Inspiron 530s No Longer Powers Up

well thats quite interesting. I was looking at inspiron 530s systems on ebay. I contacted dell chat about one (had a pic of the service tag) I gave them that tag and was asking what the part number was for the motherboard to see if it was the same as mine, tho i wasn't counting on it.

They said that the eaby comp motherboard was XT478 (like mine) and then went on to say that it is the only motherboard listed for use in a 530s period. I was surprised by that considering the variations you can make when ordering them.

what kind of variations? and yes, the sff's like that usually have one board, and a lot of options, different ram/hdd/cpu configs.

have you tried turning it off and back on again?

when you made them, you could customize just about every part. I figured certain items or certain combos might require a diff spec motherboard.

If they actually are the same boards across, then the idea of another system for parts looks a bit more appealing then just a $112~ replacement motherboard.

Yea. To keep down costs it's usually one board, different configs..

Gotta be specific...

I made that thing around 7 years ago.. i don't remember the specifics of its design. Probably just the basics; Drives, ram, cards, OS, software. I just assumed they had different motherboards they used to meet the designers specifications. Guess not'

kk.

oh and as for that other thing:


only some of that is relevant to what you're doing, but you get the jist, and I didn't feel like editing it.

so far i see two used 530s i might consider.
This one is the cheapest (so far) at 30+10s.
Second one actually caught my eye because of everything but the tower ironically. The same year i bought my dad the 530s for Christmas, he bought me a new monitor for my comp. The same monitor in that auction. (His looks like it has one more button then mine, but close enough) The keyboard is the same as my dads. And oddly enough i had (at a different time) bought a usb wireless mouse which i use for my laptop. The same one in his. Granted his tower case an monitor look a bit scratched up. (the irony of three separate buys all being the same in his caught my eye)

The real diff is the first is $40 with a 1.6ghz processor (should i ever need one) vs the seconds 2.2ghz for $220 + the extra equip.
Edit: Maybe another. Same keyboard/mouse/monitor for 50+74s

anything over $200 and you should be getting another computer with more modern specs.

i agree. Only reason i was even considering a price was like was because of the extras. While i have a bunch of keyboard's none are compatible with the 530s (except the usb one i got for my laptop) And an extra monitor just in case. I guess even that might not be worth the price tho.

Back in jersey i played ffxi on my 2002 comp and my laptop. I had thought about setting it up when i came to pa where id have the 530s to use as main comp and ffxi, laptop to the right for same and the 2002 comp to the left for web surfing and what not without having to change screens. - But using the 2002 comp since 530s failed, its rly reaching its limit, freezing up a lot and capping cpu with only a few pages open, lota lag.So im thinking about fixing the 530s and useing that as the back up computer and also getting a bare bones kit to make a new main one.

Even with a kit I'd still recommend picking up a reasonably priced nvidia card, $100-150 range.

I have a 550ti that would be more than enough that I'm not using, I can list it on ebay for like $80 if you want.

How can you tell that the 550ti card would be compatible?

It's a pci-e 2.0 card iirc, it will work in anything modern.

i figured it would be a little bit more complicated then that'

This waiting on the auctions times to end is brutal. I want to get everything done now!

no, fortunately expansion slot cards are usually good for several years, and ever since pci-e they've been working in cross-compatibility (could depend on board/card).

k. Got a 530s for parts. We will see how that goes when it gets here. Im still thinking about a new comp as well tho. So far ive been looking at this. And just as i went to copy the link for that, its now out of stock. Gotta love it.

But that unit is still listed at $580. More if i get a graphics card or upgrade its memory. Granted even one stick of 8gb memory is still double my best machine. Which also raises a question on something i just noticed. Do these kits come with the actual connection ribbons? (Drives to Mboard and such)

Since i have a desk otw, 530s otw, and an empty bank account, i still have a bit of time before ordering a new system if i do. So ill continue to look around to see if there is anything comparable to that machine but at a better price. If anyone knows of any, that would nice. Getting rdy for doc apt now, so ill look more when i get back.

I'd be weary of a WD blue, and honestly the rest seems like a bit overkill. $200-400 should be more your range, then adding a video card and ram and possibly a storage drive on top of it's basic drive if it's a ssd, or vice-vera if it comes with like a 1TB wd blue like that one (aka get a ssd).

You'd still be looking at like $600-800 total but you could pick your stuff better.

Honestly I could probably throw a whole machine together for that though, if I get time on Monday I'll dig around, but I'm starting work back up this weekend and have a lot of class work to catch up on.

a little bit overkill is ok tho if i can afford it. Because ill hopefully/probably be using it for a very long time. Using a 2002 now. So what might be a bit overkill now, might actually be half decent or doable later down the line.

Why weary of WD blue? Is it the Wd or the blue part? Because my 530s has had a 1tb Sata, 64mb cache, WD Black Hdd in there and ive never had any problems with it.

It's the blue part, I love WD, but the blue is a slower line, if you already have a 1tb black, I'd use that for storage and find a kit (or throw parts together) and prep for a ssd for the main drive.

I am sad to say I use 3 3tb greens in my server, yeah they were cheap in comparison but it's obvious as to why.

well the inspirion i bought for parts still hasnt shipped out yet. Got a message today saying he was expecting to be back in town to send in but things in life has held him up. He said he would/has? refunded it. I told him i could wait another week (when hes expecting to be back) for it to ship out. Well see what he says.

well things are staying interesting at least. I bought a used 530s that i was going to used for a motherboard parts. It was a good deal tho. Came with a working tower, 2.2ghz processor (which is almost top of the line for that model that ive seen) monitor, keyboard, mouse. 2 gb ram (max 4 for 530s) and a 20gb HDD. - Not bad. Figured id have replacements for everything should the need arise.

It still hasnt shipped out tho. Apparently the guy was supposed to be back form out of town work to send it. But do to ***happening, he cant. He was going to refund me the price, but considering the bundle i told him i would wait.

Ive been using my old 2002 dimension 3000 in the mean time. And i can definitely say (sadly) that it is at its limits. :'(

So i went from 2 desktops to being on the verge of 0.

I found another action for a tower a few days ago. Tower, no hdd, no OS, no other pieces. Just the motherboard with 2gb ram, dvd drive, fan, psu etc.

So i figured, that thing has enough parts to fix and upgrade both my 530s and the one im waiting on. Motherboard for me, ram for him. And i could end with two working comps if everything goes right. (not counting Dem 3000) - Not to expensive, so i went for it.

Still waiting for the first one i bought. But the second one arrived today. I took out the motherboard and replaced my 530s with it. I tried to start it up but it wouldn't turn on. It beeped 4 times and would stop. Then do it again.

Looked it up to find it was often a problem with the ram. (The one thing i left on the mother board when i replaced it.) Took them out and put em back in. They wouldn't work. So i tried my ram and it started up just fine. So i figured one of those two stick from the machine i bought were bad. I tried starting it up with each stick to see, and now they both worked... /grin So for now, ill save those two stick for use in the machine i havnt gotten yet.

--

But after replacing the motherboard the news is....



My dads comp is working again!!!!!

of course the new desk i got for my computer equip is half put together in my room. Only then did i realize its missing a piece so i cant finish it. Im waiting on that to arrive. So until then, ive got crap everywhere...

But his comp is working so im happy!! :DDD