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Dimension 5150 solid amber power light
My friend had his computer shipped from Canada to Costa Rica. It was apparently dropped or had something really heavy placed on it during transport. The back part of the case is compressed about an inch on the side that has the access panel. When he brought it to me to take a look it would not power up, but had a blinking amber light on the power button. First thing I did was attach a new power supply to the board and it powered up with a green light and two beeps. Problem solved, I thought. I installed the power supply and connected everything, plugged in mouse, keyboard, monitor and... solid amber light, PS fan and CPU fan running but no boot. After googling a bit it seems like it is the MoBo but there is one thing that is nagging at me. when I first press the power button the diagnostic light #3 flashes for just an instant. That light would indicate a processor problem. I read on some forum that someone had a similar issue and got a new mobo and it turned out to be the processor and the bad processor fried the new mobo. Can anyone advise on this?
fireberd
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February 22nd, 2010 11:00
I have an E510 which is identical to the 5150.
Reset the BIOS and see what hapens. We've seen cases of the solid amber power light problem being fixed by the BIOS reset. I won't guarantee that will fix it but worth a try. With the PC powered off, remove the CR2032 battery for about 10 minutes, replace and see what happens.
If the M/B is bad only another Dell E510/5150 motherboard will fit and work. It's a BTX form and very few commercial BTX boards and with Dell's proprietary and undocumented front panel connector you are pretty much locked into another E510/5150 motherboard. And, if you could get a non-Dell board installed you will need a new copy of Windows as the Dell will only install on a Dell motherboard/BIOS.
Actually, considering the case is damaged and potentially the motherboard and/or the CPU, it may be better to just use what components you can from the 5150 and built a new PC (or just buy a new PC). A used/refurbished motherboard will run $100 to $125. If it's also the CPU that's another $100. That's a minimum of $200 and you can get a case and motherboard and CPU for about that much.
Considering the age of the PC, if my E510 motherboard goes bad it will be gone and not repaired. No use putting $$ into an old technology system as after the $$ it will still be an old technology PC,
fallingleaf
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February 22nd, 2010 14:00
Thanks. I did try resetting the BIOS, but I only left the battery out for about 10 seconds, not 10 minutes. I'll try that and see what happens. If not I will try to push him in the direction of getting a new machine.