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DELL 9200 Dead - Steady flashing lights - 2 years old
Never had this type of problem before. I went to work on the computer this morning, shook the mouse as I always do to wake up the machine...and its dead. The box has a steady flashing light, and it would not even power down if I held the button in. I removed the AC plug, held the button (to discharge ??) waited about 10 minutes, plugged in teh AC cord, hit the button, and same thing. No beeps . no sounds. Just a flashing light.
After some seraches (via my other machines) this sounds like a power supply or a motherboard problem.
If its a power supply (how do I tell??) , how daunting is a replacement? I've added boards, memory, etc but that's it. Is this s simple swap, or do I need to completely dis-assemble the machine?
If its the motherboard (how do I tell??) , then this for sure is a non-starter for me. I assume this means a complete teardown of the machine, including some skills in removing the chip itself, which I know I would damage, so I would need to bring the computer in for even more $$$$. I'd be better off just buying a new computer system unit give the cost of a new board and labour to replacement it. Yes this quad-core chip and 3 GB of memory is ashame to waste!!
I could swallow that pill if this were an old machine, But this
machine was bought in August 2007. Two years ago. It should not be failing. I am out of warranty by a year, so no options there. I ha
ve bought over dozen Dell machines to date - I buy Dell for quality. I read a nasty rumour (while goggling this issue this morning) that Dell started using some cheaper capacitors in recent years which are known to fail early and can lead to this type of problem. If this is true, I am totally done with Dell. A two year old machine should not fail like this.
Any advice??
contrvlr
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September 12th, 2009 06:00
Good choice, I like the total modular idea.
Sheldon G
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September 12th, 2009 10:00
Yes - complete pleasure to work with. Also, their customer support is excellent. Very fast respose over email and totally accomodating. Zero hassle, no challenges etx. Re the missing cables , they offered to etiher order me a set (which would take few weeks) or imeediately replace tha power supply! No questions asked. Now that's service.
shesagordie
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September 12th, 2009 11:00
Sheldon G
Pleased to hear that the problem has been resolved.
Regards to power supply failures, they are mechanical devices and as such will fail, it's just a question of when, hence the reason for warranties.
I have a Dell power supply in an 'old' L Series PC, manufactured in 1999 and it's still working fine, guess that you were unlucky.
Bev.
Sheldon G
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September 12th, 2009 14:00
I got an L-series as well (L733), still purring - an even older T500 for the guest room - still good for checking email etc. Both have original DELL power supplies - who'da thought my newest 9200 one would be the first to go! Could be US/Mexico parts vs overseas???
EPILOGUE - When I put the case back on the 9200, it was very very tight. - reason: the hard drive are close to the edge and as luck would have it, the SATA plugs on the ULTRA are much deeper that the OEM version! See pic : http://www.box.net/shared/1cp5n4ie74 . So its on, but quite tight - hope its not an issue over time. If it is I'll need to creatively remount the hard drives.
shesagordie
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September 12th, 2009 15:00
Sheldon G
Yep, I see your point about the SATA power connectors.
My L Series is 'purring' also, has a 800mb Socket 370 processor, still running Win 98, installed a second 80gb hard drive, a PCI video card and a PCI USB 2.0 card, but the L Series are a rugged, well built little system.
What amazes me, is how well built the cases are, when compared to today's PCs.
Of cause they do use a proprietary Dell power supply, but there are ways around that. :emotion-5:
Bev.