Originally Posted by
Andarvi
dell is a peace of shit. their laptops are all right, but the parts they use in their desktops are the worst of the worst as far as generic gets.
dells are NOT proprietary. they are integrated like all mass produced computers but dell does not use dell brand ram, hard drives, etc... They use cheap third party parts to turn a profit on all the idiots that think dell are great because of annoying commercials and retarded people who think because their dell can run Word its a great brand.
If you know nothing about building comps and no one who does you could buy all the parts offline and bring them to best buy to have them installed. i know best buy sucks, i work there, i know, but i also know that all the techs at my store are fully capable of putting together a computer from scratch. yes, you would spend probably 300 bucks or so in labor, but when everything was said and done you could have that $5000 alienware for MAX $2500.
however, as totien says, it sounds like your problem rests within the power supply. just get a phillips head screwdriver and a new supply (from circuit city, best buy, comp USA, they all have em) and swap them. its easy. you should do this ASAP because my powersupply fucked up and surged my whole comp. i lost everything minus the ram and rom drives. its not a fun part of the comp to have acting up.