motherboard failure-coincidence??

[dudidan]

Dell Dimension 8400, P4
Win XP
Last month I received a new power supply when I took computer into the shop for a noisy fan.

Everything worked ok when I bought it home until last Sunday. The machine had a power interruption (it shut down and restarted-no, it wasn't doing any updates) and then later, the fan started racing and slowing, and racing and slowing. I shut down.
Monday it ran like a charm.
Tuesday, after machine was on all day, it completely froze up. I had to shut down via the power button. I re-started and the fan, once again, was racing and nothing else was happening. I am told by the tech, that it would not post and after 9 hours on his bench, he thinks the motherboard is gone.

So now I'm really not feeling too good about this computer repair shop and the work that was done a month ago. They say the two incidences are not connected.

Your opinions please.

Judy

[Computer_Commando]

Based upon you description, I believe the incidences are unrelated.  A noisy fan is nothing more than the bearing in the fan starting to fail.

However, there is not enough information to determine if the new failure is the motherboard.  I've seen the fan racing & slowing on the P4 Dimensions before and am not sure what the cause is.  I have a friend that has 1 of them does this from time to time.

If it doesn't POST, it could be a bad component, i.e. hard drive, CD-ROM, RAM (memory), etc.  It's not necessarily the motherboard.

If you're not comfortable with the repair shop's work, then seek out a different one.

[dudidan]

Thanks for your input.

I feel better about the shop after seeing your opinion.