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March 26th, 2025 04:10
Troubleshooting a dark PC display problem
Inspiron 3542
I have a 6-year-old Dell Inspiron 3670 (500 Gb Samsung Evo SSD, 1 Tb internal hard drive, 8 Gb RAM) running Windows 10 connected to a P2219H Dell monitor. Recently the display started to fail. Some earlier troubleshooting eliminated the monitor or the cables as the problem. It appeared to be an integrated UHD 630 graphics problem, since after installing a Radeon 6450 graphics card the display started working normally and did for about 6 weeks or so. Then the problem of the monitor blinking off returned. It can go dark for a long period, or can start to blink on and off repeatedly. I now suspect either a power supply or motherboard problem. I can purchase an inexpensive power supply tester to check the power supply, but how do I go about confirming that the motherboard might be the issue? Does Dell offer any motherboard testing services? Are there any other approaches to testing the motherboard that don't require a lot of sophisticated equipment? Thank you for any advice.
ejn63
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March 27th, 2025 01:54
Any computer shop can do a diagnosis, but bear in mind the system it worth about $100 complete and working -- and just about any diagnosis fee will approach or exceed that.
Yes, there are power supply testers but they're generally designed for standard ATX power supplies -- not the proprietary ones Dell uses in most of these systems.
If the system needs mainboard it's also likely wise to replace both it and the power supply -- but you can likely replace the entire system for less than the parts will cost.
Ceepyou
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March 28th, 2025 04:22
Thank you for the information. I just read about the power supply self-test on on the Dell website. After disconnecting the power cable to the PC and waiting 20 seconds or so, you reconnect the power cable and look for the power supply BIST led light to come on for about 3 seconds. If it does then the power supply is delivering power to the PC and likely to be ok. I've noticed this happening during the earlier troubleshooting. So it's looking like a motherboard issue. Now if only there were a self-test for that! I take your point about the cost/benefits of diagnosing the problem further.