You need to call Dell - they may charge a fee for the call but should waive it upon notification of the problem.

 

Hi thanks (sorry for the delay )

i finally found time to ring dell today and got the distinct feeling i was being fobbed off.

i gave him the error codes :

when i press the power button the power light comes on 

the harddrive light comes on for 4 seconds then blinks once and then turns off after another 2 seconds.

the 3 lights including the  caps lock light  come on for 4 seconds then switch off .

the hard drive spins also but there is no other sign of life.

he said that while this is a fried motherboard it isn't eligible for replacement....how bad is this motherboard that it has multiple failures?

surely the fact that the motherboard is prone to failure would warrant Dell to investigate this machine further.

has anybody got any ideas on where to go from here as i got the feeling that he wasn't really interested in helping me.

thank you

 

It's not the board that's prone to failure, but the video chip - and when it fails, the board will  power up the system.  Something else is wrong - and the extension covers only the video chip.

If you're going to buy a board to fix the system, get one with the Intel video chip -- NOT another nVidia board.

 

ah right ...silly me :emotion-10:

well....i cant afford the new motherboard so it now looks like i have a very pretty paperweight  :emotion-9:

thanks for the info.