Dell Dimension 9100 - dead?

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Klade

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 21, 2004
Messages
158
Hello

My cousin recently gave me a Dell Dimension 9100. He told me it has a geforce 6800 256mb, 2.8 ghz intel pentium D, and 3 gigs of ram. So for a free computer its pretty darn beefy. Only problem is that it doesn't work, not even a bit.

When you hit the power switch nothing happens at all inside, no fans, no spinning of the cd-rom, nothing.

When it is plugged in you can see a green LED on the motherboard light-up but so far thats the only activity.

Well I was hoping this was going to be an easy fix of replacing the PSU. No such luck there, I swapped out the PSU with the one from my current computer and received no new activity.

So now I'm wondering whats next. Is there some secret dell off switch? Or am I going to have to pull the motherboard?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
pull it out of the case and start testing each part one by one. visually inspect the components first, though.
 
Well I pulled everything out but the cpu and it still doesn't work. As I pulled out each part I tested the computer again.

So I took out the video card, the harddrives, the optical drives, the modem, the sound card, and even the floppy.

Will a computer at least turn on if there is no cpu? I know it wouldn't do much but even the power supply fan starting would show something, and I could determine that it was the cpu.

If its not the CPU then it can only be either the case itself (the power button is not sending the signal to turn on) or the motherboard. The case and the motherboard seem to be proprietary, in that they use a special cable to connect to the motherboard so I can't test the motherboard in another case. Or if I can I don't know how to do it.
 
No, it wont even beep without the CPU (at least the one's I've tried it on don't, lol). Test the mobo WITHOUT a case.
 
How do I turn on the computer without a case?

I mean what do I trigger to activate it?
 
trace the wires from the power switch to the front panel connector on the mobo. then use a screwdriver to short those same two pins when you want to power it on outside of the case. OR... pull the damn switch out of the case, lol.
 
Sadly its not that easy. This is a dell proprietary mobo and case. All of the connections for power as well as usb etc are grafted together in one big thick ribbon cable. They also go through a mini circuit board before going to the mobo. So there is no way to figure out which is the power.
 
Something I'm trying to say is not making it through the internet.. Let me try again.

If I take the mobo and cpu out the case there is no way I can turn it on. The power switch is not two little lines heading to its own jumper. Rather the power switch is part of a massive ribbon cable that I can not replicate. So I would need to leave the power switch from the case connected, this would defeat any purpose of taking it out of the case since I still couldn't cross off the case as a possible cause of the problem.
 
ok, well, I can't be innovative for you over the internet. sorry. keeping the switch from the case with board and cpu outside of the case wouldn't be entirely useless, because the case could be shorting out the motherboard. i could look at it and find/figure out the pins for you, but its not here in front of me. try google.
 
Are you seeing anything on the front LCD with the numbers? If not your probably looking at a bad PSU. I'm not positive how useful these LEDs are, but if you look through the manual you should be able to rule some stuff out. I know theres an order for incompatible memory, probably is one for bad CPU too. If it doesn't turn out to be the PSU you're equally screwed as its probably the mobo or something you can't easily replace.
 
You said that the light of the mobo turns on right? well then it might be working... but what I would do is try the cpu in another board if you can (BE CAREFUL :D) and see what happens. It would be good if you could take some pictures and show us too... good luck.
 
It is not the PSU, as stated above I already tested that.

As for the CPU, sadly I have no ability to test it in another computer.
 
Klade said:
Hello

My cousin recently gave me a Dell Dimension 9100. He told me it has a geforce 6800 256mb, 2.8 ghz intel pentium D, and 3 gigs of ram. So for a free computer its pretty darn beefy. Only problem is that it doesn't work, not even a bit.

When you hit the power switch nothing happens at all inside, no fans, no spinning of the cd-rom, nothing.

When it is plugged in you can see a green LED on the motherboard light-up but so far thats the only activity.

Well I was hoping this was going to be an easy fix of replacing the PSU. No such luck there, I swapped out the PSU with the one from my current computer and received no new activity.

So now I'm wondering whats next. Is there some secret dell off switch? Or am I going to have to pull the motherboard?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

(from a dell friend employee) a little FYI:
Dell's computers go through a self check, desktops report out on a display at the back of the computer, their laptops however just don't function.

The biggest cause of non-functioning laptops isn't battery or power adapter related issues. As they can be the first to cause alarm, many of the problems which arise are from the cpu fan not either a) spinning up to full speed immediatly on startup or b) cpu fan not starting up at all causing the system to shutoff.

Your best bet to try is to remove the battery, try turning on the unit with just ac adapter, if still nothing, open it up (users note, all warranty's will be void), and if you can, spin the cpu fan, while the fan is spinning press the power button, if the laptop turns on (kicks), turn it off immediatly to prevent cpu permanent damage and replace the cpu fan asap.
 
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