[adqjohn]

I have a Dell E510 desktop. Complaint was: "won't turn on, nothing works". Went over and sure enuff it was completely dead (it WAS plugged in), so I brought it home.

The power button shows a constant blinking amber light. None of the 4 diagnostic lights in front light up. Downloaded the service manual and the blinking amber means a power supply or system board failure has occurred. The lack of diagnostic lights probably mean a possible pre-BIOS failure has occured.

Isolated the PSU and did the green/black wire jump start and the PSU (fans run) cranks up. Plug it back into the Mother Board and its dead. Isolated the board from all drives and still nothing. I do have the bright green light ??? on the board but due to the lack of power there are no beeps either.

Sooo.....the board seems to be shorting out the PSU???? I guess it is time to order a new board (Dell "intel" HJ054) unless one of you can think of anything I missed. Any help is always apprecitated from all you GeeksToGo.

The computer is 1.5 yrs young and there was only a 1yr service aggrement, so to avoid the nightmare of dealing with Dell: where is the bestest cheapest fastest place to get a OEM or compatible board?

Pre-thanks

[Advertisements]

just because the power supply "cranks" up without a load doesn't mean it is good. If you don't have a tester may want to invest in one.... Be warned as well dell has at times used proprietary power supplies so you may want to check on that as well.... as far as finding a replacement... google is your friend.... put in the model name of your dell and "replacement power supply" and you may find something.... good luck....

[shard92]

just because the power supply "cranks" up without a load doesn't mean it is good. If you don't have a tester may want to invest in one.... Be warned as well dell has at times used proprietary power supplies so you may want to check on that as well.... as far as finding a replacement... google is your friend.... put in the model name of your dell and "replacement power supply" and you may find something.... good luck....

[adqjohn]

shard92
Took your advice and got a (FrozenCPU) tester. All the LEDs light up except the -5v. So I figured the PSU was NG. Then I remembered reading this:

Note: Newer 24-pin power supplies often do not supply the -5V line anymore since it is no longer needed by modern motherboards. If your power supply tester's -5V LED doesn't light up with a 24-pin power supply, it is not an error. The power supply is functioning properly.

This computer is a year and a half old and has the 24 pin, so it must be a modern motherboard???

Have any of you run into this on a psu test ???

I guess if the psu is good, it points me back to the MB.

[shard92]

yes I've run into that.... those testers aren't 100% as it could possibly be a loading issue but that says they are in tolerances so then I would look at the motherboard... If you have a pc speaker or if the motherboard has a "buzzer" on board you could try pulling all the memory and see if you get a beep and if it is a seperate video card and there is no onboard also try removing the video.... you should get some beeps.... if not that points more to it being a dead motherboard...

you also might want to pull the motherboard out of the case and hook up just the minimal... cpu, 1 stick of memory, and video ( either card or on-board if it has it ) and see if you get life.... if so that would suggest you are having a grounding issue with the case....