David Lock

The little round on/off push in switch on the front of my Dell Dimension (XPS R450) tower seems to be about to pack up - becoming increasingly difficult to turn machine on or off. So I am using main power chord at back of machine instead. Went to my local PC repair shop - "Never knowingly oversold" - and asked about replacing. He said whole case has got to come apart and switch would cost a fortune (if he could get one). £110 to include 2 hours labour + VAT.
Can someone cheer me up and say something like "you need part number from Dell and it's a 5 minute job to replace". Thanks, David

john_s

iTrader: (1)

I don't know if it's something Dell will sell - only way to find out might be to call them and ask.

Only other ways round it I can think of are either buy a push switch from somewhere like Maplin and fit that (in a new position, or hack it into the back of the current switch) or to buy a new case and rebuild the pc into that (how standard are Dell components?).

John.

David Lock

Thanks John - will give Dell a ring or e-mail tomorrow and see if they can help. Don't really want to rebuild PC (haven't got the skills to do that anyway). David

Scooby Dooby Blue

Does the front of the tower have a reset button?

If so, swap the reset and power button connectors on the motherboards front panel jumpers and you've got a new power button.

lightning101

If you look at where the switch joins the motherboard (follow cable from inside right), it has a connector which allows you to short two pins, The main switch just pushes and return against a small black microswitch. If you have a reset switch just swap the PowerSW with Reset jumpers on the motherboard and use the reset button as the powerswitch.

I mean how often do you press the reset switch anyway.

Also the front cover of most dell machines just pops off to allow access to the microswitch, so as mentioned above any maplins could supply a replacement microswitch.



Sorry Just noticed pauls post above DOH!!!

David Lock

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the VERY helpful replies (especially on a Sunday!). Yes I have got a reset button and I can't remember ever using it.

You've cheered me up

I just hate getting ripped off by my local shop who can see a PC challenged customer a mile off.

David

Daz34

Is there an option in the BIOS to turn the machine on from pressing a designated keyboard or mouse button? If so then enable that option & you can turn the pc off from within Windows.

David Lock

Daz - will investigate.........

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

One slight problem: from what I remember of Dulls, the wires from the switches and lights etc all go down to the motherboard on one single connector, so swapping wires might be slightly more complicated than has been suggested.


M

boomer

David,

i know that this won't help, but "SNAP" - i've got an XPS R450 as well. Several years old and still going strong (although i won't be installing XP on it ).

mb

David Lock

You've got the other one then......