Hi,

I'm having an odd problem with my Dell Dimension 4550 desktop computer. Sometimes when I turn on the computer I'll see the standard Dell Logo & Bio Screen, but afterwards I'll see a blank screen with flashing cursor, but nothing will happen. The hard disk will continue to access, but it won't proceed to the Windows XP Home screen as normal. I would assume that the Windows installation was somehow corrupted. I tried pressing the power button again and the machine would instantly power off. This probably sounds silly, but if I press the power button and press it really hard and even hold it a second or so, the computer will power on and boot as normal.

When this started happening, I checked out the hard drives in Admin Settings/Computer Management, the status of each drive is healthy. I also ran the latest edition of Dell Diagnostics which found no problems at all. I also have updated Norton Antivirus 2004 and have found no viruses, ran Adaware and found no spyware, and defragmented/error checking. Problem still occurs roughly 1 out of every 4 times I start the computer.

Theres also another problem which may or may not be related. When I'm working on the computer there will be a strange noise coming from the computer. I haven't pinpointed where its coming from, but I could swear its coming from the front of the machine near where the power button is. I thought there may be an electrical short there or something because it sounds just like that last noise the computer makes when you go to shut down, right before it goes off. This noise will be heard randomly as the computer is being used. The computer works fine once it boots to Windows.

Any ideas of what this could be? I thought that it might have been a power problem due to a Blackout this side of town had about 4 weeks ago. The computer was on that morning and even though it is plugged into a high rated surge protector, I'm not sure if it has blackout protection on it.

What would a replacement power supply & switch on this model cost me? I'm out of warranty and if this is a power related problem I'd like to fix it instead of having to buy a whole new machine. I am still using the computer as normal, its just getting annoying because its quirky. I have since purchased a APC Backup unit incase any more power problems occur. I did have Service Pack 2 installed but the loss of performance was high enough for me to remove it. I had these problems before I installed the Service pack though.

Thanks,

~Ryan~

Specs: Dell Dimension 4550 (533mhz FSB), 768MB memory, 40GB Hard Disk & 80GB Hard Disk, Windows XP Home SP1. The APC Battery backup tells me that the machine is drawing on 130watts of power. Even when burning cd's and running games, the APC status has never seen it go higher than 150watts.