The Saga of my Mom's Dell Computer

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Most of the computers in our house are Dells, with the exception of my laptop and my two servers. (I admit I was a little bit of a Dell fanboy) So about two years ago, my Mom ordered a Dell to replace her dinasour Compaq 600 MHz tower. So I help her customize a nice Dell computer to fit her budget and style. AMD Athlon 64, 1GB of RAM, 160 GB hard drive... nice computer for e-mail and Internet. So we ordered it, and it came about a week and a half later. The display wasn't working right on it when we hooked it up. So I called Dell support (Mom makes me go through Dell because of the warranty) and low and behold, the schmuck that built the computer at Dell installed an nVidia driver instead of an ATI driver. How bloody stupid do you have to be to get paid to not tell the difference between ATI and nVidia? So we got that driver mix-up fixed.

So about a year ago, my Mom's display on her computer turned a blue tint. So I decided we had two choices: it was either the monitor or the video card. So here I come carrying my flatpanel monitor out of my room and hook it up to her computer. Oops, blue tint is still there. So off to my place of employment (Wal-Mart) to pick up a video card (nowhere else I like to go but Wal-Mart on my day off, but she wanted me to use my discount on it). I pop in the video card and it works fine. Problem solved.

So that brings us to today's adventure. My mom and brother went to the grocery store to get some, well, groceries. She had turned the computer off before she left. So she comes home and turns on the computer...boots up OK. So she gets ready to open AOL (I know, I know...) and the screen goes black. The monitor shows its No Signal message, and there was a collective uttering of the F-word amongst the members of the household. I do my unique way of checking things and try to push the Number Lock key on the keyboard. The indicator stays lit. OK, frozen computer, hard boot it. So I turn off the computer, wait 15 seconds (yeah, sure) and turns it back on. The indicator on the power button stays yellow, the fans kick up and the DVD drive stirs. That's it. First thing I try is another PSU. Same thing. So I figure that it's most likely the motherboard or CPU. After all, there was enough dust in the intake fan to coat a small mammal.

So this brings me to my next question? Is Dell what it used to be? Or did I just get bad luck with the computer? Of course, being the KIND gentleman I am :)rolleyes:) I gave her my desktop and am going to use my secondary server as my new workstation. She said if you can fix it, it's yours. (I'm feeling a lucky trade here, a supercharged Dell in exchange for a Dell with a bad motherboard.) But we have decided that for Christmas, I can use my Christmas money towards building a new computer. So, my point is that I think Dells aren't as reliable as they used to be. What do you think?
 
Well we have a dell desktop in our house its my parents though and i have a dell laptop nothing wrong with either of them so far for me

just out of interest ours is about 2 years old as well and it has lights on the back with the i/o stuff to show whats wrong with the system does yours have them and if so what are they saying
 
My E310 has the same problem. So I looted the parts (HDD) and build another computer. I ran a test on the PSU and it isn't that. Because I have already zip-tied everything on this computer I don't want to take out the PSU to test it. Soon, though, I'm going to work on cable arrangement, again, and while I'm doing that I'll test it. But if it's not PSU, then I think it's Motherboard. As far as Dells go, I think they're not as good as they were, but they're still good.
 
The computer I gave my mom is an E310 that I have upgraded. It still works good, the one that crapped out was an E521. The diagnostic lights for this model are on the front, and none of them showed up. The computer wouldn't even POST. I used my power supply tester and it showed all voltages OK. So I am expecting a bad motherboard. I wiped my hard drive and reinstalled XP and hooked it up in my mom's computer desk and everything seems to be working well with that one. Since I spent quite a bit of money on the computer originally and upgraded from there, I will be getting some money for it that I will put towards a new computer. :D
 
unless something is shortin sounds like a bad mobo to me to too

have you unplugged all the hdds and cd drives from it and tried powering it just board cpu and gpu if you have tried all that and the power supply is workin g then could be a bad mobo although dosent mean the cpu is lost as well could just get a replacement board
 
Unplugged everything and tried to boot. No go. Removed video card and tried using onboard, no go. I really don't want to go down the avenue of getting a new motherboard for it because Dell uses all this proprietary crap. In order for everything to work properly, I would have to get a Dell motherboard, and the thought of dealing with Dell Support just makes me all warm and fuzzy. ;)
 
huh ive heard some do but my parents dell is just a standard mini atx mobo and case layout , i would double check if it is atx then you can just straight swap in a new mobo , and i didnt say you had to deal with dell try looking on ebay for a mobo for that model
 
Well the Dell I have is bass ackwards. When you look at the motherboard, the slots are in the bottom right and the external ports are in the top right. Although the E310, E510, E521, etc. use the same chassis. So i have all of those options if I want to get a motherboard for it. I will look into it.
 
BUMP!!!

Well tonight my brother's computer came down with a similar issue. Wouldn't turn on and the power LED would flicker every coupld of seconds. Practically the same model; his is a E510 and my Mom's was an E521. Purchased two months apart, and both have motherboard problems two weeks apart. :confused:

Not quite sure what to make of this.
 
That's really weird. I have two friend's with Dells (one E310 and another similar model) and they both have worked fine for over two years.

Everything is bass ackwards because it's a BTX setup.
 
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