Dell 2350 Desktop won't start up.

[TLEJ]

I press the power button, and the 3 lights on the keyboard flash. if I hold in the power button, they keep flashing like a strobe light. That's ALL that happens. The fans don't spin or anything. I took the side off, and there's a green LED that flashes as long as the power cord is plugged in. If I remove the power, it slowly stops blinking then stops..

The light beside the power button doesn't do anything either.

I'm guessing the motherboard is fried from a bad capacitor? idk

[kickass audio]

I press the power button, and the 3 lights on the keyboard flash. if I hold in the power button, they keep flashing like a strobe light. That's ALL that happens. The fans don't spin or anything. I took the side off, and there's a green LED that flashes as long as the power cord is plugged in. If I remove the power, it slowly stops blinking then stops..

The light beside the power button doesn't do anything either.

I'm guessing the motherboard is fried from a bad capacitor? idk

im a big computer tech and i know dells inside and out. first.. do you hear any beeping when trying to turn it on? or how about this.. on the back of the tower there will be 4 led's right where the connections are for the motherboard. they usually are labeled either 1,2,3,4 or a,b,c,d. look to see what the colors of them are when trying to start the computer up. if any of them are amber tell me the order of them.

Such as 1= green 2=green 3=green 4=amber

Those lights help immensely when t/s the dell motherboards and their components.

Judging by the way you described it, i think your power supply is bad. which if this is true just go to compusa or a nearby computer store and buy a power supply for like $40.

[TLEJ]

There's no beep anywhere, and I'll check the error code right now.

EDIT: I see the ABCD, and none of them are lightning up.

Edited August 11, 2010 by TLEJ

[kickass audio]

There's no beep anywhere, and I'll check the error code right now.

EDIT: I see the ABCD, and none of them are lightning up.

Yupp, judging by that, im 99% sure that your motherboard is fried. Try this:

1.) Disconnect your power cable from the desktop

2.) With the power cable disconnected press and hold the power button for about 15 seconds straight (this will discharge any remaining power within the tower)

3.) after 15 seconds, connect the power cable back to the power supply and try to power back on

4.) if anything id recommend that you have the case off just to see if the fan will even move a little bit. if the fan starts to move but then stops it is a power problem and the computers power supply is probably shorting out and is turning off to prevent the computer from catching on fire

5.) I had this problem with my old dell dimension 8200, check the motherboard screws (dont starts messing with them if you have no clue what you are doing as you can really mess things up) and see if when you loosen them slightly if it turns on

My old dimension 8200 had a motherboard warping affect where it would cause the computer to turn off randomly because one screw was tightened too much.

6.) Just to be safe, i would HIGHLY recommend that you disconnect your hard drive when doing ALL of this work!!!! If anything, take the hard drive right out of the machine because where its at now, the data can be recovered on it, if you happen to make a mistake and send a jolt of power across the wrong circuit, you can fry your hard drive and make the content on it unusable. Always back up your files and when this happens i ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS disconnect the hard drive as a safety measure.

Best of luck, reply back with your results.

[TLEJ]

Nothing happened. No fan movement. But thank you for the help. idrc, this comp suckssssssss. I was going to fix it for someone else to use. Oh well.

[kickass audio]

Nothing happened. No fan movement. But thank you for the help. idrc, this comp suckssssssss. I was going to fix it for someone else to use. Oh well.

Whats the specs of it? i know its a old machine just judging by the pics i see of that model online. but if you want it as a basic web machine just get the powersupply. if anything use tigerdirect.com or someplace like that. they sell damn good computer parts really cheap. if i lived by you id put it in for you, i know that kind of stuff like a pro.