I have a dell xps 420, about 1.5 years old and since i got it its been having problems. i called dell tech support many times but they were unable to solve the problem. Anyways, when the computer was off for a while, i press the power button and the fans turn on and nothing else, than one of the fans go louder and louder, i have to unplug the power cable like 20 times before it actually starts up, once it starts it works fine. theres 2 fans that run when this happens, the power supply fan and one that is in the front-bottom of the computer, "not video card". is there anything i can do to solve this problem?
Can you bring it back with warranty ? If so - do so. You will have to live for a while without a PC (probably) but maybe you'll get a new one
Maybe something is wrong with the internal circuit.But I wonder if the problem can't even been solved by Dell itself, who can help you? Then you can change a new one to replace it.
It might be a powersupply issue...I would call Dell back and get another tech the should be able to troubleshoot this better than that!
If the powersupply has started to go it might not be supplying the full power and that is why you are only getting fans. You could buy a little power supply tester to confirm or swap out the powersupply with a know good one to test.
After 21 months, i just fixed the issue. I cleaned all the dust, thought that might solve it, but no, some intel chipset drivers were missing, weird, but i found them and installed them.. Problem solved. thanks
Glad you solved it. Believe it or not you do have to clean em out, and yes power supplies do go out, I've replaced a couple on my tower and its several years old. Depending on how clean you keep the area around it, you have to clean more or less often. Also depending on temp in area, that can cause stuff to degrade faster. Just realize that colder is not always better. Its great if you have a constant power supply, but if on battery, stay around ambient cuz they have a temp range and extremes either way kill em quicker. Yep its always good idea to REGULARLY check for software, firmware and BIOS updates. Some places say daily/weekly, IMO bout once a month or so is the way to go.
Now i know, the area where my tower is at is very clean, but when i opened it up, i was surprised at how much dust was around the power supply fan and the cpu fan.. Im glad its still working! Bought 8GB of ram and upgrading my CPU... thanks
And if you have pets, I'd say do it every 2 weeks or so, if they have hair. Cats n dogs always shed, so its pain in ass, but needed. And also, fans do fail, so if temps get too high they might be worked too hard and fail early.