Quote:
Originally Posted by Oh Haha
Our home Dell was plugged into a surge protector but now it will not power up.
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Those "surge protectors" aren't much use at protecting electronics, although it may have stopped your computer bursting into flames...
Buy a old cheap APC smart UPS on Evil Bay and replace the batteries if/when necessary. Hint: you don't have to buy battery packs from APC @ $80 a pop.
Electronics really prefer clean in-spec power... A smart UPS will log the amount/duration that utility power goes under/over voltage. It can be eye-opening..
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oh Haha
Can I get the part somewhere and fix it myself?
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Some (very old now) Dells used power supplies that looked like ATX (? IIRC) but had proprietary wiring. Plugging in a standard PSU would fry everything in sight. But that was around 15 years ago and they abandoned that idea fairly quickly... A lot of people got quite irate...
Dell are actually noted for keeping large spares inventory which typically gets cleared very reasonably afterwards. Ebay is a great place to pick this up.
Some aftermarket PSU can be better quality than OE, but most of the cheap ones aren't.