Motherboard for Dell Optiplex 740

eejjlove

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Jun 28, 2010
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At the risk of sounding like I have NO idea what I am talking about, I am in search of information. After reading a couple of boards (msg, not mother) ;) I am now completely confused and what i thought was a simple answer seems to be more complex.

Here's the situation (it's long, but I want to make sure I don't miss anything - I prefer to call that detail-oriented):
My daughter's electricity went out in her room, so she went downstairs to flip the breaker. Of course, she didn't know which one was which, so she flipped them all. (At least she knew what to do!) Good news, she has electricity...bad news, her brother's computer no longer is working. It was on when she flipped it...when he went to turn it back on, all he got was the Dell screen, the bar underneath turning white, then a black screen where the cursor blinked twice and thats it. After staring at the black screen forever hoping it would do something...it didn't.
I took it to a friend, who said after doing all these tests that it's the motherboard due to some light inside being yellow.

Here's what I need to know:
1. Does that sound right?
2. I am guessing there just isn't a generic motherboard...so, what kind?
3. Can I get one and where?
4. Anything information anyone thinks would be helpful.

Thanks!
eejjlove
 
I would unplug the dell power supply; open the case and remove the motherboard battery for one minute; It's a round lithium battery which you can gently pry out with a knife or screwdriver; replace it in the socket and power up the system. If the system posts, you should get a message to enter the bios with an "f" key, or try pressing the "del" key on the keyboard to enter the bios and check the boot order, save and exit. If the board is bad, I found a dell 740 used on ebay from a seller in Marlin Tx for $38.99 plus shipping. Check the photo carefully or google your model number for a board drawing. If you've never changed out a motherboard, it's a learning experience. I would draw a diagram of the connections as you go, or have the board diagram on the screen of another pc to look at while you are handling components. Using a non dell board will void your windows installation, but I've used dell recovery disks, and they are more forgiving than other oem brands. They are available if you don't have one for various windows versions. I use craigslist, ebay or pricewatch to check for software or oem boards. For a non dell board, check newegg or frys.com for an AMD nvidia 6150se motherboard chipset using ddr2 in msi, asus, or biostar. Some are around $50-60 shipped, but only come with 2 memory slots. If your board has all 4 memory sticks populated, you may have to pay a little more for a micro atx board with a different amd chipset. For non dell boards, you will have to reinstall windows and use your old dell coa sticker number to try reactivating it with microsoft or call them. I don't know if the dell recovery cd will work with a non dell board; you will just have to try it or borrow another windows cd. I worked at dell manufacturing in austin tx. If you lived near here, I would install it for you for free. Good luck.
 

eejjlove

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Jun 28, 2010
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Thank you so much~!! I will let you know how it goes. :)