The Dell died dammit.
Well, the other day my parents Dell XPS 710 froze and then stopped working. One moment my Mum was happily facebooking away, the next it just froze up. I had to hold the power button to get it to turn off and now when I turn it on the fans fire up to max speed … and that is all. No beeping or lights to tell me what the problem could be.
So after reading a bunch of stuff on forums and discussion things, I figure it has to be the motherboard. Unfortunately Dell don’t make it easy to replace something like that. Firstly, the computer is out of warranty. Damn. Next they don’t show parts like that on their little store (but I’ve heard it said that it could cost up to $400 to get a new one from them). Next they use BTX form factor motherboards so that makes it almost impossible to find one anywhere except Dell. Also if you try call them for some help they say it is out of warranty (fair enough) and it will be $50 to talk to someone. But I really can’t imagine them saying anything other than “Your MB is busted mate, I can send you one for $4500, thanks for the $50″. If I was a computer noob this would probably be my only course of action. Good thing I’m not a noob… Right?
Anyway, bottom line is I’m going to get a new PSU, case, CPU fan and motherboard for probably about $250-$260. Not exactly cheap, but will be either either the same or much cheaper than trying to get a new BTX motherboard (only one I can find is on ebay for $282). If we’re lucky we can try sell the old case/PSU to try offset the cost a little.
