DELL DIMENSION 4600 - POWERING OFF AT BOOT UP

[unclealbert]

My DELL 4600 dimension has been doing this for while now.
Its a p4 3000 model.
On boot up it gets to the fist black splash screen with xp logo and has a 50/50 chance of getting past this.
It either powers off or continues fine.
Been like this for about a year now.
I've replaced the PSU with a beefier model and the other week swapped out the XP main sofware HDD.
Still the same. Still a 50/50 chance of booting normally.

Any ideas please..........pretty please

 

[Lemon13]

motherboard, have a look for bulb capacitator heads

 

[BadBigBen]

here is a wiki article as to Lemon13's suggestion, so you know what to look for...

Capacitor plague

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_Plague

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[unclealbert]

oOH. If its capacitors, that'll be a new motherboard then ?
Can imagine swapping duds out economical at all.
Just trailed 11 pages on ebay for a 478 motherboard that look like mines without luck.
Let it die, then new pc time me thinks.
I'll keep looking for motherboard replacement.

Couldn't see any bulging caps though.....

cheers for advice guys

 

[BadBigBen]

Clean out the CPU HS-Fan, or replace it...

reason for clean out: dirt, dust, can adversely affect the cooling of the system, thus causing power offs when booting, though this happens before the splash screen of XP...

reason for replacement: over time, the sensor can get damaged, fail or what have you, and the same symptoms as above will happen... also this is usually before windows splash screen...

make sure that everything is seated correctly, take out the graphics card and plug it back in, do the same for the RAM modules, etc...

since it is a socket 478, it may be at the time to upgrade and just take this as a loss or sell it on eBay...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."