Old Dell machine failing to power up

mattd85

mattd85

mattd85

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Joined
18 Nov 2007
Posts
12
Hey there,

I decided to clean all the dust out my old dell so I stripped everything out, got rid of all the dust and put everything back in. I unscrewed the power supply and gave it a blow to get rid of as much dust as possible, I also had to peel off the heatsink from the CPU as well which meant cleaning, thermal pasting and reseating it.

Everything's back in and plugged in correctly but I'm not getting any power. The motherboard light comes on when the PSU is plugged in, but hitting the power on button doesn't do anything. I've tried all PSU power plugs for the hard drive, I've checked the power on buttons wiring to make sure I didn't pull it loose and I've checked there's no damage to any components.

The machine was working just half an hour ago, I was copying data over to my new machine so that I could stick Server 2003 on it. Could I have damaged the PSU when cleaning it? I didn't bang it on anything and got no liquids near it, as I said the motherboard light comes on but other than that I get no fans powering on, no hard drive spins or external lights.

Any ideas as to what I may have done?
 
Have you rechecked that the power on leads from the case to the mobo are all orientated the correct way round and in the right places?

Does the PSU at the back of the case have an on/off switch?

I used to have a PSU that wouldnt work if I pulled the plug and then replugged it in, I had to switch off, then on and then the front case button (i think that was the remedy as it was quite a few years ago) it seemed to be some kind of protection? :)
 
Thanks for the replies. No power on button unfortunately, and I could use the PSU from this machine but all the wiring is routed behind the case backboard through six or seven cable ties so it'd be more hassle than it's worth.

I'll give that PSU mod a try to see if it's knackered.

Cheers
 
Thought I'd test it outside the case before chopping any wires and it worked. Could it be a grounding problem, e.g. the motherboard touching the case and not sitting on the grounding points correctly?

I've resat it in the case and its booting up now, must have been a grounding problem. Thanks for the replies/help.
 
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