Another Computer Problem

The other day, my son said he heard popping sounds coming from the wall socket where his computer was plugged in. Since then his monitor screen has been blank and the power light is yellow. I thought he may have blown a fuse within the monitor. When I unplug the monitor from the video card I get the "no signal" screen on the monitor, so I am assuming it's not the monitor but maybe now the video card.

But then I discover on the tower that both the power light and the reset light are on solid, and when I try to use either of them to either reset of power the computer down they do not work. The only way I can turn the computer off is by unplugging it.

So what's going on experts? ;)

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Originally Posted by GAC

pooping sounds

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?

What kinda weird stuff is going on in your house, GAC?

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Originally Posted by cincinnati chili

?

What kinda weird stuff is going on in your house, GAC?

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:lol: Gee - I better correct that. Sorry. I'm a 3rd shifter and haven't gotten much sleep today.

I could probably do a better job at explaining this computer problem then I can my 17 yr old son. ;)

He said he didn't see any spark - and I said "Neither have I son. For many years now."

Sounds like a power supply problem

Did you try the computer in another outlet?

power supply, fried hd, fried MB, fried BIOS, video card, the possibilities are endless.

try plugging it into a new outlet.

is it a dell? call their tech support and see if they can't help

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Originally Posted by ghettochild

is it a dell? call their tech support and see if they can't help

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Yeah, I'm sure Habib will know what to do.

actually dell has some of the best tech support out there

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Originally Posted by ghettochild

actually dell has some of the best tech support out there

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Well, I've had a Dell laptop for three years, and spent a lot of time on support calls to India, and I was pretty dissatisfied with the level of communication.

My remarks were flip, and I hope weren't taken as racist, but I'm pretty sick of talking to guys who can't communicate in English.

I can't speak two languages, so I must say I admire anyone who can, but I bought that computer with the understanding that I would be able to get support, and trying to communicate with a person struggling to understand me and to speak plain english has been a big disappointment. Computers are hard enough to support without language barriers, IMO.

At one time Dell was known for their tech support. The only people who talk to Americans now are "Business" accounts. Dell quality and Dell support have gone downhill the last 3 years.

This is not a name brand computer. I bought it about 4 years ago used and don't know who built it. I got it cheap, and it has served it's purpose.

I agree that the problem could be a variety of things. I'm just not gonna expend much money on it. It's not worth it/cost effective.

I'll try plugging it into a different outlet and see what happens. So, even though I am getting the lights to come on on the tower, it still could be the power supply or an internal section of it?

I have a spare HD for it. So I'll give that a try also. But if that don't work, then I'll take it to a buddy who works on computers and see if it's saveable.

My son has a new IBM laptop, so he really hasn't been using this one at all.

OK - I tried plugging the tower into another wall socket and I can't get any lights/power at all. But I do on the monitor when I plug it in separately. Power supply?

I guess I need to open this thing up and determine what type of power supply it is (wattage), and go from there. It looks to me like they are not too expensive. Hard to replace?

Could be the power supply. I was getting a light on my moterboard, but otherwise no power for my Dell. So I contacted Dell and they wanted me to replace the whole motherboard as it was out of warranty, I would have to buy one. I research the issue on forums and Dell put some faulty power supplies in their computers, but they won't acknowledge the problem. I took apart an older computer, grab it's power supply and put it in the Dell. The Dell has been running solid for the last 6 months with the old power supply.

You could try replacing the Power Supply and if it doesn't work, just take the new one back.