a possible easy fix?

My old PC (that worked a week or three ago) is a Dell P3 800MHz. That's not important but what is important is that it won't turn on! I'm not a noobie, nor an expert. I've checked power cords, connections, etc. The only thing I can think of is that the circular battery on the motherboard is bad ?? Help anyone xD ? Merry Christmas Eve

Howdy there, I myself doubt if it will be the battery alone, the battery is there to supply the CMOS with a trickle of electricity in order for it not to forget what information it has stored. The CMOS retains this information and uses it to initialy fire up your PC before handing control over to the operating sys. If the battery was flat you would be able to fire up the PC but it would ask for certain settings such as the date.

Are you getting any life at all? any lights flickering on before it dies? any POST beeps? do any fans start up?

If not then the problem you suggest at first hand sounds more towards the power supply area. Have you checked the obvious first by checking the fuse and power lead? Once you have ruled out any possiblility there, then you may either want to try another power supply in your computer or failing that check that components in the computer are seated correctly.

Try this link here for more information and see how you go on from there -> http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000312.htm

I get no life when i hit the power button. I've got the case all off inspecting the problem. Where is this fuse you speak of because that would be an inexpensive fix. And occasionaly i get power surges ripping all power from my room because my outlets are over-sucked!

( i am DellfromHell (upstairs computer)) <– gotta love double quotes. ANYWAY Thank you very much for those things to look for, SHE'S ALLLIVE!!!!

Great news… glad your back to normal, are you going to share the secret then…. EDIT: The fuse I was talking about was the one in your actual power lead

Haha, FIRST off HOW did i get a HEART as my topic ICON, muahahha I did not pick this!! But even though that's a bit flagelent, i will share my SECRET to the success.. I guess when i was bombin' around inside the pc, removing devices I was to use with my other pc's, somehow a longer plug from the power supply to the motherboard was disconnected. Ha, I saw this and immediately went to the largest mirror we have, pointed and laughed for a full hour. After my exhaustion set in I collapsed infront of the NOW ALIVE pc and did whatever it was that I did!

Ohh yeah, if I knew what a 'power lead' was I might have been able to diagnose that! \Yeah I play guitar, so I can understand what a power-lead is in that scenario. But I'm confident playing a solo wouldn't have fixed this beast!