I have Dell Dimension 5150 that was purchased in Dec. 2005. I have Windows XP operating system. The computer sometimes was shutting itself off or would go to restart. I was able to restart without problem most of the time. But sometimes it could not be restarted. The switch that turns the computer on would start blinking (yellow / orange) when turned on and stopped right there. I had this problem many months back and my neighbor (he is not a computer engineer but is a software developer) told me to unplug all peripherals including the inner CD drive. Then "drain all charge" by unplugging power and pushing the start button for a few seconds. Plug power back on and start and start plugging peripheral starting with keyboard and mouse since I would need them to start the computer. I was able to start the computer using this procedure. For the last few days the problem had occurred many times and I am having problem with this procedure also. I was able to start a few times by going through that process.
My neighbor also suggested defragging my computer. So when I was able to start the computer I did a fresh virus scan and did defragging also. It took me a total of 5 or 6 restarts to go thru the entire process. Every time I was afraid that the m/c will be really/fully dead since the m/c went down while doing these processes. No virus was detected. Now I cannot start the computer alt all. All that happens when I go through the above procedure is that the switch that turns the computer on starts blinking (yellow / orange)
If you can help in any way, please do.
Thanks.
