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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: DHTech on June 23, 2013, 05:33:57 am

Title: PC Pain
Post by: DHTech on June 23, 2013, 05:33:57 am
Managed to lay my hands on an old Dell P4 to run my machine, set it all up ready to go and decided I need it to boot automatically on power up, the bios only has automatic reboot on power failure, so no good there. I took a part the power button and read a few bits on the net, but tracing the power pins on a dell was a nightmare due to the proprietary connector, anyhow the upshot is that PC will no long boot as prodding about trying to find the correct pins must have damaged the motherboard is someway. Oh well ebay for another computer I guess and I will be staying clear of Dells. Lessoned learned each day.
Title: Re: PC Pain
Post by: ark_ader on June 23, 2013, 08:07:07 am
Lots of headless laptops (smashed screens) on Ebay.
Title: Re: PC Pain
Post by: 404 on June 23, 2013, 08:33:36 am
Managed to lay my hands on an old Dell P4 to run my machine, set it all up ready to go and decided I need it to boot automatically on power up, the bios only has automatic reboot on power failure, so no good there. I took a part the power button and read a few bits on the net, but tracing the power pins on a dell was a nightmare due to the proprietary connector, anyhow the upshot is that PC will no long boot as prodding about trying to find the correct pins must have damaged the motherboard is someway. Oh well ebay for another computer I guess and I will be staying clear of Dells. Lessoned learned each day.

try unplugging everything for a few minutes and removing the bios battery before chucking that unit into an e-waste pile.

If it works, consider trying to power on the unit via a toggle switch on the power supply. Be warned though, less than half of the ATX compliant boards out there still support booting via toggle switch. It is worth a shot though. You can check out the procedure at the link below and you can test out the procedure by simply using a paperclip or a small bit of wire.

http://www.gideontech.com/content/articles/196/1 (http://www.gideontech.com/content/articles/196/1)
Title: Re: PC Pain
Post by: DHTech on June 23, 2013, 08:43:53 am
The paper clip method only check to see in the PSU is working it will not initiate the boot of the motherboard unfortunately, have tried all the tricks removing the bios battery etc...