Question

Dell Dimension 4600 will not power on

Asked by: kbarboza

Dell Dimension 4600

Press power on button, nothing happens.
Only thing showing power in the system is small green light on the motherboard.

Tested power supply with a computer that does not have a P2 connector, and it started the other computer.  P2 connector on power supply tested at 12 volts with voltmeter.
Plugged in power supply and tested all leads on P1. They all showed 5 volts – except for the brown and green wires, which I believe to be grounds.

Tested switch for continuity and showed no or minor resistance (.01).  One light on switch lights up while the other light on the switch is burnt out.  Do not know if burnt out light in switch would keep computer from starting but would think not.

As per Dell support, I started disconnecting the following parts one at a time, tested, and reconnected them in the order given.  No success was found with any.  Disconnected fan, removed add-on board, removed memory – no error beeps, and disconnected all IDE devices and power to them.  Again, no success was found in removing, testing, and reconnecting the hardware.

At this point, troubleshooting seems to point towards a bad system board.  Need help.  Any ideas??

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Asked On
2006-09-24 at 15:29:49ID22000875
Tags

dell

,

4600

,

dimension

,

power

Topics

General Computer Systems

,

Personal Computers

Participating Experts
5
Points
500
Comments
12

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Answers

 

by: sparkmakerPosted on 2006-09-24 at 17:43:46ID: 17589059

The only thing you haven't replaced or tested is the CPU. The green light on the motherboard is an indicator that the 5v pullup signal is getting to the motherboard from the PSU and tells you that its ready to power up. No error beeps with the ram pulled , And having tested the PSU on another computer,certainly points at the motherboard or CPU.

 

by: garycasePosted on 2006-09-24 at 23:18:03ID: 17589997

As sparkmaker noted, the 5v standby power is active ... but that does NOT mean the power supply is good; so I would do a bit more testing.

A very high percentage of the time the symptoms you've described are caused by a bad power supply.  It's interesting that you said it would start another PC => but that you also said all of the leads on the P1 connector were at 5v.   There should be 3 orange wires at +3.3v, and a yellow wire at +12v, in addition to the red wires at +5v (all relative to the black ground wires).   The pinouts are shown here:  http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4600/en/4600i/sm/techov.htm#1138239

Since your system (unlike many Dells) uses a standard ATX power supply, you can easily confirm that it's not a power problem by using another power supply => just be sure it's a standard ATX supply.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2006-09-25 at 00:51:53ID: 17590285

and of couse, it can be a bad mobo, as you suspect, or a bad cpu (which is much less frequent)
Both can be tested by replacing them, or if possible, test the cpu on another compatible motherboard.
BTW; did it run ok before?
any warranty left? --> if yes, use it.

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2006-09-25 at 06:04:44ID: 17591937

IT IS the PSU  i have dealt with SEVERAL systems with this issue and a 350 watt PSU should do fine i would say the LOWEST you should go is a 300 watt PSU and that is already low enough  orst comes to worst you have to return the new PSU because it didn't help    but it IS alot cheaper than a MOBO or CPU

cf101

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2006-09-25 at 06:11:04ID: 17591979

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2006-09-29 at 07:58:45ID: 17627890

any news here??
cf101

 

by: kbarbozaPosted on 2006-09-29 at 11:12:57ID: 17629531

Still working on a solution.  Tested another Dell power supply which also starts the other computer without P2 connector.  P1 connector connections all have 5 volts (including black commons which should be grounds) - voltage tested does not match voltage in Dell's diagram for Dimension 4600 - so perhaps both power supplies are bad.  Have not yet tried to buy a new system board.  Will continue to troubleshoot and hopefully make some progress.  Any other comments are welcome.

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2006-09-29 at 12:20:25ID: 17630100

go buy a NON dell psu from a local computer shop

the boards cost more and are harder to return back

cf101

 

by: garycasePosted on 2006-09-29 at 17:35:37ID: 17632281

r.e. "go buy a NON dell psu ..." ==> In THIS case that's fine ... the 4600 uses a standard ATX pinout.  BUT in many Dells there are proprietary pinouts, but with the SAME connector as an ATX unit.   So be very cautious about suggesting that (looking at Dell's documentation and comparing the pinout with the ATX pinout before suggesting it is a good idea)

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2006-10-04 at 10:11:14ID: 17660984

Thanks gary for the heads up but i already knew about that since i have changed my dad's 4600 PSU before from the phantom problem alot of 4600's PSU's going bad when the system just gets out of warrenty
cf101

 

by: GMISupportPosted on 2008-09-24 at 13:19:15ID: 22563616

What was the resolution to this?
I have the same issue, but i started pushing on the cmos battery and it seems to startup, but i dont get any video.

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2008-09-24 at 16:46:05ID: 22565129

Yes, the power supply was bad.
the power supplies had the wierd thing where each time the power was cut it would take longer for it to be able to boot,

most likely your power supply is defective..

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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