older Dell Dimension 2400 issue

[mrtube]

Hi,

Working on a computer for some friends of mine and have run into an issue.

I just did a fresh install of XP and even during the install as well as during updates the computer seems to go into sleep mode and cannot be brought back without forcing it to shut down via holding power button in for a few seconds or unplugging it.

I have sleep disabled in windows and it appears to happen for no apparent reason. The screen goes blank and the power light turns amber no matter whats going on. Hard drive remains running as do all fans. The four LEDs at the rear of the PC all go out.

I noticed many of the aluminum electrolytic caps around the CPU are buldged and am planning to replace them, however I was to be sure the caps would cause this kind of problem before I go through the trouble.

Has anyone had a dell like this act this way due to caps?

I'd like to get this thing working smoothly for them as money is tight and its mainly used as a word processor.

Thanks,

Chris J.

[glc]

The motherboard is toast. Depending on the exact model you can find replacements pretty cheap. What is it? G1548 and K5148 are a couple of numbers that I see.

[jdeb]

I have. Older Dells, older PC's, sure.
Badcaps.net - How To Identify

[mrtube]

glc : are you saying the mobo is toast because of the caps or the symptom?

[Preston]

If money is tight and you have the time, give recapping a try. It's cheap.

What about the power supply? Who is the manufacturer?

Here is a similar thread: Motherboard blown, possibly capacitors? not sure.

And a Wiki: Capacitor plague


.

[mrtube]

Originally Posted by Preston If money is tight and you have the time, give recapping a try. It's cheap. What about the power supply? Who is the manufacturer? Here is a similar thread: Motherboard blown, possibly capacitors? not sure. And a Wiki: Capacitor plague .

Luckily I have a bunch of low ESR 2200uf 6.3v 5mm lead pitch caps on hand (Nichicon UHM0J222MPD3) so I will swap them out tonight and see what happens.

I assume there is a chance a few caps in the power supply are shot as well? Don't know who made the PSU at this time, but knowing DELL I'm sure it went to the lowest bidder.

[Preston]

Originally Posted by mrtube I assume there is a chance a few caps in the power supply are shot as well? Don't know who made the PSU at this time, but knowing DELL I'm sure it went to the lowest bidder.

The power supply would be a suspect too. I've replaced a few of those for family and friends lately. A lot of low quality power supplies out there.

Another couple of thoughts, is hibernation disabled as well? All the BIOS settings look normal?

[glc]

Dell power supplies are actually pretty reliable, they just are limited on the amount of power. If it has onboard video and no video card, it's more than adequate.

[mrtube]

Computer appears to be 100% fixed. I also swear it boots faster now tho I don't know why it would?

I replaced the buldging caps but also found the processor had a TON of grease smooshed all over it and down the sides. When I removed the heatsink it actually pulled the CPU out of the socket. I've never seen this before, not sure if it came from dell like this (doubt it) or if someone was there before me.

I also found the compound on the chipset heatsink to be dried up and nasty.

So with new minimal amounts of heatsink grease on the cpu and chipset as well as a nice set of new caps its a happy computer once again.

[Preston]

Nice work!

Thanks for posting the outcome, a lot of threads just trail off and we never know the final outcome. Good to hear a happy ending.

[jdeb]

nice job. still not worth more than 50.00 bucks

[Preston]

Originally Posted by jdeb nice job. still not worth more than 50.00 bucks

You're messing with my (his) Zen thing, man!







--Tron Legacy

[mrtube]

Originally Posted by jdeb nice job. still not worth more than 50.00 bucks

The slowest machine I have is an AMD 6000+ with 4GB ram, GTX260 and a Raptor 74Gb.

But my friends Dell gets their work done for them and thats what makes them happy. So thats whats important

Besides, I bet its worth at least $65 with new caps.

[mrtube]

Jdeb,

Did you mean the PC wasn't worth more than $50 or my work? I'm assuming you meant the PC.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by mrtube Jdeb, Did you mean the PC wasn't worth more than $50 or my work? I'm assuming you meant the PC.

right the PC, your time is valuable.