Sounds like the system has a bad motherboard! I just troubleshot an emachine with the same symptoms, powering itself down. My steps, I plugged a spare P4 motherboard I have into the emachine, the power supply worked fine, the control panel switched and LED's active, and the system POSTED with my motherboard. That eliminated the power supply and control panel switeches and LED's, making the remaining part causing the problem (the motherboard). If you bench in the same manner, you can assess which parts work, and isolate the problem quickly!
Message Edited by Pterminiator on 11-16-2005 07:44 AM
You can download the users manual and in some cases other hardware info and drivers from the Product Suport section. You will need the Model Number and the Service Tag number.
The General Hardware section would probably be the most appropriate forum section, unless you have specific Operating System questons and then that would go in the appropriate Operating System section.
"Powering Down" can have many causes and there's no way to even guess without specific information.
Thanks guys for your help, i will have the pc in my hands on saturday so ill get the numbers firebird mentioned and get back to you, also what Pterminator said about the motherboard is also my first idea! that the motherboard is not the best? this is one of the negative things about buying a DELL i work with computers so ill bring a motherboard home with me to test it out, a few other idea's ill try like taking a look in the BIOS for power settings checking the RAM modules, i had a look at the this pc last week and when i was there it stayed on all the time, i was busy though keeping it going with scans and cleaning out rubbish it has no signs of viruses or ad ware or no signs of blaster or warnings that the pc would reboot, also i tried it on two different power sockets.
Like you said there is no means to see what is wrong without first getting more information, i will post my findings to keep you informed.
I thoght i would return to tell you how its been going! Firstly i found out that one of the modules on the RAM was damaged so i swopped that out but the pc still kept rebooting even while i was in the BIOS! so i swopped out the motherboard and its now fine even though the PC still wouldnt start and the screen scashed while windows was booting, seems that the OS is corrupt or something simpelest solution i had was to put a new HD in and reinstall the OS...
Just need to find the drivers for the sound and graphics now
ooh and thanks for your replies and just for the record it was a packard bell pcs not Dell? when i posted i had not had the pc in my hands and was told that it was a Dell but hey a pc is a pc! the only drivers for this machine on thre site are for the modem? great service that is? thank god for clones!
I thought i would return to tell you how its been going! Firstly i found out that one of the modules on the RAM was damaged so i swopped that out but the pc still kept rebooting even while i was in the BIOS! so i swopped out the motherboard and its now fine even though the PC still wouldn't start and the (os)screen crashed while windows was booting, seems that the OS is corrupt or something simpelest solution i had was to put a new HD in and reinstall the OS...
Just need to find the drivers for the sound and graphics now
ooh and thanks for your replies and just for the record it was a packard bell pcs not Dell? when i posted i had not had the pc in my hands and was told that it was a Dell but hey a pc is a pc! the only drivers for this machine on there site are for the modem? great service that is? thank god for clones!
Pterminiator
141 Posts
0
November 16th, 2005 11:00
Message Edited by Pterminiator on 11-16-2005 07:44 AM
fireberd
9 Legend
•
33.4K Posts
0
November 16th, 2005 11:00
You can download the users manual and in some cases other hardware info and drivers from the Product Suport section. You will need the Model Number and the Service Tag number.
The General Hardware section would probably be the most appropriate forum section, unless you have specific Operating System questons and then that would go in the appropriate Operating System section.
"Powering Down" can have many causes and there's no way to even guess without specific information.
steveEmale
4 Posts
0
November 17th, 2005 09:00
Thanks guys for your help, i will have the pc in my hands on saturday so ill get the numbers firebird mentioned and get back to you, also what Pterminator said about the motherboard is also my first idea! that the motherboard is not the best? this is one of the negative things about buying a DELL i work with computers so ill bring a motherboard home with me to test it out, a few other idea's ill try like taking a look in the BIOS for power settings checking the RAM modules, i had a look at the this pc last week and when i was there it stayed on all the time, i was busy though keeping it going with scans and cleaning out rubbish it has no signs of viruses or ad ware or no signs of blaster or warnings that the pc would reboot, also i tried it on two different power sockets.
Like you said there is no means to see what is wrong without first getting more information, i will post my findings to keep you informed.
thanks again
Stephen
steveEmale
4 Posts
0
November 23rd, 2005 07:00
Hi
FEEDBACK
I thoght i would return to tell you how its been going! Firstly i found out that one of the modules on the RAM was damaged so i swopped that out but the pc still kept rebooting even while i was in the BIOS! so i swopped out the motherboard and its now fine even though the PC still wouldnt start and the screen scashed while windows was booting, seems that the OS is corrupt or something simpelest solution i had was to put a new HD in and reinstall the OS...
Just need to find the drivers for the sound and graphics now
ooh and thanks for your replies and just for the record it was a packard bell pcs not Dell? when i posted i had not had the pc in my hands and was told that it was a Dell but hey a pc is a pc! the only drivers for this machine on thre site are for the modem? great service that is? thank god for clones!
Stephen
steveEmale
4 Posts
0
November 23rd, 2005 08:00
Hi
FEEDBACK
I thought i would return to tell you how its been going! Firstly i found out that one of the modules on the RAM was damaged so i swopped that out but the pc still kept rebooting even while i was in the BIOS! so i swopped out the motherboard and its now fine even though the PC still wouldn't start and the (os)screen crashed while windows was booting, seems that the OS is corrupt or something simpelest solution i had was to put a new HD in and reinstall the OS...
Just need to find the drivers for the sound and graphics now
ooh and thanks for your replies and just for the record it was a packard bell pcs not Dell? when i posted i had not had the pc in my hands and was told that it was a Dell but hey a pc is a pc! the only drivers for this machine on there site are for the modem? great service that is? thank god for clones!
Stephen