Dead Dell

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shadowbreaker513

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 15, 2005
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The family computer is a Dell Dimension 4600. It's around a year and a half old. Recently, my dad had started noticing some crashes and lockups on it. After that, we had trouble turning it on; we would press the power button and nothing would happen. Then about 10 minutes later, it would rapidly start turning on for under a second, and then turning back off for about 2, then starting the cycle again. It would continue this until we pressed the power button for 5 seconds. It would usually turn on again after one of these little tantruns. Recently, my dad noticed that all the text in Sid Meier's Pirates! had been corrupted into something that looked like the name of Missingno. in the old Pokemon games. A reboot cured this. Within the past few days, it has been doing the little tantrums more and more and finally seems to not want to turn on. Nothing happens while plugged in, but if I unplug it and hold in the button, the lights flash for a second while the psu drains. Anybody know what could be wrong? I'm thinking psu or motherboard. It is under warrenty, but I'm not sure if they will honor it since I installed another 256mb of RAM (doesn't boot with that out either). Would we be better off just buying a new case, psu, and motherboard and converting it into a normal computer?
 
Just pull the extra stick of ram and don't let them know you put it in. It wouldn't make any difference probably in this scenario for your warranty anyway but just to be sure. I would send it in right away to dell; they are very good with fixing their products under warranty.

*Unrelated* I was just looking at your sig and I wonder why you are opting for 1x1024 as opposed to 2x512 MB. You get better performance by far with 2 sticks of 512 MB in either dual or single channel opposed to any config with 1024 MB sticks.
 
1GB = not nearly enough, I need 1.5GB minimum. I may sell this stick of TCCD and get 2x!GB of the 2-3-2-5 Patriot if somebody gives me an offer I like. Either that, or just get 2x1GB of Corsair Value Select. WoW like capacity, not speed.

I already pulled the two extra 128mb sticks I added in. Still nothing.
 
Dell won't void your warranty because you added aftermarket parts. The sales pricks tell you that as a scare tactic into buying their overpriced upgrades. More than likely you have an on-site warranty. I'm an on-site tech for Dell and I don't give a rat's ass what a customer may have added into the system...unless their add-on is causing the problem in the first place, that's when I tell the customer they have to contact the manufacturer of the offensive hardware for warranty service.

Call Tech support let them know what's going on, I reckon they'll send a motherboard and/or Power Supply.
 
Probably a PSU problem... Dell shouldn't have a problem honoring your warranty, or finding you a local shop that is Dell-certified to take the box to.


Of course, your other option would be to box it up and send it to me for postage. :) j/k.
 
of the hundreds of GX270 boards I've replaced I've only had one with caps that were actually leaking.

However, his system is a dimension 4600....They have a different board than the GX270...WAY different. So I don't think he's got the bad cap problem. I've replaced loads of PSUs in 4600s.
 
Mr_Evil, you sound like just the person that can answer my ?
I have a Dell Dim 4550 just over 2 yrs old. Do you know if the PSU can be replaced w/ a standard ATX PSU?
I've been asking this everywhere & it's about 50/50 on the answer. Some swear that the PSU is wired as std ATX & others say a std ATX psu will fry the mobo.
What do you think?
 
tazman: from what I can gather the 4550 uses an ATX PSU with standard Pin-out, but you might want to compare your PSU with a known good one just to be sure (the color codes SHOULD be the same) Dell stopped the proprietary PSU BS years ago.
 
Little update.

My dad called tech support today. They told me to open it up and do the normal reseat/bare boot stuff. Still nothing. They are going to send out a tech with a new psu, motherboard, and front panel connector. My guess is the PSU; it is a DEER afterall.
 
shadowbreaker513 said:
My guess is the PSU; it is a DEER afterall.
Click to expand...
There is a huge thread in the delltalk forums about the dead 4600 PSU problem. It has around 200 people with the same problem. That's a small number overall vs how many Dell sold, but still noteworthy as it seems to be a more common than usual problem.

DEER isn't a Dell supplier. Your PSU is probably bad, but it's not a DEER PSU. :p Unplug it and pick it up if you don't believe it. All DEER PSUs are feather-weight junk.
 
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