Dell Inspiron 531 is not powering up

This is a new computer system I bought last well then how come it got repaired so earlier? This is what the question going around in my mind. It’s very much annoying to encounter such unacceptable behavior in any of the new system. My Desktop was working fine until I tried to write a DVD on Nero, I remember yesterday evening I was trying to write a DVD with the help of Nero and the time when I opened up Roxio for analyzing the disc I got a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). I do not remember what exactly happened but I know that it was telling me about some unwanted thing has been occurred and therefore window is going to shut down in order to protect the system from happening something wrong.

As far as I remember also the Blue Screen of Death mentioned about some crash dump to be performed. Believing that it would solve the issue when I allowed the crash dumb, it took a long time to complete the process. In fact the process seemed to be not completely forever so I turned of the system by pulling out the plug and powering it off. But the issues became more serious after I tried to power on the machine again through the front panel power button. This time I was not even able to see the BSOD that use to come before, there was no power lights no system powering up etc. also the green light in the back of the power supply was lit. Please help me out this is my new system as I already told you. I have not even accessed it all the way completely. Any sustention from your side will be welcomed.

I did lot of research on net regarding this issue. And found that this is not the only model which is facing such problem. there are number of reports and complains regarding various computers not powering up and that included models like 530 which has almost similar issue like yours. And I am one amongst them, I too have similar problem with my 531 Dell model. There was one of the solutions which I found to be very much appropriate and stable. The solution was regarding the PSU, it was to check whether the PSU is working fine. I decided to try it out; the suggestion said to try unplugging the cord of the system from the power supply and then hold the power button for few seconds then dismantle the case and then from the motherboard try unplugging the 20 pin connector. Once done with that try to jump the green wire to one of the black wire. After that you are suppose to reconnect the power cord and then check the hard drive and the power supply fan if both of them runs and function successfully then believe that your PSU is fine and working great. Make sure that you do not remove any of the wires from the plug other than the ones that are instructed above. And also you can use a tiny piece of wire as a jumper or also you can use a paper clip for the same. This proves that there is nothing working with the power supply.

I tried it out which worked successfully as according the instruction, but I must say that it took me two tries for a successful result. I was able to see my fans, hard drive and the blue light if front powering up along with other hardware. Also I was able to see the log on screen to my Windows Vista, I logged into it and then everything ran smoothly without any issue. the system ran as a normal pc.

I did as according to your suggestion, It was awesome ran perfectly without creating any issue until I pulled out the paper clip jumper from the green wire. My system turned off when I took the jumper from the green wire to black wire. Later on I tried few more similar attempts and followed your procedure and guess what? Again I was able to get my computer turn on successfully. And again this time purposely I tried to pull out the paper clip jumper from the green wire; I was lucky enough this time. This time the paper clip didn’t show any problem.

I used my machine for few more hours without any problem; I was able to do the entire task smoothly as on a normal machine. I thought that the problem went off and therefore I simply turned off the system normally with the help of the Windows Start Menu and Shutdown. Also the machine turned off normally but again I ended up with the same problem, I was unable to power up the machine with the help of the front panel power button. I was sure that using the jumper cable I could able to get the PC work again and I was right. I got the jumper cable to get the system up and running success. Now I came to a conclusion, I think this is the only way I have found to get the machine turn on. The system is able to working fine and perfectly without any issue after it is able to turn on properly no matter how long I use the system. But after I turn off the machine I get back to the same issue. I mean to say that if I turn off the machine as per my own wish or even if it is turned off due to some unexpected reason then definitely I will not be able to power up again until and unless I use the jumper from green wire to black wire. I am completely blank what exactly is causing this issue; no doubt I am able to power up the machine with the help of the jumper. I am very much keen to know about the jumper, just wanted to know what exactly the jumper do in order to make the computer start up. As the jumper is functioning well I can at least say that the power supply is fine but then what else could be the main reason for this issue of power up especially when it comes to the front panel power button. Anyone with any other alternate solution which would works much more properly than the one that has been mentioned above?

I too have a Dell 530 MT system from past 4 years which is working alright even today. I have never found any major issue with this machine leaving few of those minor issues as exception. The reason I am talking about my machine is that this system is a pure clone of a 531 model except the processor, I have a different processor. Anyways for your issue I would like to tell you that there might be something wrong with the cables of your machine that are connected to the front panel power button and I/O panel from the motherboard. For testing you can try removing the cable and then reconnecting it to the motherboard and front power switch. I strongly believe that the issue could either be due to the faulty power switch or it could be the I/O panel. You can also try to replace this thing and then check your machine whether they make any difference or not. Other than this you can also do some other related trial and R&Ds if possible to get a proper reason for the issue. try out the following things and then let me know what difference you see with either of the tests you do with those things.

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I am very much keen to know about the jumper, just wanted to know what exactly the jumper do in order to make the computer start up. As the jumper is functioning well I can at least say that the power supply is fine but then what else could be the main reason for this issue of power up especially when it comes to the front panel power button.

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About the jumper; as far as I know it has the ability to simulate the path that is being provided by the motherboard connector which makes pc to start the power supply. But remember one thing, if you are successfully able to get the motherboard powered up it doesn’t mean that you have got a perfectly fine PSU. The reason I told this is because surely your PSU in being tested normally but not under some critical condition like any heavy load or something.

I too had the same issue with the 531 system. The issue was that whenever I use to unplug the machine either it won’t power up completely or it would start but only if I make it sit idle for few moments like for example 1 minute or sometimes even 5 minutes. After leaving it idle it would come up successfully. Most of the time this trick works, I keep the system plugged in and it works fine. But some two days ago I found that the same problematic machine won’t start up at all. Did the entire possible trick I know but nothing worked even I tested the power supply with no such positive result. Noticed that when I tried plugging in a 20 pin I was able to jump it and then make the system work properly. But again as already mentioned in above posts when I turn off the machine I won’t be able to turn it on anyhow. What should I do now? Already tried the above suggestion but nothing worked in my case. Please let me know why isn’t I am able to get the problem fixed with any possible trick.