Computer wont start

Give me the specs on your system

Processor

Processor type
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 520, 530, 540, 550, 560, or 570 with HT Technology

Intel Pentium 4 that runs at 2.8, 3.0, 3.2, 3.4, 3.6, and 3.8 GHz internally and 800 MHz externally

Level 1 (L1) cache
16 KB

Level 2 (L2) cache
1-MB (displayed in system setup) pipelined-burst, eight-way set associative, write-back SRAM



Memory

Type
400-MHz (PC-3200) and 533-MHz (PC-4300) DDR2 unbuffered SDRAM non-ECC

Memory connectors
four

Memory capacities
128-, 256-, 512-, or 1-GB non-ECC

Minimum memory
128 MB

NOTE: Up to 128 MB of system memory may be allocated to support graphics, depending on system memory size and other factors.

Maximum memory
4 GB

NOTE: See "Addressing Memory With 4-GB Configurations" to verify the amount of memory available to the operating system.

BIOS address
F0000h



Computer Information

Chipset
Intel 915G Express

DMA channels
eight

Interrupt levels
24

BIOS chip (NVRAM)
4-Mb

NIC
integrated network interface capable of 10/100 communication.

System Clock
800-MHz data rate



Video

Type
integrated or PCI Express



Audio

Type
ADI 1980 AC97 Codec



Expansion Bus

Bus type
PCI 2.2
PCI Express x1 and PCI Express x16

Bus speed
PCI: 33 MHz

PCI Express:

x1 slot bidirectional speed - 500 MB/s

x16 slot bidirectional speed - 8 GB/s




PCI


connectors
two

connector size
120 pins

connector data width (maximum)
32 bits




PCI Express


connector
one PCI Express x1

connector size
36 pins

connector data width (maximum)
1 PCI Express lane




PCI Express


connector
one PCI Express x16

connector size
164 pins

connector data width (maximum)
16 PCI Express lanes



Drives

Externally accessible:


one 3.5-inch drive bay

two 5.25-inch drive bays

Available devices
SATA hard drives, floppy drive, USB memory devices, CD drive,
CD-RW drive, DVD drive, DVD-RW drive, and DVD and CD-RW combo drive

Internally accessible:


two bays for 1-inch high SATA hard drives



Connectors

External connectors:

Serial
9-pin connector; 16550C-compatible

Parallel
25-hole connector (bidirectional)

Video
15-hole connector

Network adapter
RJ45 connector

PS/2 (keyboard and mouse)
6-pin mini-DIN

USB
two front-panel and six back-panel USB 2.0-compliant connectors

Audio
five connectors for line-in, line-out, microphone, surround, and center/Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel; one front-panel connector for headphones

System board connectors:

Primary IDE drive
40-pin connector on PCI local bus

Serial ATA
two 7-pin connectors

Floppy drive
34-pin connector

CD Audio
4-pin connector

Fan
5-pin connector

PCI 2.2
120-pin connector

PCI Express x1
36-pin connector

PCI Express x16
164-pin connector

Telephony (TAPI)
4-pin connector





Controls and Lights

Power control
push button

Power light
green light - Blinking green in sleep state; solid green for power-on state.

amber light - Blinking amber indicates a problem with an installed device; solid amber indicates an internal power problem (see "Power Lights").

Hard-drive access light
green

Link integrity light (on integrated network adapter)
green light - A good connection exists between a 10-Mbps network and the computer.

orange light - A good connection exists between a 100-Mbps network and the computer.

off (no light) - The computer is not detecting a physical connection to the network.

Activity light (on integrated network adapter)
yellow blinking light

Diagnostic lights
four lights on the back panel (See "Diagnostic Lights".)

Standby power light
CR3J1 on the system board



Power

DC power supply:


Wattage
305 W

Heat dissipation
434.6 BTU/hr

Voltage (see the safety instructions located in your Product Information Guide for important voltage setting information)
90 to 135 V and 180 to 265 V at 50/60 Hz

Backup battery
3-V CR2032 lithium coin cell



Physical

Height
36.8 cm (14.5 inches)

Width
18.4 cm (7.25 inches)

Depth
42.6 cm (16.75 inches)

Weight
10.4 kg (23 lbs)



Environmental

Temperature:

Operating
10° to 35°C (50° to 95°F)

NOTE: At 35°C (95°F), the maximum operating altitude is 914 m (3000 ft).

Storage
-40° to 65°C (-40° to 149°F)

Relative humidity
20% to 80% (noncondensing)

Maximum vibration:

Operating
0.25 G at 3 to 200 Hz at 0.5 octave/min

Storage
0.5 G at 3 to 200 Hz at 1 octave/min

Maximum shock:

Operating
bottom half-sine pulse with a change in velocity of 20 inches/sec (50.8 cm/sec)

Storage
27-G faired square wave with a velocity change of 200 inches/sec (508 cm/sec)

Altitude:

Operating
-15.2 to 3048 m (-50 to 10,000 ft)

Storage
-15.2 to 10,668 m (-50 to 35,000 ft)



Is this what you mean? I also did a hard drive diagnostic it says
drive 0: maxtor 6yo8omo-fail. return code:7
drive 1 no device
drive 2 diagnostic not supported
drive 3 no device

What size is your power supply

not sure how to find that out. it does not say on the cord and there is no sticker on the back or inside. unless I have to move the hard drive to see the sticker. I do know its the one that came with it and ive never hd any issues with it before. I had to fix another computer this week and it worked fine on that tower.

The ram on the graphics card does need to match with the ram that motherboard supports. So things that I would to in order to troubleshoot this type of problem in my PC would be 1) run the recovery console on the Windows installation setup disk and see if HDD is ok, 2) Use a power supply with more wattage than the current one 3) try a different graphics card, and if everything is all right from 1 to 3 then 4) trying a different motheboard. Oh by the way, does your onboard graphics work?

Your system specs say that the power supply is 305 watts. probably enough for a 4670. Graphics RAM is completely different than system RAM. They definitely don't have to be the same otherwise no one could run the DDR4 and DDR5 cards.

Do you happen to still have the books for your system. Some of the old manuals for the 4700 have the light codes in them. Its odd that you get all green lights with the old card but yet no video. I would probably give the onboard graphics a try. Sometimes dell covers up the VGA port on the back with a plastic cover, you should be able to remove that and use it. The BIOS should automatically select that if there are no other graphics cards installed so make sure to take them out first.

I removed the card and tried the on board graphics and it did the same thing, bring up the dell loading and then blackout, with all green light codes. I dont have another power supply but will get one tomorrow to try. the hard drive diagnostic code basically said my hard drive was bad, do you think thats my problem? and if it is why? I did replace the fan because it wasnt working but I spliced another fan from a different comp and just hooked it up to the wires I already had(optiplex gx150) the hard drive from that comp wont fit into the dimension though. the fans looked identical and the wires were identical and that was about 6 months ago and the fan still runs.

im not sure if this is normal or not but theres a blinking amber light where the ethernet cable plugs into.it has a random sequence, but its constantly changing but it doesnt have a constant blink if that makes sense. I also just noticed when I turn it on the send and recieve doesnt blink for the internet on the modem.

can anyone tell me what power supply I should get? also if my hard drive is done for is it worth it to replace or should I get a new comp being that this one is rather old? I only play the sims 3 and internet use.

If onboard video does not give you error codes but still goes black, I would guess it might be the power supply, motherboard, CPU in that order of probability. For a power supply for your current system, a 400-450W from a good company should be fine (Antec, XFX, Seasonic, Corsair). Here is a few examples from 380W to 530W.

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-430D Green 430W $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If that doesn't fix your problem. Then I would suggest buying a whole new computer. It's probably not worth replacing the motherboard in an old dell. It might cost you around $150 which is cheaper than a new computer but since it is getting old, it might not be worth it. I would probably go with either the 500W or 650W just because you will be able to reuse it if you have to build a new computer. You could probably put something together for around $500-$600 that would blow that one away.

OK....my guess is its not a power supply problem because when u reverted back to the onboard graphics, graphics should have come on because power supply has enough power for the onboard graphics. In case u r not sure, find an old PC around you and test the power supply with it. Another thing you can try is insert the windows install disk, do a fresh install and see if graphics come back on (i doubt it though, chances are slim but we cant take it out of the picture). So if the power supply is not bad and hardrive is OK then proly ur motherboard is toast. SO a cheaper solution will be to get a new motherboard and a case because Dell cases are proprietary. You can only fit dell motherboards in them. So you have computer with a socket 478 P4 processor. So if u want a cheaper solution, u can order a socket 478 supporting motherboard with PCI-E slot and a case with atleast 400 watt power supply which you can find online and will cost you about 100 bucks altogether. You already have the RAM, Hardrive and the graphics card. OR you can get a completely new system but if u plan on getting a new system, try to build it your self so that you can buy reliable parts.

If the diagnostics say that you hard drive is bad then before getting a new hard drive try a hard drive that you know that works and see if the graphics come up. Hard drives go bad for many reasons, for example old age, power surge, static electricity, etc. These are moving parts, sooner or later they will stop.

A hard drive failure alone would not cause the display to turn off. The psu might be powering on the system but is shoring out or has another problem that does not allow it so sustain the system which is why the display turns off. There might be a problem with the 3.3 or 5 volt rails. Just because fans are running, doesn't mean your psu is fine. If the psu is bad, then problem fixed. If it isn't, then at least he has a known good psu with more/better power. Also, if it isn't the psu, most likely he will end up getting a new computer and can just use it in there.

With only a 305W power supply, I'm guessing that because it is not a quality psu, it could not continue outputting enough power for the 4670 and it finally gave out. 305W is probably enough for the system but if you factor in the amperage on the 12V rails and the fact that 305 is probably peak output and continuous output is lower, I still maintain at this point, the psu is most likely the cause. If that proves to be fine, then I would look to the motherboard.

Also, try taking the memory out. The system should beep telling you you don't have any RAM installed. Then install only 1 stick and see if it boots. If it doesn't, try the other stick by itself and see if it boots.