fans running fast, won't boot up

What specific PC model? Any beep codes? Any LEDs?

Dell XPS 420 Q6600

No BEEPS.

Took ram out, no beeps.

Motherboard  light for pwersupply stays solid amber.

I'm not away of any LEDs to look for...where are they?

The front of the case power button will flash amber.

theinvid 

A flashing amber power button LED usually indicates a failed power supply.

Check the reading of the 4 diagnostic lights on the front panel.

THIS 

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

is the XPS 420 troubleshooter and diagnostic guide.

Bev.

I apologize for the length of this post but i tried to as thorough as i could (forgive my newBness)

(Sequence of events listed as follows...((throughout sequence no system beeps and nothing appeared on the monitor and no diagnostic LEDs light up)

Ok, 4 LED lights remain dark.

Amber power light on front of case stays solid. 

When I remove the wireless network card the amber light remains solid. 

When I remove the Video card the amber light FLASHES. 

With video card still removed I removed the memory modules one by one...amber light flashes. 

Unplug the power for hard drive....amber light flashes 

Unplug power to DVD drive ...amber  light flashes. 

Put Video card BACK in the case leaving everything else unplugged...fans kick on and

off and amber light flashes slowly timed to the cycling of the fans.

Put one memory module back in...amber light stays solid fan spins at maximum speed 

Took that memory module out and put the next one in and ...fans kick on and off and amber light flashes slowly timed to the cycling of the fans 

Took that memory module out and put the 1st memory module back in but this time got a different result from the solid amber light with high speed fan...this time I also go the fan kicking on and off w/amber light flashing slowly timed to the cycling of the fans

 Put memory module one and two in at same time and this time got the solid amber light with fan on vid card spinning at max 

Added module 3 in addition to 1&2 and amber light stays solid w/fan on vid card spinning at max

 Added module 4 in addition to 1,2&3 and amber light stays solid w/fan on vid card spinning at max.

 Plugged power back in to the hard drive and got ...fans kick on and off and amber light flashes slowly timed to the cycling of the fans

 Unplugged power from hard drive and oddly enough got......fans kick on and off and amber light flashes slowly timed to the cycling of the fans

 Plugged power back in to BOTH hard drive and DVD drive and got solid amber light with fan on vid card spinning at max

 Plugged wireless NIC card back in and got the intermittent amber light slowly going off and on along with the power to the fan on vid card

 Unplugged wireless NIC card and oddly enough go the ... the intermittent amber light slowly going off and on along with the power to the fan on vid card

 Let computer sit for a minute...turned power back on and got solid amber light with max fan speed on vid card.

 Plugged nic card back in got the intermittent amber light slowly going off and on along with the power to the fan on vid card

 Unplugged nic card again got the intermittent amber light slowly going off and on along with the power to the fan on vid card

 Plugged nic card in again got the intermittent amber light slowly going off and on along with the power to the fan on vid card

In conclusion...I seem to be having some erratic results and still have no clue what is wrong :(

I hope this info helps one of you smart guys/gals to decipher the issue so that I can repair this computer.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

theinvid 

If you are comfortable working around computers, you could try the following:

Note: The only 100% method of testing a PSU, is to install a know working power supply.

Unplug the cord from the power supply, hold the power button in for about 15/20 seconds, open the case, unplug the 24-pin power connector from the motherboard and jump the Green wire to one of the Black wires, reconnect the power cord and power the system, if power supply's fan and the hard drive runs, then the PSU should be good.

Note: Do not remove any wires from the plug, use a small piece of wire or a paper clip as a jumper.

Power supply checks out and the system still does not work, again remove the power cord, hold the power button in for several seconds to discharge the residue power, reconnect the 24-pin connector to the motherboard.

Remove all the PCI cards, the video card [if applicable], memory, all peripherals, disconnect the data and power cables to all the drives, check that the front panel cable is connected to motherboard, with nothing else connected to the system, reconnect the power cable and power the system on.

If you do not get any beep codes and/or there is no change in the diagnostic lights, then it would appear that the motherboard has died.

Bev.