DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation I haved a Dell Dimension that I bought new. It was working fine until one day it wouldn't turn on. I checked all the normal things like power cord, different outlet, taking out any cards and disconnecting the power to hard drive and DVD rom. I left the RAM in and it wouldn't power on. It basically starts to turn on but shuts right off just a … Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by fren Is your pc booting into bios? Check the memory stick one by one. Put one stick into a slot (nearest to the processor) then start your pc. Check what will happen. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation No, it wouldn't boot to bios. Within a split second of it powering up, it shut off. Then..... I decided to try resetting the bios by removing the battery and replacing it after 15 minutes. This was strange.... It started up and was able to go into windows. BUT after it is shut off or power is turned off... it won't turn back on. The … Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by fren Okay, leave the cmos battery out of your pc for 30 mins then put it back to its holder. Power on your pc and enter the Bios Setup. Once on there, look for an option to set the bios to its default setting. Look if it will help. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation I gave that a try and set the bios settings back to default but it still does that same thing. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by fren I already experienced that before. What I did was replace the power cable of the power supply and the power supply itself then plug it directly to the wall outlet and the problem disappeared. Try this. See to it your new power supply is working. Change your power cable. Check what will happen. One more thing, have you checked your memory stick … Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation No... I tried two different power cords and that didn't work. The new power supply i bought yesterday and it works. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by fren How do you know that the power supply works? Do you test the new power supply in another computer? Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation I was able to boot into windows after removing the cmos battery and then putting it back in, so that must mean the power supply works? It only booted up the first time.. right after turning off the computer it wouldn't start back up. I do have another computer i could try it on... but I didn't think it was necessary. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by fren I know your pc is not shutting off completely. Your pc case fan or others still remains on, isn't it? This is a power issue. Okay, as you have mentioned before(about ram), why don't you try to check your memory stick one by one? And check what will happen. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation I'll try the memory stick step that you mentioned. The computer will shut down completely... all fans and lights will turn off. It's starting back up that is the issue. I'll post again after I try the ram individually. Will this work even tho my computer must have the ram sticks installed in pairs? Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation No... tried the meory stick step.. but still doing the same thing. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by fren yes, you can run one stick at a time and the system will also run in a single channel mode. If you have two or more memory modules installed, remove the modules, reinstall one module, and then restart the computer. If the computer starts normally, reinstall an additional module. Continue until you have identified a faulty module or reinstalled all … Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation Ok thanks I'll give that a try. I have no spare time to work on this computer today. Another thought that it might be the power switch.... any thoughts? Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by fren No, I think your pc isn't shutting down completely (only my opinion). When your pc is shut off, try to reset your power button by pressing it for 10 sec. to discharge the remaining power, wait for a while then restart. If you don't hear a "CLICK" sound when you press the power button, the power switch may be sticky or defective. If … Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by sunsation Turns out it is the power button. The bios defaults to the computer not restarting automatically after a power interuption.. so when i turn it off not using the power button... i wasn't able to restart it. I went into the bios and changed that power management setting and it's starting up fine. Pretty wierd. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by fren So, the ACPI feature is not enabled in the bios. Okay, thanks for sharing your solution with us. Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by jbennet upgrade your BIOS to the newest version from dells suport site. I had a similar issue on my 5150 and this fixed it. Follow the usual BIOS flashing safety procedures. Do not turn off the pc while flashing the bios! (you start the install in windows and it finsihes the rest while rebooting) Re: DellDimension 5100 - suddenly dead Hardware and Software Hardware by DellOutreach Hello, This is Richard from Dell's Online Community Outreach group. I regret that I am coming in the tail end of this thread. It appears everything is working properly now. The reason why I am posting is to provide the latest bios version. The current bios version is A03, you can download it here, [URL]http://support.dell.com/support/… Re: 2 op. systs on 1 drive ? Hardware and Software Microsoft Windows by petelemm thanks utok and barry and others. found lotta partitioning and backup sources with google. some of what you've said sounds doable but not yet sure if I want to go there. the silly reason for all this is I had an IBM flatbed scanner(win98) on a previous PC. got a new delldimension 4700 XP pro. Used PCmover to move old pc stuff to new dell. But …