Dead Computer.....

[DNForever]

My old AMD K6-2 computer made a loud firecracker like nose then nothing worked, so I put the hard drive and CD-ROM from that computer in my Dell Dimension 8100 (P4) to see if they were still operational, but upon plugging the power cable in the power supply, instead of my fans whirring momentarily as they used to, a weird noise was heard and the LED on my power button blinks yellow. I immediately took the 2 drives out and tried to start again. I tried a couple things but pretty much got the same result, no power. The only trace of life it shows are a blinking orange power LED and an orange light on the motherboard. I called Dell and they said to buy a new power supply... is that going to help? Thanks

Nick

 

[johnodq]

It sounds like your power supply has gone faulty.

The only problem is that when this happens it usually takes the hard drive/s and cd-rom/s with it aswell as the mainboard, chip memory etc.

So start with the PSU and then introduce each item back one at a time.

Mind you the prices of most PSU's it's sometimes cheaper to buy a new case complete with PSU. ---------------
Johnodq
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[DNForever]

Ok, I ordered a new Power Supply.... but what you're saying is that even with a new power supply, all the componenets may very well still be dead????

 

[paparazi]

Probably not all but possibly one or more other components, hard drives are common after a PSU pop, followed by CDroms and motherboards, usually CPU's, VGA, sound cards and memory are uneffected, I say usually.
Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[yerhead]

I wouldn't try putting that cd or hd back in with the new power supply it sounds like thats what fried the the dell,
by any chance did you try reseting the power supply by moving the voltage switch on the back back n forth ( without power hooked up) to see if it would reset? just a thought..... good luck

 

[DNForever]

Oh, no I'm not going to put that CD and HD back in the computer... I'll try doing that reset thing with the PS as well.... the only thing I'm worried about, is when I get the new power supply I'll try to start without anything connected (all IDE cables, etc) but when I run into something that doensn't work by the process of elimination, I'm worried that it will pop the new power supply again, as the old HD/CD-RW did. aaaahhhhh

Thanks for the replies though, you guys have been helpful.

 

[delder]

Do not use the that hard drive, the power board is faulty on the drive running voltage back to the board. The motherboard controllers, and chipset could be fried.

 

[DNForever]

So before I get the new power supply, I should get a new hard drive?

And when I do hook up each component one by one, I'm worried that they'll short out the system again. Is there a way to test separate parts without hooking them up and risking the PS/Motherboard/Drives?