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2400 Dell series computer
I've recently been tasked with the job of fixing my grandfathers computer. Honestly I have no idea what I'm doing. Here's the low down, he was playing solitaire one night and I'm assuming he pressed a button he didn't mean to. It shut off and he couldn't get it back on. Now, in my hands, I've gotten it to act like it's going to boot up but then it shuts off after a few seconds. A few times it's powered on and stayed on but the screen was black. So I opened the bad boy up and was met with decades of dust caked in every cranny. Cleaning that out now but what do I do from here? Is it the battery? Is it the memory? Our ultimate goal is to save the loads of pictures and videos stored in the computers memory. Any advice you have to offer would be greatly appreciated! Thanks and have a beautiful day!
Kflash08
3 Apprentice
3 Apprentice
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554 Posts
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July 11th, 2023 19:00
@Lylie_C
Assuming that you're referring to a Dell Dimension 2400, that system is 20 years old at this point. If the system is still running Windows, neither version of Windows that can run on the 2400 is no longer supported by Microsoft, and newer programs will most likely require a supported version of Windows. It's recommended that you replace the computer with something newer, one that can at least support Windows 11.
As for power troubleshooting, if you are seeing a flashing amber light on the front of the computer, then most likely the power supply has failed. If you don't see a flashing amber light, re-seating or completely removing any PCI cards may solve the problem. Re-seat the memory and CPU, and any power connectors as well. If that doesn't work, then the motherboard may have likely failed, especially if the computer has been in regular use after all these years.
If you want to recover data off of the hard drive with another computer, you'll need a USB-to-IDE adapter. Connect the hard drive to the adapter and then connect the USB cable of the adapter to a working computer. Browse and copy any files that you want to keep onto the connected computer or removable device, like a USB flash drive.