Flashing yellow light on power button

3886 Views 7 Replies 3 Participants Last post by dai, Jul 16, 2010

Pennfarms

Discussion Starter · Jul 15, 2010

Hello,

Im new to the forum, and did already check the other thread about flashing yellow lights, but I wanted to post my specific problem and what caused it to see if there may be other options.

Our desktop is a fairly old (4yrs+) dell dimension 510 running win XP. this evening my wife was doing something online when our 2 year old walked up to the computer tower. he began pressing the power button, and before we realized he was doing it, the computer went into shut down mode. So it did its thing and shut down, no big deal i thought. well......

now when i push the power button it give a periodic single flash of a yellow light. nothing begins to power up, there are no sounds, nothing. i tried unplugging it for a few minutes to ge the yellow light to stop flashing, and then tried powering up again. nothing. I think were screwed. Were due for anew computer, but there was alot of stuff on the HD i want to save....

Thanks for any input for the forum members. i appreciate it.

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Wrench97

· #2 · Jul 15, 2010

Would that be a Demension 5100?
If it is there are 4 Diagnostic Lights that light up 1-4 on the front panel by the USB ports are any lit?

Again if it is a 5100 it can mean a Power Supply or system board(motherboard) failure sometimes a CMOS clear will get it running again> http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5100/en/sm/setup1.htm#wp1097561

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Pennfarms

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 16, 2010

Its a dell dimension E510.

I just unplugged and held the power button in for a min to disperse and residual charges. Now there is no light and no response from the machine. uh oh.

all this from pressing the power button a few times?

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Wrench97

· #4 · Jul 16, 2010

The E510 is very similar try the cmos clear > http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5150/en/sm/syssetup.htm#wp1101033

Powering the system up and down like that can cause voltage spikes, Dell's PSU's aren't the greatest when it comes to protection circuits.

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Pennfarms

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 16, 2010

Wrench97 .....thanks for your advice. unfort that did not work. i noticed a solid green lite on the motherboard when i had it opened up. So what piece do you think ill need to replace to get this darn computer up and running? is it costly?

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Wrench97

· #6 · Jul 16, 2010

The next step normally would be to just plug in a spare power supply, but since you probably don't have a bunch lying around the house, do you have access to a digital voltmeter to test with?> Test Your Power Supply

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Pennfarms

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 16, 2010

you are correct....i dont have any extras. I will see about getting one or possibly borrowing an extra from a friend or something. me and my wife were talking about it, and we may just stimulate the economy and get ourselves a new comp. the thing was acting all screwy anyways. I'll let you know if I make any progress with the power supply. THanks again for your help wrench97.

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dai

· #8 · Jul 16, 2010

if you go the new road build your own

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