[Sussex] Fault possibly developing on my PC

[Steve Dobson]

Hi Peter


On 14/11/12 19:07, Peter Humphreys wrote:
> Hello all
>
> I use an older Dell Dimension 4600 as my main Desktop machine and it
seems to
> be developing a reluctance to boot up from cold. And, that's getting me
> worried...
<snip>

I don't doubt your googling to come up with a reasonable cause to your
problem.  Both the PSU and the power switch are easy items to replace if
you're not afraid to open the box up and modify the guts inside.

Most PSUs in towers are easy to replace once you have the correct one of
the type of case/motherboard you have.  I don't know how stable PSUs
design have been since your model of system, but I do want you to be
aware that motherboards have changed their PSU connectors from time to
time so watch out if you decided to by another PSU to try.

The switch may be your easiest option to test.  On one of my computers
the case the off/on switch came detached from the wires that attach to
the motherboard.  Not a problem - it was a push to make switch as I
recall so I just stripped the wires back and touching them together - no
need to hold them together for any length of time - and the system
booted just fine.

In fact it is still working (sans switch) and will have played it's part
in routing this e-mail to you.  As it is one of the machines that is
almost permanently on I still haven't gotten around to replacing the
switch because I don't need it very often, less than once a year.

So if you have a push to make switch too - which it sounds like - it
shouldn't be a problem to just cut the wires from the switch to the
motherboard, striping them back and try touching them together to see if
your system boots as normal.  If it is the switch then a simple push to
make switch from Maplin could be a cheep and easy fix.

But given that I found a review of the Dimension 4600 from 2003 (almost
ten years ago) I think you are right to worry.  How much longer is the
system going to last?  If you do repair it when will the next bit fail?
 Only you can determine how much it is worth trying to repair your
system; I do thing you're in the area of diminishing returns here.

Steve

-- 
Steve "Dobbo" Dobson