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solid amber light - help!
Hi everyone - new to this board and hope someone can help me! I have a Dell Dimension C521 just over 2 yrs old and for the last few weeks have been having problems powering up. When I switch on get a solid amber light - no diagnostic lights on front panel coming on. Used to be able to fix by unplugging power lead and plugging back in but this doesn't work now. Have looked on lots of boards/sites and seem to be loads of possible problems so hoping for a bit more advice before possibly throwing good money after bad!
Strange thing is I can get it to work sometimes - sometimes it comes on after 6 attempts or so but other times it's more like 60! When I can get it to come on everything works fine. I took it to local shop who tested power supply and said it was ok - although they couldn't get it to start at all! Said they'd tested a few other things and they were ok - stupidly didnt at the time ask what as they concluded it must be the motherboard. Is it possible for motherboard to have this kind of intermittent fault? Decided to leave it on today after getting it to start but when I returned there was a blinking green light (standby?) but when I then moved mouse to activate it the light turned to solid amber. Did get it to restart though.
Have cleaned it out (v dusty!) and run various diagnostic tests from Dell but all say everything working okay - really doesnt seem to be any problem when it is up and running. Only other thing that I did that I think was about the time this started happening was to install wireless keyboard and mouse but can't see how this could have anything to do with all this? Unfortunately not confident enought to start taking things out / replacing them myself but really could do with some advice here!
Thanks in advance
mr jingles ....
31 Posts
1
January 28th, 2009 23:00
does it happen when the pc has been off for a long time or first thing in the morning if so try warming the inside with a hair dryer for about 30 seconds or so from the back of the pc then start it if it works lol youll have to keep her warm i had a problem with this and had to stand my pc by a radiator for a bit in the morning after a couple of months of this it sorted itself out and now runs like a dream sounds mad but worked
Veronica08
3 Posts
1
January 30th, 2009 12:00
Thanks for reply - if I didn't know better I'd think it was 1st April!! That said, it does seem to start up better after it has recently been on for a while. So I'll give it a go and see what happens - nothing to lose. But what's the possible explanation?!
mr jingles ....
31 Posts
1
January 30th, 2009 22:00
lol its not a joke it really did work my guess is it must be something to do with the motherboard but not really sure but mine has ....touch wood ...worked fine now for about a year or so if it works let me know
helpless56
30 Posts
1
January 31st, 2009 09:00
I like the hair dryer solution but if that doesn't work you might try: when you press in the power button and only amber shows, press and hold the power button until you get a complete shutdown. wait a couple of minutes and try again.
seems strange to me that the shop you took it to, even though they were able to re-create the problem, could not diagnose the problem. When all else fails, suggest you take it to a different shop.
Veronica08
3 Posts
1
February 4th, 2009 13:00
Hi
Well unfortunately the hairdryer solution didn't work but it was a nice idea. Have tried approach suggested by Helpless56 but it didn't seem to make any difference leaving it for a few minutes - still didn't start up. Took ages to get it to come on this morning - but eventually it powered up. I'm reluctant to give up on it at the moment as when it does finally power up everything is fine -been on all day and evening and no problems.
Yes was not overly impressed with shop - they didn't even get it to come on at all and I wasn't convinced by their 'it must be the motherboard' solution.
Thanks for suggestions so far!