Help!!!

[gilshem ironstone]

I just had the most unfortunate and mysterious (to me at least) occurence with my PC.  I was connecting an ethernet cable, and as soon as it contacted the tower, the tower lost power.  Now, after about ten minutes, the tower still will not turn on.  Did I fry my computer somehow?  I really hope not, as that was my computer with NWN's on it.  Does anybody have any advice for this techno idiot?

[Weeblie]

Check cables, first the ones found on the outside of the computer, and then the cables inside the computer.

Perhaps by touching the tower, you accidentally made a loose one fall off?

While it's not impossible that the ethernet cable did kill the PSU off, it do sound extraordinary unlikely. Frying the ethernet chipset is a possibility, but even that is veeeery unlikely.

[gilshem ironstone]

What cables am I looking at inside my tower?

[Weeblie]

All of them. But most of the cables are very difficult to get loose.

There should be some very small and fragile looking cables generally located at the bottom right corner of the motherboard. One of them should be your powerbutton cable. Is that one connected? (though getting that one loose should not shut your computer down but merely make it impossible to start)

Oh, heh... and did you perhaps touch any "power switch" button on the back of the computer? Most PSUs have such a one and flipping it to off... well... the power would go off.

[gilshem ironstone]

ok, I need to walk before I run.  I have a dell.  What panel do I remove and how?

[Weeblie]

You should check the manual or any other support page found on their homepage for how to do this.

Generally, it's just a matter of losening two or three screws found on the back and opening the panel on a single side (it will become obvious if you picked the wrong one, hehe).

[Hellblazer]

Dell usually has a pretty good customer service. You might want to try and reach them to see if they can help you out.

[gilshem ironstone]

Talked to dell customer support and they think I need a new motherboard.  Any idea how much that is going to cost?  Should I maybe think about getting a new computer instead?  This sucks

[miltonyorkcastle]

If it's the motherboard only, then the good news is that everything on your hard-drive (like your NWN install) is still "alive and well," and can be recovered.

[Hellblazer]

Indeed, motherboards are not that expensive. you need to make sure that it is compatible with your cpu (chipset) and casing. I've seen mother boards gor for less than a hundred bucks. It is always depending on what you need. If you make a search for the motherboard that you have right now, I'm sure you could find a good deal somewhere.

[Weeblie]

A big word of warning.

Dell is sometimes using non-standard cases/PSUs/screw holes which makes it impossible to update/change the motherboard.

As for whether it is a sweet time to get a new computer now? Hmmm... I think the prices are extraordinary reasonable nowadays if you are building your own computer (which tends to be a very easy thing to do). Most of the components are currently in a state where they can hardly drop their prices anymore.

May one inquire what your current computer is?

ps. Is the PSU fan turning on? Your current problem description sounds like a PSU problem. Could be as little as a blown fuse inside it... though changing the fuse by oneself is not recommended. If the error can be tracked to the PSU (by using a PSU from another computer)... getting a new one (after seeing that it would in fact fit in the Dell case) should be rather cheap and easy.

[minerva]

When I replaced the motherboard on my PC 3 years ago (it was 2 years old then) it cost about 250$ plus another 60 in labor [they had a few issues getting everything to "talk to each other again" ].  3 years out no further problems with it - but my machine was custom built not a assembly line factory one (my brother built it, not me - I repair knees not PC's)
 
 Waiting on my new PC which is being built as we speak by a local company.

[Hellblazer]

That's why I suggested it's best he goes with the same motherboard that he is using right now.

[gilshem ironstone]

A big word of warning.

Dell is sometimes using non-standard cases/PSUs/screw holes which makes it impossible to update/change the motherboard.

As for whether it is a sweet time to get a new computer now? Hmmm... I think the prices are extraordinary reasonable nowadays if you are building your own computer (which tends to be a very easy thing to do). Most of the components are currently in a state where they can hardly drop their prices anymore.

May one inquire what your current computer is?

ps. Is the PSU fan turning on? Your current problem description sounds like a PSU problem. Could be as little as a blown fuse inside it... though changing the fuse by oneself is not recommended. If the error can be tracked to the PSU (by using a PSU from another computer)... getting a new one (after seeing that it would in fact fit in the Dell case) should be rather cheap and easy.

My current computer is a Dell Dimension 4600.

When I was with Dell's tech support, they had me disconnect the RAM, the boards at the bottom of the motherboard that dealt with various ports on the back of the tower (not USB's), and a small battery (3V I think, it looked like a large watch battery.)  After removing every component, I tried the power button, and I did not any response from my computer at all.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Having had several years' experience with Dell hardware, I've found that the motherboards develop shorts quite frequently, and are then quite thoroughly worthless.

If your computer will not start, will not turn on, and will not even spin up any fans, this is very likely what happened. All of your data is safe, all of your components are fine, but your motherboard needs to be replaced. Dell can do that for you.

Choosing to replace your motherboard on your own, while doable, is less a user-friendly experience when dealing with Dell's cases and other hardware. I would suggest going through Dell to have your motherboard replaced, but if you decide not to, we can help walk you through replacing it yourself.

[Weeblie]

There are in fact one way to easily test if it's a PSU or a motherboard problem. But that unfortunately requires shorting two pins on the power cable (in order to "simulate" a power button "push" without having the motherboard connected) so I'm not sure if that's such a good idea, unless one's really sure about it oneself, hehe.

[gilshem ironstone]

I am as sure with computers as an acrophobe with skydiving.  I have to thin about this, I might switch to a Mac, since that is what my wife is using.  Not really sure.

[Black Cat]

Yeah go for Mac... *grins* and well while being perhaps more expensive compared to Dell's... if you go for even the middle range I'm sure you'll be able to run Vista (or XP if you can still get it) easily enough... I'm doing that on my MacBook Pro and I'm running games quite fine (including NWN 2)... but of course if you can get your hand on NWN for mac... you'll not even need to do that