Ok, is it my motherboard?

[yamahog]

I have a dell xps 600 which has been great for a long time...recently it wouldnt start, all i get is a yellow/orangish light on the power button and the fans run for a little bit till it shuts off completely. I dont know that much about computers and would really appreciate any feedback y'all could give me. I havent done any mods to it.

 

[raybay]

The hard drive is the first component to fail, usually, in most XPS 600 laptops.
You may still be able to recover the data off of it using an external USB enclosure, if you do not diddle with it too much during this repair phase.
Or you might try installing the Dell Windows disk in Repair Mode. Boot to the CD, then select R for Repair which follows the screen for R for Repair Console. You do not want the R for Repair Console choice.
If that doesn't work, that is another sign the hard drive has gone bad.

 

[yamahog]

i cant even get close to a boot. the fans are the only thing that will come on and only for a minute or so, so i cant boot off a cd either. I will check the hard drive in another chassis and see if it will boot or at least let me pull some data off it. thanks though i really appreciate the feedback. Also its the desktop not a laptop

 

[yamahog]

ok, can someone tell me if it might be the power supply instead? is there a way to trouble shoot it, i've heard it is the most common part to blow, is it even a possibility

 

[Boppa]

O.K., is it my motherboard

I've been involved in the computer field for over 40 years now, but only been into PCs for about 10 and do not profess to be a computer guru or technical guy. But, I have had a recent problem that I paid a guy ($85) who was supposed to be a technical guy to solve. He told me I had a bad HD and installed a full version of Windows XP Home. I had only been using an Upgrade version previously which seem to have little or no bearing on my problem. I might add that the 'bad HD' is still in use in another system. The problem in reality was that the power supply fan within the case was gonzo, thus likely resulting in overheating within the case. Being located very, very close to the CPU it apparently was causing failures that seemed like possible shorts in the motherboard. I would assume a bad HD would result in a message regarding, perhaps, an 'invalid boot device' rather than a shut down. The number of computers, the attendant components, attached devices, software, etc. make such a tremendously varied world that it gets really crazy to try to debug some issues. Even if you have had the same problem, the answer for someone else might not be the same nor work. It's a very interesting world - hang in there and good luck with your problem!! Note that on the system with the supposedly bad HD that I had two HDs in the case and he installed on the 2nd.