More of a pc prob really - tacima cs929

[Alec]

Has anyone had problems with their pc running it from the tacima...? my dell 5150 is having problems turning on. to begin with it needed to be left for around 10 mins after the 1st attempt, then itd work. but today it has refused to work at all. the prob did indeed start shortly after getting the tacima.

anyway, if anyone has any thoughts...?

 

[John Duncan]

And does the problem go away if you remove the tacima.....?

 

[Alec]

good question - sorry i should have said. its only been out of thechain for a few minutes earlier, and the answer would appear to be no, the problem continues.

im on me way from a mates back to mine shortly so will see if it wants to boot again.

 

[John Duncan]

Which suggests an issue with the power supply or the OS's power management settings. XP or Vista?

 

[Anonymous]

Or it's just loaded SP3. Mine took an age to boot up the next 4 times after the download and install.

Most likely a hardware fault though unless you've been playing with the settings

 

[Alec]

And finally it chose to boot!

i havent tweaked anything in any OS settings - the OS is XP. Not sure if i have sp3 yet, tho that yellow exclamation mark telling you updates are available keeps coming up.

Im going to leave it running from now on, back up the most important stuff (tho when the problems fixed i may have to set up eac and flac all over again. grrrr!), then call Dell and see what they say. But ill start some scans in the meantime, just in case.

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[Alec]

By the by, the SP3 update came today as it happens. And 2 or 3 times (before nd after, so itll be unrelated), the PC has started OK.

Dell are calling me on mon (i wonder how reliable they are with that...?), when a mate will be around to help; i use a wheelchair, am a big-ish chap, and have just had some surgery which has meant i need to relearn to move in certain situations, all of which make it hard to do all they want me to do, while on the phone. I tried to do it with them today but it quickly became obvious it wasnt a go-er.

Sorry, im wingeing now lol!

 

[Alec]

I had to call them in the end, but only as the day took a turn and i wanted to get it out the way quick, or at least find out if their call would come soon, so i ended up staying on the line.

unlike the last two people i spoke to (you need to work on your consistency, Dell!!!) this guy didnt even want me to do all the diagnostic stuff, he just said he'd send someone out on wednesday, with sufficient parts to do the job, as its usually a mobo or psu problem in these cases, aparently (i have heard of other causes, but they seem to be in the minority. and i dont really care how many parts it takes while im under warranty).

 

[Alec]

Sorted,

they came and put a new mobo and mechanism for the power button in (i forget what its really called).

Nothin'!

Then they came and replaced the power supply a couple days later...fixed (so far - the chap left less than an hour ago).

And they didnt even ;lose any of me data.

 

[Alec]

Oh, and for the first time ever i have those numbers lit up in green. I think i shouldve had them ever since i got the pc, but i didnt realise they were there so didnt worry.