My luck keeps getting better and better...

[jdbnsn]

Well to top off the disaster of a vacation that drove my bank account swirling down the toilet, last night my AMD 64 X 2 dual core +4400 shot craps. Unbelievable! No warnings except a gradual slowing of overall performance. My temps were fine every time I checked, there were no surges that I am aware of, the fan was still running. I had just formatted the hard drive and re-installed windows xp media center edition 2005 and all seemed fine. But after installing the windows updates and reboot, dead. The monitor went black on reboot and never returned. I took the side panel off and noticed the diagnostic lights stopped before the "processor found" indication which is the only reason I thought it was the processor. Up until then I was leaning towards a dead video card because I expected something to show up on screen. Anyone have any other ideas of what may be wrong? I am going to test what I can with alternate hardware but it's limited, I don't have another video card to use and nobody I know has a PCIe card I can borrow, and I don't have another 939 socket board either. Dammit!!!

[FyR]

Its a bugger when that happens aint it, i had to get a friend to come round to swap bits over with me. I had to bribe him aswell as he didnt want to put his bits into my "dangerous machine" lol

If your CPU is still in warranty send it back mate.

[nil8]

Well, you obviously have internet. Use your POST or led scheme, go to your mobo manufacturers website and look it up. That should tell you exactly what is going on.

[jdbnsn]

Great news!!! Thanks for the advice nil8, actually it was the motherboards lack of POST that had me worried and the LED config that led me to believe it was fried. However, nothing is fried! Whohoo! At first I thought it was the CPU for the above mentioned reasons, then I tried another computer on the monitor and same thing, black with amber power light. So then I thought it was the monitor. Then while reading some very pissed off Dell customer's blog I noticed that his problem was similar to mine and his tech support guy had him remove the video card and replace for a temporary fix. I thought what the hell, can't hurt right? Low and behold, after doing so, the screen lit up with the initial splash screen from DFI (yeah, monitor is alive!). But it would boot no further now, can't even get to BIOS screen. Yanked out all of the remaining cards and viola, purred like a kitten. So it was a slow process of one by one adding cards and testing, but after some time I was able to narrow it down to the soundcard. Get this, did you know that the Soundblaster X-fi Fatality needs a power connector attached to the card itself? Well I didn't, even though there was a nice little socket sitting right there glaring me in the face, I even thought when I saw it the first time, "I wonder what this is for?", now I know. So very happy ending, all is working smoothly. Thanks for the advice fellas!

[xmastree]

So it was a slow process of one by one adding cards and testing, but after some time I was able to narrow it down to the soundcard.

In such cases it's always a good idea to start from the absolute minimum. CPU, mobo and speaker. You should get one long beep, indicating RAM error.

It's a moot point, but a BIOS error a good sign (that's speaking as a test engineer).

Think of it as an accident victim and you're the paramedic. Which is better, a person lying silent and motionless, or one saying that they can't feel their legs? At least you know they're alive.

The failing POST is the same, the computer is alive enough to tell you there's a problem with RAM.
Then put in some RAM and it ought to complain about the lack of video hardware (unless it's built-in). Drop inthe video card and it should succeed.

Then, replace everything else one by one.

Oh, and as for your SB power, RTFM next time.. :p

[jdbnsn]

In such cases it's always a good idea to start from the absolute minimum. CPU, mobo and speaker. You should get one long beep, indicating RAM error.

It's a moot point, but a BIOS error a good sign (that's speaking as a test engineer).

Think of it as an accident victim and you're the paramedic. Which is better, a person lying silent and motionless, or one saying that they can't feel their legs? At least you know they're alive.

The failing POST is the same, the computer is alive enough to tell you there's a problem with RAM.
Then put in some RAM and it ought to complain about the lack of video hardware (unless it's built-in). Drop inthe video card and it should succeed.

Then, replace everything else one by one.

Oh, and as for your SB power, RTFM next time.. :p

That's the sad part, I did read the manual! I still didn't catch the whole power cord deal, oh well, at least it didn't fry. And you are absolutely right about the test process, problem is, I don't have a working speaker connected to the mainboard so I can't hear the diagnostic signals. I think I'm gonna get that fixed though in light of it's importance. Thanks for the tips though!
Jon

[archmaille]

Bad thing about adding anything to a Dell (or any premade computer for that matter) is that you run into power problems all the time. All the big manufacturers like to keep a very tight power consumption and put in as small of PSU's as the possibly can so your system was probably just running out of power. I know that if you go to the PC Power and Cooling website you can pick up Dell power supplies (linked to the Dell section of the site) but of course I'm pretty sure if you wanted to get something a little bigger like their Pure Power 510w I'm sure it would fit as well unless Dell does something freaking w/ their PSU's so they only fit in a Dell (wouldn't suprise me). Personally I've got their Silencer 470 (basically the same thing as Dell's 470w model) and am able to run dual ATI x1600 video cards, 2 gigs of RAM, overclock my CPU, got the same sound card as you, and running 2 HDD's with no problems, plus a total of 9 case fans I'm going to be moving to their 1kw PSU model before I upgrade any further and am actually rather suprised everything is running on only 470w, but hey if it works that's good enough for me.

[jdbnsn]

Bad thing about adding anything to a Dell (or any premade computer for that matter) is that you run into power problems all the time. All the big manufacturers like to keep a very tight power consumption and put in as small of PSU's as the possibly can so your system was probably just running out of power. I know that if you go to the PC Power and Cooling website you can pick up Dell power supplies (linked to the Dell section of the site) but of course I'm pretty sure if you wanted to get something a little bigger like their Pure Power 510w I'm sure it would fit as well unless Dell does something freaking w/ their PSU's so they only fit in a Dell (wouldn't suprise me). Personally I've got their Silencer 470 (basically the same thing as Dell's 470w model) and am able to run dual ATI x1600 video cards, 2 gigs of RAM, overclock my CPU, got the same sound card as you, and running 2 HDD's with no problems, plus a total of 9 case fans I'm going to be moving to their 1kw PSU model before I upgrade any further and am actually rather suprised everything is running on only 470w, but hey if it works that's good enough for me.

My comp isn't a Dell, it's a home brew. I am running AMD dual core +4400 on a DFI Lanparty (x-fire ready), one ATI X1900XTX, one ATI TV Wonder Elite, Soundblaster X-Fi Fatality, 2GB RAM, 2 250GB HDD's, LIS VL system VF display/fan controller, one DVD optical, 4 case fans, and it all runs off of a 500watt PSU I picked up ages ago (24 pin ATX had just come out). I have never run into power problems before, and I guess I really didn't this time. I am becoming convinced that it was a driver or IRQ conflict vs power shortage.

[archmaille]

ah, I see... sorry, I was thinking Dell because you found the solution on the Dell support blog, my mistake. You're still running right on the edge of having enough power (as am I, I really need to upgrade here soon) 500w is pretty close.... I know with the way most PSU manufacturer's rate wattage mine is 520w or something like that but if I were to add anything to my system it sure wouldn't like it very much. Not to mention a PSU will run many years longer if you run it at 35% - 75% of its rated output.

[nil8]

I'm glad to hear everything is working for you.
At least it was a small problem and not a major disaster.