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Power up question
Storms rolled thru last night. This morning when I went to turn on my SX 270, the fans came on but nothing else. Nothing on the screen and the lights on the back of the machine didn't light. Any ideas what could cause this? I swapped the power supply and that didn't help. The power didn't go out as far as I know.
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- strip the computer down to just the psu, cpu and motherboard as the computer should still turn on with just those components. That includes removing all cables from the drives and any cards/memory connected onto the motherboard. If you have the ability to test another CPU in the system try that too, or if not just reseat the CPU. If its still solid amber with another CPU then you need a new motherboard and if you dont have another CPU to test with you would have to replace both the CPU and motherboard to be sure..or you could make a best guess and just replace the motherboard as it would be more likely
- The first steps to troubleshooting the amber light are:A) Ensure that all components are slotted in correctly. They can sometimes come loose and cause the amber light.B) If the amber light persists, it's most likely a motherboard issue. If the amber light is flickering, it's a power supply issue (for most Dell models).C) If it's the power supply, I'd want to replace the motherboard as well given Dell's motherboard track record. It's just safer.

Dev Mgr
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Posted May 6th, 2006 15:00
Also, what do the diagnostic leds on the rear show? Especially if the powerled is green these diagnostic leds may provide a hint as to what's going on.
A general thing you could try (you may have already done this, but thought I'd mention it), is to disconnect all cables from the unit, press and hold the powerbutton for a few seconds, then plug in the power cable only and try to power it up. If you get a green led, you might be getting somewhere... add a monitor and try again and see if you get something on the screen.
Info on the powerled color (front): here
Info on the diagnostic leds (rear): here