I was on my computer the other night, minding my own buisness. When my computer just shut off. Now all I get is a flashing power indicator. Obviously, the PSU took a dive. I have many replacements but none of them have the four pin connector that connects to the dell motherboard. Is it possible to mod a connector to one of the molex connectors and use that? Does anybody have any experience with dell components?
If the four pins are arranged in a square then it's probably an extra power connector used for P4 cpus and AMD Athlon 64s.
they are square it's a square connector that goes into the motherboard. The rest of the psu is hooked up. I don't get the flashing power indicator anymore so I'm assuming it's not booting because that connector isn't hooked up. So is there any reason why I cant splice into the extra molex and provide that same power to the board? Or is it some kind of power that isn't rated the same voltage?
Don't take my word, because i've never tried it, but I would assume you can just use two yellow and 2 black wires from molex connectors if you make sure you get the right pins touching the right thing. However, I would invest in a new PSU if I were you.
Dell Hell I've become very disappointed in my dell. It's only two years old. In that time I've had a geoforce 4 card, a motherboard and now a PSU go bad. Since it is no longer under warranty, dell will no longer replace these parts. It seems kind of fishy that all this would go wrong in two years just in time for them not to support it. I was reading up online about using non-dell proprietary PSUs in w/ dell motherboards. Some say it works others say the wiring is different. How many people out there have had this kind of Dell trouble before?
DELL DOES NOT USE STANDARD PSU---> MOBO CONNECTIONS they are wired differently so the normal user has to buy replacement parts through them. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems it is no longer under warranty (you opened it). I would say the easiest solution would be to find a replacement DELL power supply. Rather than having to test all the pins and splice and solder and redo the connections, it would be easier to shell out the extra bucks they make you spend and get a new DELL power supply. Yes, it sucks having to spend money on an overpriced power supply, just remember ths when it comes to new computer time. dell website parts selector (might have one) http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/dellitems.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs this place has em pretty cheap (look slightly used but dirt cheap) http://comp-recycle.com/bindex.htm (this place looks like it offers a 1 year warranty on all parts but CPUs) Vazz
warranty It's no longer under warranty because it's over a year old. But thanks for the advice. Dell is pretty good about supporting it while it's under warranty. They replaced my video card no questions asked even though I had already added several components and a few other things. They just send you the part. But unfortunately, out of warranty means out of luck.
To Hell with Dell I'm not messing with dell parts anymore. I'm just going to buy a new case, mobo, and psu. I'm only going to save my drives and just build an entirely new computer. Let this be a lesson for people who support dell (used to be me) I hope other dell owners don't have as many frequent hardware failures that I have had.
Open the PSU and fix it! Use a christmas tree bulb to discharge the capacitors. http://repairfaq.org/sam/smpsfaq.htm I have modded some Dell PSUs by wiring the fan directly to 12v (I think Dell should have designed the PSU that way!). BTW, the 250w Dell PSUs are just Antec Trupower 330s with a WTX connection. The only reason I have a Dell is because some Dells have HDTV (including two of mine).
Invest in a pin remover designed to remove the small pins from the ATX plug and use a schematic to re-arrange the pins to suit your motherboard. For a more temporary setup, use a short ATX extension cable with re-arranged pins. As for troubleshooting, first thing to do would be check the fuse. Check the resistance across the two leads of the fuse, and if it's pretty high, you might have blown the fuse, especially if you have brownouts, spikes, surges, dirty power, and all that junk.
Well if it healps your pain. I am moding a dell XPS-R 3500 tower with brand new parts and water cooling. Before some one asks (NO I am not using any dell components other than the case) Btw my project is callde Hydro Voyager. Sorry to hijack your thread btw. I am shure you can use other psus on dell pc's but you have to redo the pin type. I had to rewire a old 92mm fan that came with the dell case to work with standard mb's (the problem was that dell decided to reverse the pins) BTW this is a lesson lerned. Next time just build your own and dont bother with manufacturers. Just buy the best parts you can get a put em together yourself.
If it's a standard ATX connector ... maybe , Dells have non standard ATX style wiring configurations so ....? Adapter to connect an ATX standard PSU to a Dell motherboard ... ... Centrix - Intl.... Click on "OEM Replacement" ... "Dell Accessories" ... part # Dell Cv ... $ 9.99 Look at the pictures to see if it looks like yours Or ... Dell motherboard compatible power supply (only one I've found) ... ... PC Power and Cooling Look at the spec's for the two connectors , one PSU is ... Dell 20pin + 6pin -- The other PSU is ... Dell 24pin + 16pin DB
All the Dell PSUs I've worked with have WTX wiring and the fans are Deltas (then again, they were all from servers and high end workstations. Maybe the ones in some of the smaller Dells are different?).
Update Just in case anybody reads this thread again. I finally gave in and paid the 40 bucks for the replacement psu. It is now a month or so later and my motherboard has gone bad. For anybody who is considering a dell, I would say run away as fast as you can. I used to back dell. I replaced 30 computers in my office with dells. I will never again buy a dell computer. A 2 year old computer should not have 4 parts fail on it. Mind you 3 of which have failed AFTER the warranty expired.
WTX is a workstation standard Some stores sell ATX to dell pin converters, but I like your idea of screw dell and build a new system moer anyways. Wow... that's just nasty. I had a DVD drive go bad from dell and I swear the warrantee was out (maybe just nearly out) and they replaced it *really* quick (like free overnight or something, and a prepaid sticker to send the old one back). But if nothing else they're quite overpriced, and the ONLY reason I got a dell back then was because I didn't know about newegg.
