Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

Hello good folks at Dani Web !!!!
I hope I'm posting this in the right place, if I'm not, let me know and I'll repost it where I'm supposed to.
I have a Dell Dimention 3000, Windows XP Home, 2.8GHz, 80 GIG hard drive
A friend of mine gave me this computer and said his nephew messed it up. Said he was installing some kind of video card and the computer blew.
When I first turned it on, all I got was a blinking yellow light on the front. None of the 4 lights on back came on. I unplugged the hard drive(power), and removed the ribbon wires to the hard drive also. It came on and went into BIOS. I plugged JUST the power cord back into the hard drive and all I got was the blinking yellow light on front again. I plugged JUST the ribbon in without the power to the hard drive and it came on and went into BIOS. So, JUST by putting power to the hard drive messes this computer up, is there a way to fix this or do I just need to purchase another hard drive,( USED) ?
Any and all help is very much appreciated !!!!

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Dani AI

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After the initial troubleshooting from and the isolation advice from , the situation points to a component that behaves normally when disconnected but causes a fault once it receives power. The following checklist gives safe, practical steps to confirm the failing part and to preserve any recoverable data.

Try a bench-powered, external adapter or drive dock (one with its own power brick) and connect the suspect drive there as the only device. Observe whether the drive spins, whether any clicking or unusual noise occurs, and whether the dock/power brick stays powered. A drive that refuses to spin, clicks, or causes the external adapter to cut out is very likely faulty. If the drive spins and is recognized, immediately create a full disk image with a block-level imager to an external target (avoid running repairs on the original until an image exists).

Do a careful visual inspection of the drive PCB and the power connector for burnt components, loose screws, or corrosion. Check continuity across the Molex/SATA power pins to chassis ground with the drive unpowered; a definitive short here indicates a PCB or connector fault and justifies avoiding further powered tests. If any burning smell, loud clicks, or repeated failures occur, stop powering the device — those symptoms are classic signs needing professional recovery.

If the drive is confirmed dead, replacement is reasonable; for important data, prefer recovery services. For non-critical reuse, test any used replacement thoroughly (SMART, burn-in) before trusting it as a boot device. Do not open the sealed drive enclosure — that destroys alignment and ruins chances of successful recovery.

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Member Avatar for HoustonIT

This could be either a hard drive problem or a power supply problem. I suggest you try another hard drive in the system to better isolate the problem. Just connect the power though, if you boot another hard drive into Windows you might hose to OS!

Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

This could be either a hard drive problem or a power supply problem. I suggest you try another hard drive in the system to better isolate the problem. Just connect the power though, if you boot another hard drive into Windows you might hose to OS!

Thanks for your reply Houston !!
I did try another power supply and got the same results. I believe it's a bad hard drive and I'll start shopping for an affordable new/used one, THANKS !!!!!!
Thanks again for all the help on DaniWeb !!!!

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