Dell Desktop Inspiron 3910 power issue

Yes it depends on whether the power button was pressed before this and whether there is flea power remaining in pc.

Thanks for the reply. Just to confirm this all happens before I touch the power button on the PC . It happens every time I switch the mains plug socket on ?

Is this normal for a brand new Desktop to do this and will it be damaging long term for my PC?

Thanks

Yes, it's totally normal.

When you plug PC into the mains, it thinks it's recovering from a power failure. So it automatically turns on briefly to see how AC Recovery is set in BIOS setup.

If AC Recovery  = Off, PC powers off again immediately
If AC Recovery = Reboot, PC automatically boots to desktop without pressing its power button
If AC Recovery = Last State, PC boots if it was on when power failed; if PC was off, it stays off

(NOTES: AC Recovery is typically set to Off. Your PC model may have different AC Recovery options, or not all of the ones I listed.)

I turn my PC off at a surge protector at night, after shutting down normally in Windows.  With AC Recovery set to Reboot, I turn the surge on in morning and PC boots itself automatically. I also have monitor and speakers, etc connected to same surge. So one button turns everything on at same time. - - I'm lazy!  (NOTE: If you set things up this same way, be sure your surge protector (and/or power strip) can handle the load of everything turning on at once.)

If you want to check/change the AC Recovery setting, reboot and tap F2 when you see the Dell splash screen to open BIOS setup...

Sorry Ron I meant to ask also please, if I leave my PC as it is do you think what it does will cause any long term damage to it ?

The PC I picked up yesterday also appears to be more noisy then the first one I had , a continual hum ?

Thanks

Terry

• • Hi Ron

  Thank you so much for the really helpful reply and information.

  I spent the best part of my weekend installing programs and data on my new PC, to be told by Dell online support and Curry’s technical department yesterday morning that it was probably a hardware issue and to take my PC back to the store I bought it from for a replacement, which I did and having to obviously do a factory reset and losing all the data that I spent hours installing!

  
  On returning home yesterday afternoon with a new PC I couldn’t believe when I switched it on from the mains that it did exactly the same thing!! You can imagine I was less than happy with the advice I was given by Dell and Curry’s ….

  Can you please confirm what setting in the BIOS would I have to set it to stop the PC from doing what it does, so I can just press the PC on button to fire the PC up ?

   

  Thank you once again

   

  Terry

Ron, thanks for the post! I've been wondering for the past year why my desktop was behaving that way, but couldn't bring myself to ask about it. I suspected it was normal but now I know.

Terry, I suspect there's no setting that will stop the system briefly powering on; the settings will only determine whether it continues booting or shuts back down again. Regarding the hum, it might be just a quirky mechanical vibration. Does it change if you touch the case or torque it a bit?

Thanks for the startup information.

I've just taken the side panel off of my PC and the noise is coming from a black type plastic box at the front and left side of the PCas you look at the PC front on?

I've just watched a breakdown video of the parts in the Inspiron 3910, the plastic is the fan shroud covering the fan, so it's the fan that's making a noise, are they normally noisy, and can anything me done to quiten it down?

Thanks

@airbus777 There's absolutely nothing wrong with your PC so stop worrying. All Dell PC models do exactly the same thing.

You should have imaged the boot drive on the first PC before you exchanged it!  That way all you would have had to do was move a copy of that image from an external USB HDD onto the new boot drive. Oh well... For future reference, Macrium Reflect (free) is a good tool for imaging drives.

If you don't want the PC to start and shut down immediately before you press the power button, you can change AC Recovery to the Boot option. But that means as soon as you connect to the mains, the PC will boot itself automatically, instead of shutting down and waiting for you to press the power button. Entirely your choice. Either way is OK.

And there's no explanation or excuses for uninformed tech support peeps...

FWIW, my old Dell desktop PC (vintage 2004) does the exact same thing. I kept AC Recovery set to Off (default) on this PC for all these years, so it powers on and shuts down before I press the power button. This PC is still working perfectly, never had a single problem. Just not used much any more because it can't run Win 10...

So now you created an actual problem for yourself.  Sure it's the fan shroud? Check to make sure the mounting screws are all installed and tight, just don't over-tighten them because you could strip the holes and/or crack the plastic.  Guess it's possible the fan is unbalanced...

Thanks, I'll stop worrying now and enjoy my new PC, thanks for putting my mind at rest.