I wish I had more experience in this stuff, but here goes, I have googled and not found a conclusive answer. I have a dell dimension e510 that will occasionally (more often than not) not boot, the amber light blinks just for a second, no power, nothing. I pulled all cards, memory one at a time, checked for blown caps, anything shorting the board, nothing. Then I pulled the battery, then it boot perfectly fine. Went in and looked for device errors, updated a couple drivers. Then tried to singled out the usb, it did fail with usb devices plugged in then I pulled them and it booted fine, but then 5 min later it wouldn't boot without anything plugged in. Anybody point me to how to troubleshoot this better?? I'm suspecting the ps, but I can't tell how to know for sure. I'm not seeing any little wires from the power button that may be the culprit, just ribbon type and one braided, looks fine.
How to tell if its the PS, USB port or mobo
- Thread starter ell
- Start date
Can you give me a little more info on how to do that? I have a spare ps, and a tester, the ps passed fine, I guess I could wait till it quits again then open it up and plug mine in, but I don't know if that will prove it for sure.
Power Supply
Just unplug the main board connector and the four pin square plug if there is one and plug in the other supply. I'd usually have all the drives disconnected anyway if I were having trouble getting to post.
There are power supply testers you can get but most of the guys here seem to feel they're not conclusive. I have several dozen old atx supplies so I just swap out two or three to see if one will start. Curiously a supply can be good and still not start in a machine that's being cranky.
Just unplug the main board connector and the four pin square plug if there is one and plug in the other supply. I'd usually have all the drives disconnected anyway if I were having trouble getting to post.
There are power supply testers you can get but most of the guys here seem to feel they're not conclusive. I have several dozen old atx supplies so I just swap out two or three to see if one will start. Curiously a supply can be good and still not start in a machine that's being cranky.
yes, I've done that part before, its testing the actual button switch that I'm wondering about, its almost like it shorts out the way it flickers amber for an instant when it won't boot. However the green light is on on the mobo inside. I thought there would be a thin wire or something, all I see is a ribbon cable and a braided one going to that area, both look fine connected to the board. There is a bios update to improve the OROM Intialization. I have no idea what that means, and I don't like to mess with flashing the bios unless I absolutely have to.
Unplug the power connector from the main board and short it with a screw driver if you suspect the switch, to see if it starts normally that way. Lately I have seen a lot of problems with hibernation and sleep. Most have been fixed by disabling those in power settings. I think there is a patch for it from microsoft. I always test the switch first, because its easy, then always try another power supply.
E510
Yeah, ijunkie, I've just routinely disabled hibernation for quite a while now; more trouble than it's worth.
Ell, to test that switch you'll have to remove the front cover. find the actual switch and the wires which lead to the motherboard. Then you just briefly short the pins. Check your documentation on exactly the right way to clear the bios also because on some machines you have to set a jumper and turn on the machine briefly; for others not. I'm assuming you've googled this; that seems to be a pretty common problem_ I mean not turning on.
Yeah, ijunkie, I've just routinely disabled hibernation for quite a while now; more trouble than it's worth.
Ell, to test that switch you'll have to remove the front cover. find the actual switch and the wires which lead to the motherboard. Then you just briefly short the pins. Check your documentation on exactly the right way to clear the bios also because on some machines you have to set a jumper and turn on the machine briefly; for others not. I'm assuming you've googled this; that seems to be a pretty common problem_ I mean not turning on.
B Trevathan
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According to the Dell Dimension E510 service manual:
Solid amber
The Dell Diagnostics is running a test, or a device on the system board may be faulty or incorrectly installed.
Blinking amber
A power supply or system board failure has occurred.
If the light is blinking amber continuously, most of the time this means the PSU.
When it doesn't start, check the four diagnostic lights, what is the light pattern?
The light on the motherboard just means there is power going to the motherboard from the power supply. Its called a standby power light
When the computer is plugged into a wall power outlet, there is +5 Volts of DC power coming from the power supply to the motherboard even when the power switch on the front of the computer is off.
The purple wire (pin 9) on the motherboard's main power connector (P1) supplies +5V of standby power at around 2 to 3 Amps.
This is why it is a good idea to unplug your computer when you work on the inside of it because less than 1 Amp can kill you.
On Dell power supplies it will be listed as +5VFP the FP stands for flea power, it is the same thing as standby power.
You can test the PSU with a PSU tester or by unplugging all the power connectors and on the main power connector (P1) short the green wire (pin 16) to a black wire (pins 3, 5, 7, 15, 17, 18, 19 or 24) if the fan on the PSU comes on then the PSU should be good.
You can see from the picture on this 24 pin connector they are shorting pin 16 to pin 19
Dell use a lot of proprietary designs. I think the Dell E510 uses a proprietary BTX case design.
If the switch is bad you may have to replace the power switch board. Here is some links to boards for sell:
Part X8683 http://www.resaleremarketing.net/servlet/the-2844/Dell-Dimension-5150-fdsh-E510-Front/Detail
Part X8682 http://www.resaleremarketing.net/servlet/the-175/Dell-Dimension-5150-fdsh-E510-Front/Detail
Part X8682 http://compare.ebay.com/future/220570951113?var=svip&sort=BestMatch
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160437506692
Oh I almost forgot there are three caps on the top of the power switch board. You should check them.
Solid amber
The Dell Diagnostics is running a test, or a device on the system board may be faulty or incorrectly installed.
Blinking amber
A power supply or system board failure has occurred.
If the light is blinking amber continuously, most of the time this means the PSU.
When it doesn't start, check the four diagnostic lights, what is the light pattern?
The light on the motherboard just means there is power going to the motherboard from the power supply. Its called a standby power light
When the computer is plugged into a wall power outlet, there is +5 Volts of DC power coming from the power supply to the motherboard even when the power switch on the front of the computer is off.
The purple wire (pin 9) on the motherboard's main power connector (P1) supplies +5V of standby power at around 2 to 3 Amps.
This is why it is a good idea to unplug your computer when you work on the inside of it because less than 1 Amp can kill you.
On Dell power supplies it will be listed as +5VFP the FP stands for flea power, it is the same thing as standby power.
You can test the PSU with a PSU tester or by unplugging all the power connectors and on the main power connector (P1) short the green wire (pin 16) to a black wire (pins 3, 5, 7, 15, 17, 18, 19 or 24) if the fan on the PSU comes on then the PSU should be good.
You can see from the picture on this 24 pin connector they are shorting pin 16 to pin 19
Dell use a lot of proprietary designs. I think the Dell E510 uses a proprietary BTX case design.
If the switch is bad you may have to replace the power switch board. Here is some links to boards for sell:
Part X8683 http://www.resaleremarketing.net/servlet/the-2844/Dell-Dimension-5150-fdsh-E510-Front/Detail
Part X8682 http://www.resaleremarketing.net/servlet/the-175/Dell-Dimension-5150-fdsh-E510-Front/Detail
Part X8682 http://compare.ebay.com/future/220570951113?var=svip&sort=BestMatch
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160437506692
Oh I almost forgot there are three caps on the top of the power switch board. You should check them.
According to the Dell Dimension E510 service manual:
Solid amber
The Dell Diagnostics is running a test, or a device on the system board may be faulty or incorrectly installed.
Blinking amber
A power supply or system board failure has occurred.
If the light is blinking amber continuously, most of the time this means the PSU.
When it doesn't start, check the four diagnostic lights, what is the light pattern?
The light on the motherboard just means there is power going to the motherboard from the power supply. Its called a standby power light
When the computer is plugged into a wall power outlet, there is +5 Volts of DC power coming from the power supply to the motherboard even when the power switch on the front of the computer is off.
The purple wire (pin 9) on the motherboard's main power connector (P1) supplies +5V of standby power at around 2 to 3 Amps.
This is why it is a good idea to unplug your computer when you work on the inside of it because less than 1 Amp can kill you.
On Dell power supplies it will be listed as +5VFP the FP stands for flea power, it is the same thing as standby power.
You can test the PSU with a PSU tester or by unplugging all the power connectors and on the main power connector (P1) short the green wire (pin 16) to a black wire (pins 3, 5, 7, 15, 17, 18, 19 or 24) if the fan on the PSU comes on then the PSU should be good.
You can see from the picture on this 24 pin connector they are shorting pin 16 to pin 19
Dell use a lot of proprietary designs. I think the Dell E510 uses a proprietary BTX case design.
If the switch is bad you may have to replace the power switch board. Here is some links to boards for sell:
Part X8683 http://www.resaleremarketing.net/servlet/the-2844/Dell-Dimension-5150-fdsh-E510-Front/Detail
Part X8682 http://www.resaleremarketing.net/servlet/the-175/Dell-Dimension-5150-fdsh-E510-Front/Detail
Part X8682 http://compare.ebay.com/future/220570951113?var=svip&sort=BestMatch
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160437506692
Oh I almost forgot there are three caps on the top of the power switch board. You should check them.
There is no blinking pattern, just a split second flicker of amber from the power on button, then nothing, totally dead. If I look inside every time I press the button I can see a little flash behind it, so that makes me think it is getting some power. Wow, thanks guys for the great help, I googled e510 blinking light and OMG! very common problem! It will not boot if it has sat off for a period of time, the only way to get it going I've found is to unplug the usb devices then hold the power button on for 30 seconds or so then it powers up, but not always! which is exactly the issue I found googling, unfortunetly I didn't find any confirmation on what the culprit was. Some had replaced both mobo & ps to no avail. I just tried to start it again this am, dead, I pulled the ps and put mine in, boom, powered right up, I shut it down, waited a bit, booted, I ordered a new ps. Kinda wish it was the switch so I learn how to test for that!
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