BIST test failure. Psu fan not working. On/off button- one amber flash then nothing.

[Boneychil]

Had computer powered up and was worki g fine, then i heard a sound like paper flipping in a fan blades then my computer completely shut off.

When i pushed the on button, the tower light goes amber for a quarter second then goes off. At the same time cd drive light blinks once then off. At the same time all fans run, (except for psu fan) and also no signal to tv monitor. So i am getting power, but no boot.

There is a bist button on the psu. After unplugging power cord and all other cords, i pushed the on/off button for thirty seconds as was suggested somewhere online. Then i connect ac cord back up and do BIST test. The BIST test fails in two ways.

1. The pcu fan does not turn on (but all other fans do turn on).
2. On/off button goes amber then off. No green. (The green light on the pcu DOES turn on though. )

If the pcu fan was the problem, wouldnt it shut down the computer?
I have looked through the list of led codes at dell. Says nothing about a quick amber then off completely. Also no tones happen either.
Not sure what to do. Hope someone can help.

Dell computer https://www.dell.com/support/manuals...d-32bfce61a578

[Boneychil]

Had computer powered up and was worki g fine, then i heard a sound like paper flipping in a fan blades then my computer completely shut off.

When i pushed the on button, the tower light goes amber for a quarter second then goes off. At the same time cd drive light blinks once then off. At the same time all fans run, (except for psu fan) and also no signal to tv monitor. So i am getting power, but no boot.

There is a bist button on the psu. After unplugging power cord and all other cords, i pushed the on/off button for thirty seconds as was suggested somewhere online. Then i connect ac cord back up and do BIST test. The BIST test fails in two ways.

1. The pcu fan does not turn on (but all other fans do turn on).
2. On/off button goes amber then off. No green. (The green light on the pcu DOES turn on though. )

If the pcu fan was the problem, wouldnt it shut down the computer?
I have looked through the list of led codes at dell. Says nothing about a quick amber then off completely. Also no tones happen either.
Not sure what to do. Hope someone can help.

Dell computer https://www.dell.com/support/manuals...d-32bfce61a578

Link is to the service manual of my particular dell. Hopefully all the info on specs is there for you. Manufactured 2018 if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance.

[Bruce]

if you can’t get your hands on another PSU for testing purposes, I’d be starting with getting a new one of those.

[Boneychil]

As a matter of fact i do have one. I dont know why i didnt think to try that. Not sure if its the same size but it would work just for a quick test wouldnt it? Even if smaller?
And thanks for the reply.

[Bruce]

it’ll be fine for testing purposes, even until you get a replacement.
if the rig has a 3rd party add-on graphics card, maybe run the rig without that if the test PSU works out.

[Boneychil]

Just for clarity. What am i testing for? To hook everything up to the swapped psu and and see if it gets signal to the monitor? And to see if it boots up the operating system? Im not completely sure if the swapped psu works. Its on my old computer and i cant remember exactly what was wrong with it. It failed 3 years ago. Pretty sure it wasnt the psu though. I think it was my graphics card and i decided to buy a new computer rather than a graphics card. Anyways, I’ll try it and see what i come up with.

[Boneychil]

On the main power supply Pin 12 and pin 16 have no wires going to them. (On my current computer. The dell)

But the other psu, all of the pins have wires. Does it make any difference? (My old computer psu. Is an old hp compaq presario. 2008 or so).

[Bruce]

this is the pin out diagram for the ATX 24 and 20 pin plugs.
[ATTACH type=“full” width=“294px”]8699[/ATTACH]
which one do you have?
and are you refering the the correct pin 12 and 16 is in the diagram?

[Boneychil]

Yeah. Its version 2. Sorry. Its 14 and 20 that has no wire. I guess i cant count. Sheesh.

[Boneychil]

So i didnt realize it until i actually pulled it out. The HP atx is actually a 20+4 pin atx. On the HP if you count it as a 20 pin, pin 18 has no wire.

If you count the 2 atx’s as a 24 pin then it is pin 20 that has no wire.

So the only difference between the two is the dell does not have the blue wire at pin 14, whereas the HP does have the blue wire.

Everything else is the same.

[Boneychil]

Are you usually active around 4am pst. I will make a point to be up at that time so i can hopefully speed this up. Thank you very much for your help. I am not complaining at all. I highly appreciate your help. I just want to do what i can do to help the process. Thanks

[Bruce]

It’s all good, I’m not up till 6am.

not sure why the Dell PSU has that missing cable, but Dell has history of using non-standard stuff.
normally I would say, just use the other PSU but Dell are weird and I don’t won’t to blow your mobo.
having said that, I’ve always simply swapped PSU around willy-nilly without ever checking the pin outs, without damage, Dell included, so who knows. (but some Dell are standardised)

in theory you could always remove that blue wire from its socket, or since the PSU wasn’t used, just cut it and fix it up later if you ever do want to use it.

[Boneychil]

Yeah. I was thinking of just cutting that wire and trying it too. Just wanted to get your thoughts.

When i fire up the HP, psu fan spins from the get go, but after that, it shuts down. Tries to refire, then shuts down, tries to fire, then shuts down. I didnt let it do that more than three times before I switched off the psu. But i assume the psu is working fine
Could you suggest a psu to buy or do you need more info (specs)?
I think buying a new one might be the prudent thing to do.
I have a multimeter. I could test DELL psu and/or the HP if i knew what pins to test and what voltage to put the meter on. If thats in the scope of your knowledge.

[Boneychil]

So an update where im at.

In the DELL theres the 5 wire SATA going to the hard drive and it pigtails to a 2 wire SATA that goes to the dvd. I assume i dont need to have the dvd hooked up to test the HP psu. It doesnt have that 2 wite SATA anyways.

So to test this HP psu on the dell, i will be…

…connecting the 20+4 atx (with the blue wire cut)…

…the 4pin CPU ATX…

…and the 5 wire SATA to hard drive…

…and should i have the hdmi monitor connected up? So i can see if the monitor is getting signal?

Then thats it.

But i will wait to hear from you about testing with multimeter

[Bruce]

that sounds spot on.
for this test all we want to see is hopefully the PC start to Windows.
and the tower LED stay on.