Hi, I have a problem with my Vostro 410, and am looking for some advice.

Up until a few days ago everything was fine, then one day I pressed the power button and ... nothing!
Having poked and prodded it quite a bit here is a summary of the symptoms.

Sometimes the computer will boot normally, but a lot more frequently it will not boot and the power button flashes yellow. Sometimes, after multiple attempts, it will kick into life, but other times not.tried various things.

The PSU green light is on, and a yellow LED on the motherboard is also on.

I have opened up the system and tried various things.
- detach all peripherals except keyboard - no effect
- attach another PSU - no effect
- remove video card - no effect
- remove one pair of RAM sticks - no effect
- remove the other pair of RAM sticks - no effect
- remove all RAM sticks - PC bleeps

When the PC is not booting you can see that it repeatedly tries to start - there is a small 'clunk' noise and the CPU fan kind of 'flicks'.
Just recently, when trying to nail down the problem, for a little while it seemed to be starting ok, but then after about 5 or 6 seconds it made the faint clunk noise and restarted the power up process. This happened 5 or 6 times until I stopped it.

When the PC does boot it will then run for hours without problem.

I am tending to think the problem might be the motherboard, but wouldn't want to bet money on it.

Maybe its a hint that I ought to get a new PC, which I may well do, but I'd prefer to get this one sorted out rather than just scrap it.

Thanks for any advice,     John

 

Oh yes, spec of PC

Vostro 410 tower
8GB RAM
2x HDD (1TB, 2TB)
DVD drive
AMD video card (1GB)
- i.e.  pretty stock really