I have a Dell Dimension 4600. running on Windows Xp home edition.

Ok about 2 days ago, i believe it was on earth day. about around 7:30am i was on the internet for like 20 mins, and then all of the sudden, the computer shutsdown instantly. Nothing turns on, no fan, no hard drive, just complete silence, When i try to turn it back on, the power LCD blinks Amber(orange).i checked at the back for diastic lights, but none of them were on. i did not recently install anything. i also tried cleaning the heatsink but it didnt work. i tried taking off the power cord and leave the computer alone for a day and its still blinking amber. i also tried taking off the plugs out of the back of my computer and still no luck. my computer is about 3 years old. does anyone know whats the problem? is it the power supply that needs to get replaced with a new one? i am at my friends house using his computer. Thanks in advance.

You can (temporarily) switch power supplies...and verify whether that is the problem or not.

Louis

I had a similar situation with my dell dimension 2400. After cleaning it out and blowing air through it, it wouldn't boot up at all, and just had an amber light. After trying many things it turned out some of the cables just got loose. You might want to go through and see that nothing might of gotten knocked loose. this most likely isn't your problem if you haven't been fooling around inside your case, but it's easier then throwing in a whole new power supply!

Your best bet if this fails though would probably be what hamluis mentioned. Dell has been notorious for bad power supplies. If you try another power supply and that that doesn't help either, its most likely your motherboard is dead. Dell has been also known for cheap motherboards.

ok, the problem is fixed. dell replaced my computers motherboard and powersupply. thanks