Unknown System Failure

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  • Junk Parts
    Court Jester
    • Jun 2006
    • 8953
    • USA
    #1

    Unknown System Failure

    Got problems!
    This morning I tried to fire up the Dell 5540 tower this morning and it was a no go. It started its boot then hung. It did this evey time I tried to start the system. I got no video start and the HD LED went into a soft green glow. It also made a few sick sounding beeps. The trouble lights on the back light up in a quick series of different combinations then settle on YYYG. This combination isn't even in my little DEll book. I tried booting with a different monitor and HD got the same results. I also reseated all plugs and cards.
    I got my backup PC out which is a PIII Dell GX 150 and it did the same thing! I put all this junk to the side and set up a Gateway P4 and it starts and runs just fine. The Gateway is using all the same stuff that my Dells were hooked up to. What the hell is going on here? Oh I also checked the line voltage and its 115.4vac.
    "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
    Mark Twain

    "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
    John Paul Jones

    There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
    Rod Serling
    Tags: None
    • PCBONEZ
      Grumpy Old Fart
      • Aug 2005
      • 10661
      • USA
      #2
      Re: Unknown System Failure

      Possibly a power surge during the night killed PSU's.
      .
      Mann-Made Global Warming.
      - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
      -
      Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
      - Dr Seuss
      -
      You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
      -

        Comment

        • Junk Parts
          Court Jester
          • Jun 2006
          • 8953
          • USA
          #3
          Re: Unknown System Failure

          I like that answer but my backup PC wasn't plugged up to anything and its dead now too. I may have a keyboard issue. Going to change it out and see what happens.
          "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
          Mark Twain

          "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
          John Paul Jones

          There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
          Rod Serling

            Comment

            • digge
              Badcaps Veteran
              • Apr 2006
              • 296
              #4
              Re: Unknown System Failure

              Think ive seen similar symptoms before on a dell gx280 (think that was the model). A recap of the mobo fixed it that time. Doesnt mean that you have that prob though but the machine was bahaving very erratic and give different codes all the time.

                Comment

                • Junk Parts
                  Court Jester
                  • Jun 2006
                  • 8953
                  • USA
                  #5
                  Re: Unknown System Failure

                  The Dell in question has been rock solid up until this morning. The caps look good and the unit doesn't have a shit pile of hours on it. The keyboard is bad but I have not got around to trying to boot it with this known good keyboard. I got side tracked looking for updates in places other than MS for the Gateway because it has hot Xp on it. Will update you all as soon as I get done doing a few updates to this Gateway.
                  "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                  Mark Twain

                  "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                  John Paul Jones

                  There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                  Rod Serling

                    Comment

                    • Junk Parts
                      Court Jester
                      • Jun 2006
                      • 8953
                      • USA
                      #6
                      Re: Unknown System Failure

                      Still DOA. I'm going to use this old AMD unit to test the Dell parts in.
                      "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                      Mark Twain

                      "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                      John Paul Jones

                      There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                      Rod Serling

                        Comment

                        • Junk Parts
                          Court Jester
                          • Jun 2006
                          • 8953
                          • USA
                          #7
                          Re: Unknown System Failure

                          I guess I'll mess around with the sick Dell some more and see if I can fix it. If I can't then I'll look for another junker just like it to refurb. This sucks! This Gateway I'm using can do streaming vids on Netflix but not very well.
                          "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                          Mark Twain

                          "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                          John Paul Jones

                          There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                          Rod Serling

                            Comment

                            • ratdude747
                              Black Sheep
                              • Nov 2008
                              • 17136
                              • USA
                              #8
                              Re: Unknown System Failure

                              are you still using the generator? your voltage could be doing funny things...
                              sigpic

                              (Insert witty quote here)

                                Comment

                                • PCBONEZ
                                  Grumpy Old Fart
                                  • Aug 2005
                                  • 10661
                                  • USA
                                  #9
                                  Re: Unknown System Failure

                                  Are the small caps 85C ?
                                  Mann-Made Global Warming.
                                  - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
                                  -
                                  Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
                                  - Dr Seuss
                                  -
                                  You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                                  -

                                    Comment

                                    • Junk Parts
                                      Court Jester
                                      • Jun 2006
                                      • 8953
                                      • USA
                                      #10
                                      Re: Unknown System Failure

                                      Going to visit all the caps today and see what is up. Yes I'm still on the generator. This Gateway and my home built AMD fire up and run just fine on it. The two Dells are the ones that went sick. I just may load up a complete Dell system and take it over to Dads house and plug it up to "real AC" today and see if it starts up.
                                      Here is what the Dell Demension 4550 is doing now: On powerup the power button glows sort of a solid yellow/amber color. Back when it worked it was green. I think the PC does do some of the post. The floppy, DVD drives, and keyboard all do their blinks. The system then shows a solid weak green HD LED and the same solid yellow/amber power button. The four diag lights on the back of the unit don't light up at all There is no start of the video. So far I have test started the box with different RAM, Hard Drive, video cards, PSU, and DVD drives as well as no DVD drives. The boot always turns out the same way as listed above. I have test all these parts except for the Dell PSU and Hard drives in these other two PC's and they work fine. The HD in the Dell with Win7 on it wasn't even plugged in at the time of the failure. AS A side note the bright metal of the Dell case will give you a shock. Its not line voltage but a shock none the less.
                                      "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                                      Mark Twain

                                      "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                                      John Paul Jones

                                      There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                                      Rod Serling

                                        Comment

                                        • stj
                                          Great Sage 齊天大聖
                                          • Dec 2009
                                          • 31278
                                          • Albion
                                          #11
                                          Re: Unknown System Failure

                                          no earthing - get a big copper spike and hammer it into the ground outside - then link it to your house earthing with thick cable.

                                          it sounds like when they cut you off the system the fuckers may have disconnected the earth too!!!

                                            Comment

                                            • Junk Parts
                                              Court Jester
                                              • Jun 2006
                                              • 8953
                                              • USA
                                              #12
                                              Re: Unknown System Failure

                                              Well my grounding post is still intact.
                                              Just tore the Dell apart some what. I stopped at the cpu. the white paste was burnt black and hard as a rock around the edges of the cpu face. I think the cpu fan failed and things turned to toast after that. I had just cleaned this thing up a few months ago so its not like the paste had years to burn up. Its time to put this one on the pile and find another one to play with.
                                              "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                                              Mark Twain

                                              "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                                              John Paul Jones

                                              There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                                              Rod Serling

                                                Comment

                                                • PCBONEZ
                                                  Grumpy Old Fart
                                                  • Aug 2005
                                                  • 10661
                                                  • USA
                                                  #13
                                                  Re: Unknown System Failure

                                                  Originally posted by Junk Parts
                                                  Well my grounding post is still intact.
                                                  Just tore the Dell apart some what. I stopped at the cpu. the white paste was burnt black and hard as a rock around the edges of the cpu face. I think the cpu fan failed and things turned to toast after that. I had just cleaned this thing up a few months ago so its not like the paste had years to burn up. Its time to put this one on the pile and find another one to play with.
                                                  Just need a CPU and fan.

                                                  Is the neutral on the generator at ground potential?
                                                  Mann-Made Global Warming.
                                                  - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
                                                  -
                                                  Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
                                                  - Dr Seuss
                                                  -
                                                  You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                                                  -

                                                    Comment

                                                    • stj
                                                      Great Sage 齊天大聖
                                                      • Dec 2009
                                                      • 31278
                                                      • Albion
                                                      #14
                                                      Re: Unknown System Failure

                                                      silicone grease is no good for pc's
                                                      it cant run that hot without drying up into a powder.

                                                      use silver or ceramic paste.

                                                        Comment

                                                        • PCBONEZ
                                                          Grumpy Old Fart
                                                          • Aug 2005
                                                          • 10661
                                                          • USA
                                                          #15
                                                          Re: Unknown System Failure

                                                          Virtually ALL thermal compounds use silicone grease as the medium.
                                                          That includes the silver and ceramic pastes.
                                                          .
                                                          Mann-Made Global Warming.
                                                          - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
                                                          -
                                                          Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
                                                          - Dr Seuss
                                                          -
                                                          You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                                                          -

                                                            Comment

                                                            • Junk Parts
                                                              Court Jester
                                                              • Jun 2006
                                                              • 8953
                                                              • USA
                                                              #16
                                                              Re: Unknown System Failure

                                                              Originally posted by PCBONEZ
                                                              Just need a CPU and fan.

                                                              Is the neutral on the generator at ground potential?
                                                              PC I don't know what the above statment means. If you are asking if I am using a three wire grounded cord to connect to the gen-set, yes I am. The gen-set isn't grounded to the earth pin outside. What am I missing here. The only PC that bites me is the 4550 Dell and it only does this when it wants to. The other four PC's are fine in this respect. I did get the Dell PIII to boot up yesterday but it still has issues. Can't get both IDE channels working. I ether have DVD drives with the HD undetected or I have the HD and the DVD drives go undetected. This system always worked fine with all the drive jumped as "CS" in the past. Just a side note question here: Other than the longer length of the Dell tower IDE ribbon wires are their pin outs the same as a regular 80 wire IDE ribbon wire?
                                                              "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                                                              Mark Twain

                                                              "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                                                              John Paul Jones

                                                              There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                                                              Rod Serling

                                                                Comment

                                                                • PCBONEZ
                                                                  Grumpy Old Fart
                                                                  • Aug 2005
                                                                  • 10661
                                                                  • USA
                                                                  #17
                                                                  Re: Unknown System Failure

                                                                  The neutral aka 'return' [white wire on 115 VAC] is generally connected to the ground bar in the breaker box putting the neutral at ground potential.
                                                                  If the 'white wire' coming from your generator isn't gounded then your nuetral may not be at zero volts like it should be.
                                                                  [Maybe a dumb question but I can't -SEE- what you have going on there...]

                                                                  Yes, 80 wire IDE and 40 wire IDE have the same pin-out. [There is a 'but' in a minute.]
                                                                  80 wire just has 40 extra ground wires to minimize cross-talk. Less cross-talk = faster without the signals deteriorating.
                                                                  -
                                                                  The but:
                                                                  Some specs for IDE cable require one pin to be missing as a key and some [older I think] specs don't.
                                                                  The pin-out is still the same because the missing pin isn't used for anything anyway.
                                                                  The only time it causes problems is when you have a drive or mobo connector with all 40 pins but the cable has the one pin plugged for a key.
                                                                  [40 pins on the male side, 39 holes on the female side.]
                                                                  .
                                                                  Last edited by PCBONEZ; 09-01-2010, 04:58 AM.
                                                                  Mann-Made Global Warming.
                                                                  - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
                                                                  -
                                                                  Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
                                                                  - Dr Seuss
                                                                  -
                                                                  You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                                                                  -

                                                                    Comment

                                                                    • Junk Parts
                                                                      Court Jester
                                                                      • Jun 2006
                                                                      • 8953
                                                                      • USA
                                                                      #18
                                                                      Re: Unknown System Failure

                                                                      From The Desk Of JP.

                                                                      The Dell 4550 is back! Here are few things "hints" as to what went wrong. WD-600, Primary Hard Disk Failure. Kingston Value RAM, one stick failed. CPU Fan stuck. It now has a new fan. Video card fan DOA. I'm am using a little ATI All In Wonder card for now. Yes I can laugh at it now but I was ready to smash this POS. The old PIII still has issues but I'll save that for another day. Side note: I was thinking that my Xp install which was on the drive that failed was on one of my newer drives. It wasn't. It was on and old POS WD-600 my brother pulled out of a junker. Also getting shocked on the bright metal of the case is a thing of the past too. I think I may have screwed up and fixed something today.
                                                                      "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                                                                      Mark Twain

                                                                      "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                                                                      John Paul Jones

                                                                      There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                                                                      Rod Serling

                                                                        Comment

                                                                        • PCBONEZ
                                                                          Grumpy Old Fart
                                                                          • Aug 2005
                                                                          • 10661
                                                                          • USA
                                                                          #19
                                                                          Re: Unknown System Failure

                                                                          Congrats!

                                                                          Glad your fixed.

                                                                          At least someone is having a good day.. I'm NOT!

                                                                          !@#$@#%@!# FSP PSU @#%@!@##$ POS CapXon #$*#% 2200uF 6.3v @#%!@# 8mm & no way 10mm will fit.
                                                                          - WTF!
                                                                          Then %%#$~#% Mouser is the ONLY place @#$*@#% Lead Time @#~@!!% 22 weeks!
                                                                          I probably won't even %#$~# LIVE HERE in 22 weeks!

                                                                          .
                                                                          Mann-Made Global Warming.
                                                                          - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
                                                                          -
                                                                          Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
                                                                          - Dr Seuss
                                                                          -
                                                                          You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                                                                          -

                                                                            Comment

                                                                            • Junk Parts
                                                                              Court Jester
                                                                              • Jun 2006
                                                                              • 8953
                                                                              • USA
                                                                              #20
                                                                              Re: Unknown System Failure

                                                                              Thanks for all the feedback on fixing this pig. Makes it kind of suck when the HD dies right along with a cheap stick of RAM. Now to find a fan for this video card. Maybe I should do a voltage reading at the fan header first. The card just may be dying. It nolonger shocks me on the bright metal of the case. Its now running a different HD, RAM, and video card. I don't know which one was causing the shocks but its all better now. That old hard drive also made my electric fan make a funny buzzing noise when ever it kicked in. That noise is gone now too. This is so good that I feel like a Pimp now! PC 22 weeks lead time for a cap or two? Thats nuts!
                                                                              "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                                                                              Mark Twain

                                                                              "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                                                                              John Paul Jones

                                                                              There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                                                                              Rod Serling

                                                                                Comment

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