Bleg

My old Inspiron 3700 has been acting kind of funny for the last couple of months. I don’t use it for much besides trying different Linux distros, but I’m kind of flummoxed at what’s happening.

It’s got all the symptoms of having an overload relay trip off somewhere in the power chain- It’ll operate for a while, then kind of sigh and go completely dead. The light on the power supply goes out when it happens, and won’t come on until I unplug the PS and plug it in again.

Following an initial boot, it will last for approx. 5 min to an hour, but once it’s dropped off, I’m lucky to get 3-4 minutes before the power goes dead. I’ve googled it, but ATT haven’t found anything more interesting than “Send it back to Dell”. Which I’m disinclined to do - motherboard problems run about $200/pop plus shipping, and the machine is worth maybe $250. And Missy’s office just sent her a new computer and said not to bother sending the old one back.

Any suggestions? I’m on the verge of taking it apart and troubleshooting myself.

Posted by jank at November 5, 2003 10:13 AM