Turned my DAW off last night... This morning it was dead. I never turn it off, runs 24x7. But some of you may suspect why I turned it off?? ... but it is what it is. I have ordered a new power supply from Dell. In the mean time, I got a little crazy and ordered this: total cost with tax and free shipping $1349:


Case iBUYPOWER Slate MONO MR Tempered Glass ARGB
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-12700F Processor (8X 2.10GHz + 4X 1.60GHz /25MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling iBUYPOWER 240mm Addressable RGB Liquid Cooling System - Black
Memory 16GB [8GB x 2] DDR4-3200MHz
Video Card GeForce RTX 3060 - 12GB GDDR6 (VR-Ready)
Storage 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD
Motherboard B660
Power Supply 600 Watt - 80 PLUS Gold Certified
Wireless Network PCIe or On-Board Wireless Network
Graphics 1x DVI | 1x HDMI | 1x Display Port Multi monitor
System Genuine Windows 11 Home 64-bit
Connectivity: 4 x USB 3. 0 | 2 x USB 2. 0 | 1x RJ-45 Network Ethernet 10/100/1000 | Audio: 7. 1 Channel
Special Add-Ons: Tempered Glass RGB Gaming Case | 802. 11AC Wi-Fi Included | 16 Color RGB Lighting Case | Free Gaming Keyboard and RGB Gaming Mouse | No Bloatware
3 Year Parts and Labor + Free Lifetime US Tech Support | Assembled in the U. S. A

aaaw Dan what can I say that is hard luck, probably something simple like a power supply I hope.

New PC spec looks great, I notice its VR ready too, wish my PC was.

Good luck with getting the old computer back up running soon as well.

Nice, Dan.

You use virtual instruments and plugins, right? Next purchase might be another two sticks of RAM.

I plan to move a number of elements from the old DAW into the new DAW. Including an extra 16 gig of RAM and a 2Tb HDD.

Dan, check out the +++ cpu specifications +++. There's also a data sheet you can download.

Looks like a colorful and fun machine.

It's not my normal Dell! I wanted something different this time round.

Since I have never cared about asking questions that sound stupid, I will continue with the tradition and ask this. Did you unplug the cable from the power supply, and I mean at the computer side, and reconnect and try again? I have had Dells (and I have 6 of them right now) that for some odd reason I can't explain the DOA computer rebooted after doing that. If somebody here who knowns electronics can answer why that worked, please chime in. I have no idea at all why that would work.

The upside is now you will have a brand new computer! AND your old one.

I just Hibernate (you may have to enable this option in the power manager), this way you can leave all the running apps open.
You can leave the mains on but you are best to turn it off so you don't have standby power in the power supply.
I have done this since XP without really any issues.

Eddie, I’m pretty good at diagnosing computer problems, but I have no explanation for that.

Well, it looks great! (but does it come with any other color options?) - quickly ducks and runs like crazy for cover

Seriously, I hope it's fantastic.

Don't forget about surge protection for your new investment

Actually an uninterruptable power supply with surge built in is a wise investment for your prime PC.

uninterruptable power supply with surge built Fully integrated and installed in the 5 year old Dead Dell. Would not run without one. Dispite that I have still banking on Dead Powersupply. I have a replacement comeing tomorrow which I will install and am hopeful to bring the old Dell back to life. New PC arrives Friday.

Without knowing anything for sure, but have been in electronics my whole life, there may be a trickle current keeping something alive in the Dell that only goes away when you unplug it fully. This is true with many electronic devices and the only way to do a complete reset is to unplug. But as I say, this is pure conjecture on my part.

Also many computer power supplies have a built-in circuit breaker that, if it trips, resets only after AC power is removed from the power supply for more than 30 seconds.

This power supply has exactly that. A red button hidden on the under carriage. I hit that button and the fan spun for an instant, (the final dying moments of a capacitor), then nothing. I believe it is dead! But before I gut it out, and put a new one in, I will reconnect all and try one final time. The transplant is scheduled for tomorrow (based on 2-day Amazon delivery of the replacement PS). I will let you all know.

Disconnect all output power cables except for cable that powers the motherboard. Something is sending the power supply into fault mode. If the power supply won't stay on when just connected to motherboard then either motherboard, ram or cpu is bad.

Also, make sure power supply fan turns and power supply is not clogged with dirt.

How about the UPS? Any chance it went bad? Plug the PC direct to power to bypass the UPS.

Damn, I still got it.... Operation was a success!

So that means you replaced the bad power supply? Very good.

Dead powersupply on Monday morning, up and running by Wednesday afternoon. The marvel of amazon Prime!
Now remind me, what do I do with two DAWs?

What I do: keep one as a backup.

Glad you got it sorted so quickly, now two Daws to run 24/7.

There's nothing wrong with a 'Successful Operation'! Congratulations

Amen! Last week my Wife's laptop 5400 RPM HDD started going bad and my order for the same size SSD replacement came in the same day! Great to be in a metro city area.

Glad you're up and running!

I have been using EggHead for shippments recently. Every thing comes from China with
10-20 shipping. The fed-ex tracking generally has no information until it hits Ohare Airport. I really have to stop doing this.

Speaking of O'hare (and small worlds), back in the 80s while going to college, I worked at the Addison UPS hub during this time of year. A lot of the trucks went to and came from O'hare.

Today, the OLD DAW died a second time! Power supply appears to fine as the fans are going, but nothing else. No boot, no lights other than power, no mouse, no screen, no HDD sounds. I didn't expect this. I have an emergency Win 10 boot CD I will try, but otherwise, Time to formulate new plans.

This is with the new power supply you just bought, right?

This sounds like hardware, and your backup Windows disk won't even get read. My money is on the motherboard.

Try unseating and reseating everything on the motherboard you can: RAM, and cards. Blow off all the dust when all these are out. If that doesn't work, carefully remove the cooler and CPU and reseat the CPU with new thermal paste.

But first: Does the motherboard have a diagnostic LED, and if so, is it giving a code? Is it even on? Or does your motherboard give beep codes?

In the current issue with the dead DAW, a 5 year old Dell XPS 8920, hearing the fans and seeing the power light tells me the 1 week old power supply is functional. However, if it is the problem, this machine is toast since I will not troubleshoot that any further. With no signs of attempted boot or even loading of mouse or keyboard drivers, no lights, no sounds, could be some where else on the mother board. Again, I am not interested in troubleshoot the MB. I can however, test the boot drive by inserting the recovery/rescue CD with Win 10. Otherwise, I have already pulled two HD's out of the case to move to the new DAW. I'll let you know how the rescue disk works.



Ya, I can do some of that. That thermal paste trick was used to save one of my earlier machines but that machine would start but then quickly overheat. But I sent it to my guy to do that. I don't have a guy at this time.

The old Dell XPS 8920 is officially DEAD. 32Gb of RAM, a 2TB and (2) 1TB drives have been pulled for recycling, along with SATA cables.

Long live the New: Win11, i7(12thGen), 32GB RAM, 1TBSSD (boot), 2TB HDD (VI Libraries), 1TB HDD (Data)

Probably the right decision as digging deeper is always fraught. A failed capacitor is likely all it is, but they're not exactly easy to replace unless one cas the right kit ... I do, but even I probably wouldn't bother.

5 yo is surprisingly young, IMHO.

My thoughts exactly.

And, even if you finally fix it, you have a 5 year old computer again.

It's like tires. Never patch. Always buy new.

Don't know if you're interested but +++ Calhoun Technologies +++ offers a refurbished Dell XPS-8920 motherboard for $111.98. It's a US company based in Las Vegas, NV. They offer new and refurbished computer parts.

Since you don't know if the issue or cpu related you might want to ask how much for a motherboard with mounted cpu.