Question Dell desktop not starting up and everything gets hot. Help!

[Ozziegerff]

I got a dell inspiron i580 desktop from a friend. It worked when he last used it, but was in his pickup for a month or two and probably suffered some vibration and cold damage. It uses an ssd so it is probably not that, however it is not mounted so its loose in the computer with semi stiff cables attached to it. I got it setup and Turned it on. The white light for the power button came on and so did the green light for the power supply. I unplugged and such multiple times but nothing came to the screen. I didn't do the best test but I plugged something with a light into each usb port but it never lit. Pressing the disk eject also didn't do anything. I checked the inside and found that all of the boards were hot even though all of the fans worked and it was only plugged in an on for a few min. Could this maybe be a power problem like too much of it? I put this cooling because everything being hot was the only problem i found. I have yet to do a deeper search.

 

[UsandThem]

Who knows.

Driving around with an PC in a vehicle for two months could have damaged it. Maybe it got too hot sitting in the car, and that damaged something.

You can ensure all the cables are fully inserted, and if they are, you'll have to figure out what component was damaged (likely the motherboard).

It's not a good idea to keep electronics in cars for extended periods.

 

[RLGL]

Upload the computer to Dropbox and provide a link to it so others may download it to examine and give advice for repairs.

 

[Ozziegerff]

Upload the computer to Dropbox and provide a link to it so others may download it to examine and give advice for repairs.

It wont start up so im not sure how I would be able to do that

 

[VirtualLarry]

It wont start up so im not sure how I would be able to do that

I think that he was making a joke...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Pressing the disk eject also didn't do anything.

Do you mean, the Tray Eject button on a DVD-RW/ROM drive? If so, that's a BAD SIGN, if the Eject button didn't do anything, because it means that power is not getting to the drive properly. The Eject button (unless the drive is tray-locked via software) ALWAYS functions, independent of OS or BIOS or whatever. So, generally, a failure for the disc tray to eject (especially if you don't get any activity LED either), means that there is a POWER-related problem in the system. (Or the drive itself is electrically or mechanically bad.)

That's not to say that there isn't a bad mobo in the rig, either, but I would try, unplugging it from the wall, using a can-o-air on the PC's contents, and then swapping in a known-good PSU, and see if you can get it to boot, and/or the disc tray to eject properly.

Also, consider re-seating the RAM, maybe after blowing out the slots with a can-o-air. It's really easy for RAM to get slightly dis-lodged, due to vibration.

It may not be totally shot, but it needs some TLC and problem diagnosis, which probably means part swaps for some things.

 

[Ozziegerff]

Do you mean, the Tray Eject button on a DVD-RW/ROM drive? If so, that's a BAD SIGN, if the Eject button didn't do anything, because it means that power is not getting to the drive properly. The Eject button (unless the drive is tray-locked via software) ALWAYS functions, independent of OS or BIOS or whatever. So, generally, a failure for the disc tray to eject (especially if you don't get any activity LED either), means that there is a POWER-related problem in the system. (Or the drive itself is electrically or mechanically bad.)

That's not to say that there isn't a bad mobo in the rig, either, but I would try, unplugging it from the wall, using a can-o-air on the PC's contents, and then swapping in a known-good PSU, and see if you can get it to boot, and/or the disc tray to eject properly.

Also, consider re-seating the RAM, maybe after blowing out the slots with a can-o-air. It's really easy for RAM to get slightly dis-lodged, due to vibration.

It may not be totally shot, but it needs some TLC and problem diagnosis, which probably means part swaps for some things.

The inside is rather dusty and I think a good cleaning will help. I should be able to fix the power it it is what is wrong.