Inspiron 545 power supply - need help!

Disconnect the cables from the hard drive and try to turn it on?

Then what happens?

Thanks SpeedStep- pardon my ignorance, I do not have much computer technical experience - which hard drive cables are you referring to - all of them?  I will try it when I get home tonight.

I disconnected the cables from the hard drive and same thing happened - I hit the power button and it turned to a steady amber, but nothing else happened.  Any other thoughts?

Hello, I am having a precisely similar issue and I have tried SpeedStep's suggestion. I would like to post my results and am hoping him/her or anyone will continue to help.

I have unplugged the PSU from the hard drive and it is still plugged into the DVD drive and the motherboard. I plug in the power cord from the wall to the PSU and first off, a green light turns on in the back of the PSU right next the power cord input. An amber light inside the computer(not the front yet) on the motherboard turns on as well.

And THEN I turn on the computer from the front and this occurs: The green light instantly turns off with no action at all coming from the computer nor the PSU. The amber light on the inside stays on, same brightness, while a separate amber light turns on, glowing behind the computer's on/off button in the front.

At that point, the only thing(besides just unplugging from the wall or PSU) that you can do that will get a response from the machine is press and hold the on/off button for 5 seconds until the light turns off. At that point, the green light comes back instantly. And again, the little amber light on the motherboard remains same brightness through all of it.

Nothing else to report. I have tried to be as thorough and clear about my test and the results so that we may quicker get to the bottom of this before I attempt buying and returning any replacement parts.

Thank you SpeedTest and anyone else who might chime in and help. Take care.

_Steven

I have the same problem as Stevenism101. When it first happened, I took it to a repair shop and they tested the power supply. It tested good. Was told that it must be the motherboard. So I purchased a tested motherboard and swapped it with the old one. I get the same amber light inside. The fans turn for about 3 seconds and then they stop and the amber light remains on. I also tried another power supply and the same amber light. I am thinking maybe the CPU is bad. Not sure what symptoms a bad CPU gives.

Any suggestions anyone?

I have a Inspiron 545 which seems to have similar problems. Plugging in the power cable lights a green LED which stays on for a short while after the power is removed. Pressing the start button causes the case fan to rotate for a few second then stop. Continuously holding down the start button has an effect of just constantly starting and stopping as though there wasn't enough power. The strange thing was that suddenly after endless trying the machine started and all was normal. I decided to just put the machine to sleep overnight hoping it would start next day but no! at the moment I am back at square one,

As the model is getting on over four years old I am guessing that it is worn-out hardware or maybe the motherboard battery.

I would like to see a solution for this or actually find a Dell adviser who could help.