I investigated the computer furthur. When I held the power button it did nothing but inch the fan a tiny bit, and flash both the light in front of the desktop(a orangeish color, but the orange color only flashes, and is NOT there when i plug in the PC, only when i hold it, it flashes every id say .5 seconds) and the green light in back. the green light stays on in back when power is plugged in, and a few seconds after it is NOT plugged in. And it flashes in the same way the light in the front does, except it turns off for a millisecond instead of turn on.
Ok. So I figured it was a power surge. So I tried all methods of draining power, giving power, etc. Including the hold power button when not plugged in method, and change voltage method, which worked on my previous computers that had this problem. None of those worked. I waited a few days with it plugged in then tried. Didnt work. Waited a few days without it plugged in. Didn't work.
Now to give a good status of any modifications with the computer : I bought a graphics card for it, and it was too big to fit with the side cover on, so the side cover is gone now, and the wireless card that was taking up the only available slot is gone. The graphics card worked 100% perfectly, and there was no sign of overheating and no damage was done to the inside of the computer. No liquids were poured on it, and visually there's no damage whatsoever.
It is now 3 months from when I last looked at it, and im trying it again. Now, I finally notice a orange light on the motherboard, that works exactly like the green light in back of the computer. This orange light is located behind the DVD-CD drive thingy. There is a difference when I hold the power button now. Now the fan actually spins for a second, and before it completely stops, it spins again most times. This all happens when i hold the power button. The orange light didnt blink before the fan actually spun though. Before, the fan only twitched. I presume this means some sort of progress. And the fan spun a good 5/10 times the power "tried to turn on" while holding the power button.
Ok, so I read online for basic power problems, and I look for my pc specifically, but no one seems to have the same problems. But I do what they recommend for other problems, just to try it out. I unplug ram, and try with different ram combinations. I tried them all. Didnt work. Unplugged all wires and secured them back in. Didnt work. Tried with and without graphics card with same results. didnt work. I noticed that after i did all this, the rate increased from only half the time of the fan spinning to now 100% of the time fan spinning with each power cycle. This is my current progress. I'd really like help, as I'm sick of using this laptop with low memory and low graphical capability.
Please give me recommendations. So far I've only thought of possibly buying a new PSU; But only found the SPECIFIC part in bulk at a quote for price basis. BUT; I found a model that was used for Inspiron 531 : http://www.atxpowers...TFX0250D5W.php. Would this work if I absolutely HAVE to replace the PSU. and if it doesnt work, do they usually allow returns? If all fails, will Dell replace my computer? Please help, I'd really appreciate it.
One more thing : I recently had a usb device break in the USB slot, and I cant get all of it out. It worked before though, And the usb broken and graphic card never ever gave me a problem before this suspected power surge, or other issue. Thanks, just giving all the details you would need.
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