jumper for the power switch. Then jump it with a screwdriver by touching both pins simultaneously. If you can't find it based on the labels, look up a schematic on the Internet.
The "jumper" area can be found on a motherboard schematic, but usually looks like two rows of pins (6-10 pins roughly) and will have other things connected to it like your HDD LED, Power LED, Reset Button, etc.
You might think that sticking a screwdriver in there is not going to help, but as long as you're only touching jumper pins there shouldn't be anything you can get shocked on or that you can hurt. Touching together the two "power button" jumpers is effectively the same action as pressing the power button on the case.
Also take note that Dell used odd wire schemes on power supplies so a typical ATX power supply isn't compatible unless you repin it or use a adatper.
The power button and PSU are both good. I tested them. The hard drive and disc drive are good too.
What did you do to confirm that the power supply and power button themselves work?