Dimension 4600 amber lights.

[stevo1210]

Hello Everyone,

My friend has a Dell Dimension 4600 desktop computer that he bought about 4 years ago. All was going well until yesterday when it didn't want to boot anymore. Now all he gets is a flashing amber coloured light where the power LED is.
He says it will turn off if he holds the power switch for a few seconds. When the amber light flashes, the fans don't spin....nothing happens.
He suggested his HDD could be dead but I doubt that highly because if that was the case, the PC would still boot, but spit out a message saying the HDD failed or failing to complete the POST process. So from what I've gathered from my experience with other Dell computer, I think he may have a faulty PSU.
I know that this model is notorious for having PSUs with bad caps thus disabling the PC from booting. I know for a fact that the PSU is a Hipro 250W as I have serviced that PC quite a a few times. I told him about 2 years ago? that the Hipro will one day give up due to bad caps, so maybe the day has come?

The graphics card is nice though.... a Radeon 9800 256MB .

Anyway, I have a Delta PSU packed ready for testing tomorrow.... but I want to make sure it's the PSU, what else could be wrong?

Thanks.

[Scenic]

Re: Dimension 4600 amber lights.

it's the PSU.

Had the same PC here for service a while ago. pc was turned off in the evening and on the next day the system simply won't power on. flashing power led.

new PSU fixed it. (recapped Seasonic SS-350FS 350W)
almost all secondary caps of the original psu were leaking...

[stevo1210]

Re: Dimension 4600 amber lights.

I wasn't able to see my friend today as I was sick with a cold. But however I will see him tomorrow and I guess I'll get him to buy a Thermalaltake XP550NP 430W PSU or an Antec Basiq 350W PSU from the local computer store.... they have a budget for this so I can't get some Seasonic one for $100+.

I use the Thermaltake PSU in every build that I build for my clients and I haven't had any complaints about it so I guess that ones OK. I even use it for my own PC.
The Thermaltakeis a HEC built PSU from what I have gathered. My friend uses the computer like 1 hour a week so that Thermaltake should last a long time.
Antec on the other hand, I keep hearing problems about bad caps etc. but I guess thier quality could be improved now.

Thanks.

[stevo1210]

Re: Dimension 4600 amber lights.

I want to make sure about this, but I have a Dell PSU here with a standard ATX connector. All the cable colours match up to a standard ATX PSU, except one cable is missing. Is an aftermarket PSU guaranteed to work with the Dell Dimension 4600 without frying something important? I am 95% sure about compatibility, but I want to be safe than sorry.

Thanks.

[stevo1210]

Re: Dimension 4600 amber lights.

Ok, I am currently here at my friends place and typing this up on his Dell. It turns out it was the graphics card that caused the havoc here.
The Dell had a safety shut off circuit that prevented it from starting (This is why I like Dell things).... I put the graphics card into a PC based on an Asus P5P800-SE motherboard, started it up and the graphics card blew out smoke and a few sparks of amazement. So I gathered it's busted. The components that burnt up on the graphics card are a chip marked SK32 (I gather this is a tantalum capacitor) and also a MOSFET with marks T60 N02R. The MOSFET is burnt black and the SK32 chip burnt off its solder pads. So right now we are back to using the onboard Intel extreme graphics card. I guess that should be OK for internet browsing and homework.... and maybe some oldies games.

Thanks.