Yet another E510 with blinking amber light

---

@brettroach wrote:
i too pm'd jesse with my info and never got contacted. Oh well. I just won't buy another Dell

---

Ditto on both points.

this is strange......

its been 2 weeks DELL did not contact me. I suppose that they will not not offer replacement parts to me also.... 

why were some E510 owners, out of warranty, offered free replacement parts and others were not? (discrimiatation?)

I agree that it's odd that Dell is replacing some and not all especially if you PMed the Dell Liason when he first posted the message. A later post from Dell-Chris said that the list had been "closed" (or something along those lines) and that a special team was looking into the situation.

You've got to consider what Dell might be doing. They might be using this group as a test group to see what might properly fix the problem. Since there are several different issues that might cause the amber light they might be trouble shooting with those of us that have posted here and/or elsewhere.

I'm not sure about others that received replacement parts, but I had already spent money with Dell to replace the I/O board so maybe they took that into consideration. I can't say. I wasn't told by my contact why I was chosen.

I can't speak for what Dell is doing since I don't know either, but you've got to consider that they might still have a team working on this and a different, possibly bigger solution might be in the works. Sure that doesn't offer others any FIX for right now and could cause Dell problems further down the line, but hopefully something is still being worked out at their side.

Remember, it took a long time for them to recall the laptop batteries that could have been a fire hazard so this too, hopefully, will be a corrected problem by Dell.

I wonder if the people who have gotten replacement parts for free (or even have been contacted by Dell as of yet) are the ones who were unable to "fix" their 510 with any of the tricks suggested here? For example, I was able to reset the CMOS and get mine running again, and I haven't been contacted by Dell. Maybe others who were unable to get theirs up and running at all after resetting CMOS, draining power, or that hair dryer trick were selected to be the "test" group?

Who knows... 

I was contacted by Dell, but I missed the call, so I do not know if I would have been offered replacement parts or not?

I was one who was able to reset my CMOS and get my PC to operate.

I later replaced my PS with the $20 supply which I provided a link for and I'm still working just fine.

I still expect to hear something one way or another as resolution to this issue, but I think it has become quiet because many people don't have anything new to add.

We're all in a "wait and see" holding pattern until more info comes forth from Dell.

I'm quiet because I'm in an "I give up" mode. I've had this problem since December, and Dell has made it clear that their only responsibility to me (if you can call it that) is to offer to sell me replacements for their defective parts. They gave me the phone number for Spare Parts and told me what parts to BUY. By the way, that was also the response that they gave to the BBB to my complaint (which I received today); i.e., that they had told me what parts to buy because my system was out of warranty.

Good luck to everyone. It seems REALLY unlikely that Dell is going to do an about face and suddenly reimburse all of us who have this problem. I wouldn't hold your breath on this one.

Steve 

Another Dimension 5150 here with a blinking amber light.  I'm out of warranty of course and I've had my system for about 19 months.

I haven't turned it off once I discovered this forum.  I am willing to replace the power supply but that's about it.  I might even going to hold off on that in hopes that Dell does acknowledge this as a defect and issues a recall.  I'm sure there are more 5150/e510's failing everyday.

This is my first (and based on how Dell chose to handle this) and my last Dell product.

Anyone have any news on their situations?  For those who replaced the power supply only - are you still up and running?

I would like to add that when Dell called me (I gave my tag number to Dell Jesse), I discussed this issue (namely, proving that there is a design flaw) with Dell rep.

He was very knowledgable about this. I mentioned that somebody posted here a link to the UK customer protection laws, and he said that he studied this issue very carefully, and in the US such a federal law exists only for auto industry.  He also mentioned a couple of cases when Dell issued a recall and he tol me how Dell was forced to issue a recall. In that case (I just quote what Dell told me) customers (one of whom was an engineer and and an expert) proved that the temperature of a certain part was high enough to cause mulfunctioning of another part.  Dell representative told me that if I would be able to present a proof like that they would certainly replace mulfunctioning parts.

This may be my final post. In response to my BBB complaint, I was told essentially what DELL-Chris_M has stated in his posts to this forum: 

"As previously stated Mr. Schwartz began having issues with his system after the warranty was expired. Dell cannot guarantee the life of any hardware on the system. Hardware failure can occur at any time. 

Dell does offer up to four (4) years of warranty on our systems. However, Mr. Schwartz elected to have the one (1) year warranty. Dell honored the one (1) year warranty; however, in fairness to all of our customers, will not replace parts outside of that warranty." 

I just called to follow up with the BBB response and pointed out that at least half a dozen people in this message thread who were also out of warranty had their parts replaced for free, suggesting very strongly that the final BBB response sentence was untrue. Regardless, nothing changed.

At this stage, I think the best hope is to have an electronics expert check out the failed power supplies and front panels. Unless we can PROVE that they were badly made, most of us will be out of luck and on our own. 

OK ... I give up, what is a "PM"  and how do you "PM" someone?

I've read it so many times, but still can't figure out the initials.

(I would like to PM Dell Jesse, whoever that is).

Thanks if someone would explain this codeword for me,

Craig

Well, I am sure this is not the solution to everyone's blinking amber light problem, but .... maybe this will work for a lot of you.  This job is not as hard as it might seem, but, it may or not be for you.  You can always take it to a shop and have the PS replaced.

The cheapest and easiest thing to replace is the power supply.  Follow the directions in your user manual for powering the system down and taking the cover off.   The power supply (in the E510 anyway) is an "ATX" supply, with 20-pin and 4-pin motherboard connectors, as well as connectors to the CDROM drives and your hard drives.  You should locate a local PC supplier who "thinks" they have a power supply that will work in your PC first, then take your PS out and bring it to the store and make sure the one you are going to buy has matching connectors so that it is, as they say, plug compatible.

If you are more adventurous, you can try to repair your PS following this link (which is not from me):

http://www.aplusperfect.com/articles/fix-dell-cx305n-power-supply

When I examined my PS, only the 10V 1000uF capacitor needed replacing, which is a good thing since I have a *** soldering iron and had trouble getting the larger (5600 uF) capacitor out.  It looked good, so I left it.  By the way, if you don't know what you are doing, you could ruin your PS, but, of course, it probably needs replacing anyway if you can't fix it.  My plan was to try this fix, and, if it didn't work, I'd get a new PS.

Anyhow, I am happy to report that replacing this one defective $0.39 (from the Digitronix link) capacitor solved my problem.  Digitronix, btw, has amazing customer service.  I ordered the two capacitors on Tuesday night (having never had an account with Digitronix), and the parts arrived in the afternoon mail in NJ (Digitronix is in MN!).    Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

on Thursday!  And they were the right parts, and they charged me $2.05 for postage and about $2 for the parts (I got two each of the capacitors … just in case).

So, that is how a $0.39 (at retail, in quantities of 1) capacitor can ruin a $500 (or more) PC and why it is important for system manufacturers to use quality parts.

I also have this problem on my E510 - 3 years old so I guess I'm luckier than most.  I read all the forums and replaced the battery - no help, replaced the power supply - nothing.  I took it today to a repair place and the guy was nice enough to check it on the spot for me - he put in his power supply and it started booting! Then we realized that he had disconnected the front i/o.  We reattached my replacement ps and sure enough with the front i/o not connected or with his test i/o part, it booted.  So, I'm relieved to know that it's not my motherboard, but I cannot find that front i/o part anywhere but through Dell.  I had the two front USB ports (which I think are the problem actually since every time I tried to plug my ipod into one of them, I'd get a popup about a power surge) on it.  Did anyone find this part anywhere? Thanks!  Also, when I got it home and plugged it in without the front i/o there, it didn't do anything.... bummed because I was hoping I could still get to it....

Amy

I am one of the lucky ones too, if you can say this... After 3 years my E510 is developing the same condition. I started unplugging and pluggiing things on the computer and follow the troubleshooting guide on the website, but it is so random the behaviour that I am tired and frustated. I have bought Dell all my life, around 5 laptops for my family and several at work in addition to the E510. It is dissapointed the way dell is handling this... This is probably the end of my loyalty to dell.

AM

I am having a similar problem where my Dell Dimension 5150 would show the flashing amber light and would not boot up. But on occasions it would boot up as normal.

For me I've isolated the problem down to the ethernet port. I noticed that the ethernet port was flashing a similar amber light and when I remove the ethernet port the computer will boot up as normal. Anyone know why this would be?

Gladly my Dell is still under warranty so will get it fixed by Dell.

I have had this problem off and on (pun intended) for over a year. After replacing the PS with a higher wattage unit, the computer worked fine for about 6 months. The boot and amber light problem returned so I swapped out the CMOS battery and it booted fine so I bought a new CR2032 battery and all was well until the computer went unused for two days.

If I pop out the battery, wait a few seconds then reinstall, the computer boots fine and will do so repeatedly. I now leave the cover off and R&R the battery whenever there is a boot failure.

I have read that the front I/O panel or cable may be the problem, but that seems unlikely. Any thoughts on this?