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Dimension 5000 Won't Boot
Recently when I hit power switch on 4 year old dimension 5000, it turns orange, fan comes on at full speed and the machine just sits there untill I power it down. No warning diagnostic lights are displayed. All memory dimms and expansion cards have been removed and reseated, CMOS battery replaced. BIOS cleared and reset but still no joy. Dell diagnotic CD was used (when the PC actually did startup) but no faults were fond, It was starting maybe 1 time out of 10 attempts, but now, just the scenario I describe in the first sentence.
Is there a way forward when I can't even get to the BIOS screen?
Any advice from anyone?
Thanks, Dave
Davet50
14.4K Posts
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December 30th, 2008 05:00
Hello dsmail and welcome to the Dell forums
The symptoms that you describe point to a componet failure and or the motherboard. I am at this moment leaning towards the motherboard as you do not see diagnostic lights.
Since the button is solid amber and the fans run as you mention this normally points to the powersupply being good.
He's what you need to do next. unplug the computer and then press and hold the power button for ~10 sec. Then open the case and remove all the internal componets, ram, cards, disconnect the power to all your drives. At this point all that will be connected will be the powersupply to the motherboard with the processor(no need to pull That).
Plug the system back in and press the power button. Not the color condition of the button, note any diagnostic lights, listen for any beeps. If you hear no beeps or no diagnostic lights the motherboard is toast. IF however things have change and the button light is different and you hear beeps an or diagnostic lights, then you know that some componet you removed is proably bad. At this point you would start adding things back into the system. I would suggest you start with re-powering the drives first. At each step press the power button and watch the indications.
You can read more on the troubleshooting on lights and beeps for your system HERE
You have a couple of options for a replacement you can try Ebay, I found this one HERE, or you can Call Dell Spare Parts.
dsmail
23 Posts
1
December 30th, 2008 11:00
Thanks for your comprehensive instructions and links. I'll make a start as soon as I see this New Year in. I'll let you know how things go.
Kind regards,
Dave