Diagnostic Lights/No Output

OK, here is the situation. One day when I turned on the computer, it would not display onto the monitor. So, I read up on what might be the problem. I then noticed that none of my Diagnostic Lights were one. Nope, not one. My heart sank. By the way, I have a Dell Dimension 2350. I checked for faulty devices and found none. I then replaced the Power Supply. Still nothing. :cry All the computer does is turn on. The floppy drive and dvd drive both work too. It just does not put out to the monitor and the Lights are all off. Any help whatsoever on this would be appreciated. Any suggestions too. Maybe I missed something.

 

Are you getting any BIOS beep codes?
Have you tried another monitor? Replace the Graphics card if possible. Another thing that I have found with some machines is that if the CMOS battery is dead or dying then the video will not startup, so try another CMOS battery (normally a 2032)

 

Try reseating the memory (i.e. removing the memory modules and put them back in).

If you're a dial-up user remove the modem and try powering up.

Another trick, reset the BIOS, two ways, move the BIOS reset jumper (usually near the CMOS battery), or remove the CMOS battery with the power unplugged from the computer, hold the power button on the computer in for a few seconds and then put the CMOS battery back in.

There is one other thing you can try if none of the above works, but at this point I would say it's not looking very good. If you feel comfortable or experienced, reseat the CPU.

After you have exausted the above, then most likely the mainboard is shot or other componets.

 

Hello,

My name is Mike, I’m a Technical Analyst at Dell corporate headquarters in Round Rock, TX. I’m part of an internet outreach team developed to interact with the online community regarding technical questions and issues that customers face with Dell products.

I’m sorry to say, but it sounds like your motherboard may be dead. If the CD and floppy drives work, which means the tray for the CD drive opens and closes and the light on the Floppy drive is on, this confirms what the power supply swap did, the power supply is working. You can take kestrel1’s advice and try a new CMOS battery, it may work, but if not, the motherboard is going to be the most likely point of failure.

You may get lucky and be able to find a used one online for pretty cheap, it’s at least worth a try, but if none of the lights are working it’s a pretty safe bet to say that the board is done. Sorry to have to deliver the bad news. In the event you do find a replacement motherboard here is the online teardown that will walk you through replacing it.

Mike
Dell customer advocate

 

Thanks Mike. I really appreciate the info. I need to try everything. This is my baby. The last resort will be the mother board. What do you think about reseating the cpu? Thanks again for your help.

 

It would depend on how comfortable you are in accessing the processor. If it's something you feel comfortable doing then you can certainly give it a shot. The manual I linked to also shows how to do this. If, on the other hand, it's something that you're not sure you can do I would definitely advise leaving it alone and getting someone who is familiar with desktops to help.

The only reason I say this is because I've seen people damage processors trying to do this, and the last thing you need is to have to replace the motherboard and processor, because then you'd probably be better off buying a new computer.

With the symptoms described I don't think reseating the processor is going to do the trick, but I've seen replacing a floppy drive fix a hard drive error and reseating the CMOS battery fix a Blue Screen of Death, so anything is worth a shot.

Mike
Dell customer advocate