My power button (on the tower) isn't working, therefore I can't start up the comp.. It was working fine, then I installed another network card (No problems here, or so I think, done it a million times before), put the tower back, tried to turn it on.. And power button doesn't work... So I checked the power chord just incase, that was fine, everything seems fine, but it won't turn on... I don't think I tampered/tweaked with anything, just inserted card into slot, and closed it back up.. But I also don't think it's coincidence.. BTW, It's a Dell 4400, about 2-3 years old..

 

P.S. I did lay the tower on its side to open it up, could some kind of mechanism or wire have broken? Or is a comp not that fragile ?

 

fuse in power supply?

 

I think Power Supply is fine because that little green light still goes on inside the tower once I put the chord in..

 

When you say you checked the power cord I am guessing you mean the cord to the wall. Check the cord coming from the front of the case (the wire for the power button) and plug it in. Where? Thats tough to guess, but it is a small wire (18gauge) with a really small connector. It plugs into the mother board next to the reset button and the power/hard drive LED's. It will be easy to find when you find the wires coming from the front of the case.

NOTE: There should be multiple wires coming from the front of the case. One for each of the USB porst you have up front as well as one for a head phone jack (if your case has one). Then there should be 4 really thin wires. One is power, one is power LED, one is reset, and one is Hard Drive LED. Your case may or may not have the reset button.

If you could give me more specs I could offer more help, but try to find that wire and it will plug into a small plug next to the other wires coming from the front of the case. (the 2 LED wires and the reset wire if you have one)

Post back if that is not the problem.

 

There's probably some wiring that runs from the front panel with the power button to the main board that may have come unplugged. Should be pretty small wires.

Edit: Oops - somenone beat me. What he said...

 

Thanks, I will try that when I get home.. That is likely the case.. So I should be looking somewhere in the vicinity of the front of the case where the power button is located? Or is it a wire that connects somewhere else?

 

that wire will connect to the back of the swith to the mother board.

 

make sure all the wires are all together

 

If you have a manual for your motherboard, there should be two little pins that are labeled for the power-on switch (the "power pins"). Look for those two pins on your motherboard and see if there is a plug installed with two wires that run to the front power switch. If there is no plug there, then chances are you knocked it off when installing your new card. Just find that wire and plug it back in and it should work.

On the other hand, if the computer still will not turn on after plugging in the wires from the front switch to the motherboard, then the wire itself may be broken or the switch itself is broken. Or else the power supply itself is fried. To find where your problem is, unplug the wires from the front switch to the motherboard, and use a small piece of metal to short those two "power pins" together. If the computer turns on, then your power supply is OK but your front switch or wire is broken. If computer does not turn on, then you have a problem with your power supply.

A power supply problem could be caused by the power plug from the power supply to your motherboard being disconnected, this is not likely because the power plug on the motherboard is usually quite secure and difficult to knock off. However, on the newer motherboards (P4 or Athlelon processor motherboards) there is also another small plug from the power supply to the motherboard that can be knocked off quite easily (even though the green LED lights up on the motherboard). So check your manual to make sure all the plugs from the power supply to the motherboard are securely plugged in. If it still will not power up, then the power supply itself is hosed.

Good luck with your computer.