Dell- Nothing but a flashing yellow

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by RMadness66, Apr 11, 2007.

  1. RMadness66

    RMadness66 Private E-2

    Greetings everyone, I have come to seek your assistance once again. My buddy has a Dell Dimension 4700, I believe, which is failing to power up. Whenever the power button is pressed, the power light simply flashes yellow continuously. I tried replugging in mostly everything. I took out my hard drive and hooked it up, but no luck there either. I've never had a power supply problem, but this sure seems to look like one. Please let me know what you guys think and how I can further diagnos and solve this problem. Thanks.

    Madness
     
  2. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    Typically, from a Dell, a dead drive or fan, check the fans are all operating. Obviously this assumes the power supply is powering up as well.
     
  3. RMadness66

    RMadness66 Private E-2

    Well, I did some more investigating. I also have a Dell. I took both my hard drive and my power supply and hooked em up to the other comp and still had no luck. The light on the motherboard turns on and one of the fan starts to spin but kicks off right away. I figure it's not a dead drive. Would a dead fan stop it from operating all together?
     
  4. RMadness66

    RMadness66 Private E-2

    Any ideas?
     
  5. m1k3y

    m1k3y Private E-2

    If you are able to access the internet from another pc go to dell.com and do a search in the support area for the model of your pc. They usually have what it means with the problem you have.
     
  6. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    Try the same on your other computer, but eliminate the power supply first.
     
  7. studiot

    studiot MajorGeek

    If the fans come on you have 12 volts
    If the lights come on you have 5 volts
    Substitution with a known good psu failing do better suggests that the problem lies elsewhere.

    Memory or processor or both. Or a short in the PCI bus on a fitted card; this fault usually occurs with the modem after lightning.

    Dell 4700. Does this model have Rambus (RIMM) modules? If so then they must be fitted in pairs and dummies fitted to empty sockets. You cannot test this type of memory by removing modules. Also they are prohibitively expensive to replace.


    The ever cheerful Studio T
     
  8. RMadness66

    RMadness66 Private E-2

    Well, I was able to locate the problem. I'd like to that everybody for the help. It looks like Major Attitude was right on... it was a dead fan. I can't figure out why Dell set it up this way, unless they were thinking fire hazard, but apparently it wouldn't kick on with the bad fan. I went to Dell's site first, and didn't find anything related to the fan in their support area, so thankfully I posted here. Thanks again
    Madness
     
  9. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    Major Attitude teaches us all
    :clap
    My favourite quote
    Sometimes the obvious eludes us.
     
  10. rmatthes

    rmatthes Private E-2

    Rmadness - I have the exact same problem but I suspect I am not as savvy as you. So there are two fans (I think) not sure which to replace. both? Any help surely appreciated.
     
  11. hrlow2

    hrlow2 MajorGeek

    to rmatthes.
    Other person hasn't posted here in about 8 months.
    Fans are relatively inexpensive now, so might want to replace both to be sure.
    Just get the correct type of connectors on them.
     
  12. rmatthes

    rmatthes Private E-2

    Excellent point and thanks - yeah looks like 20 USD each so both is probably the best call. many thanks
     

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