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I have a system that is hooked up as a normal system would be but it does not power up when the button is pushed. It is a POS Dell and it is not the power supply because when I plug it in the green power LED lights up. What could be the other possibilities? I don't think that it is the wires connected to the motherboard for the switch because all of those look intact. Please help me out.

It could be the switch itself quit.

well, thats a tricky question. i wouldnt want to tell you anything that might cause you to damage your system. Your safest method is to maybe find an old machine to pull a switch from. If you have seperate connectors for the reset and power switch, you can plug the reset where the power switch plugs in for testing. Alot of dell machines have a "all in one" connector.

Yea I don't have any spare switches and nothing to try it with. It is a all in one which is hard to do. What should I do? I can tell.

The only other thing that comes to mind in your situation is to "jumpstart" it. IF the board or plug is marked clearly enough to show you which 2 pins belong to the power switch, you can touch those 2 pins together (briefly) using a flat screwdriver. That should power it up. If there not marked, you should be able to trace the wires from the switch itself down to the board to see which 2 pins belong to the power switch.

Someone else may have a better suggestion than that, it is a method that has worked for me in the past.

All I do is take a regular screwdriver and touch the two metal pieces that are designated to the power switch after removing the all in one plug? Ok. That would leave me without the speaker, HDD light, Reset and the power switch. I assume that I cannot plug it back in afterward either. Correct? Let me know. I will check back before doing it.

As long as the wires to the all-in-one connector are not molded into the connector,
you can us a jumper wire while the connector is still in place.
Trace the wires from the switch to the connector, using a coated jumper wire,
strip a little plastic of each end of the jumper wire.
Insert one end of the wire into the wire socket of the connector right next to the existing wire from the switch.
Quickly touch the other end of the jumper wire to the other switch wire socket in the all-in-one connector.

lol..i knew there had to be better ways

you guys must work under the K.I.S.S. rule

Ok here is the update. I have tried the screwdriver thing and nothing happened at all. I also pulled the front panel off and didn't find anything wrong there and then I still tried the front button with the panel off and nothing happened. I think it is time to assume that we have a ba piece of hardware. Correct? If so, it wouldn't be the power because it is feeding power to the mobo because the power light on the mobo is on. What is the next part that we could eliminate?

In my opinion, there are 2 things that would keep it from powering up, by means of hardware. Those would be the board itself or the CPU, before getting into that i would atleast try Gecko's method and see what happens. Sometimes these machines are just picky and his method would have a higher success rate than mine.

Ok I will try that, the only thing is I am not a person that can read and do it. I need a diagram. Is there anyway I can get one of those?

Here you go:


Once again Insert one end of the wire into the wire socket of the connector right next to the existing wire from the switch.
Quickly touch the other end of the jumper wire to the other switch wire socket in the all-in-one connector.

Do not discount the PSU there are many power lines from it. I have had PSU before that shows power to the mobo but the PC fails to power up because one of the other lines have gone down. If you have another PSU that you know is Ok try swapping them if not your local PC shop can test it for you.