[kaceybabe]

ok i have a dell dimension 3100 and i done something clumsy, im female so bare with me. i took the desktop apart, i thought i knew what i was doing but once i put it back together ... it wont power up at all!
i have tried taking out the power plug and holding in the button for 30 seconds and then putting the power suply back in and letting the button go. it flashes on (if u blinked you would miss it) please help me before the comp goes swiftly out the window by my big toe !

[etaf]

i took the desktop apart

What exactly do you mean - you just unplugged all the devices, screen etc - or you took the side panel of the tower .....

If you took it all apart as in the components supplied, screen mouse etc

Disconnect everything again
Now just connect up the Display VGA cable - check all the pins on the plug first, they can easily bend ......

then plug in the mouse and the keyboard - not sure what type you have USB or PS2
PS2
IF PS2 they should be colour coded - green and purple I think normally - green for mouse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_connector

[kaceybabe]

erm i took the panel off the tower
so im not even sure i have wired it back right ... because it completely wont book up or do very anything. i have messed up! lol
thank you so much for your reply i really appreciate it!
as for the keyboard and mouse .. they are ps2

[etaf]

erm i took the panel off the tower

Why ?
and what did you do?

[kaceybabe]

purely because i bought a new tower with extra cooling fans and stuff but realised that wasnt working too well so had to put it back into the other tower. i did add a back up drive to it tho and added ram ?!?

[etaf]

OK
When it starts do you get any bleeps, long, short a pattern - if so detail, exactly what beeps and pattern

Lets start by getting back to the original configuration.
Take out the back up drive, just disconnect the cables and also take out the additional RAM - becaerful of static = make sure the PC is UNPLUGGED from the mains power
and touch the metal case before working on the PC

Is the RAM compatable ?
What type of drive IDE or SATA - is the cable a large grey ribbon or a small red cable (colours may be different)

If IDE - did you set up the master/slave jumpers correctly on the drive

[kaceybabe]

no beeps, no nothing!
its a blue cable that runs thro to the hdd and then a black ribbon to put into it which connects upto the second hdd.
ill take out the slave and leave in master ... and take out the extra ram.
is there a way i could add a pic to this for you?

[etaf]

yes, if you look at the botom of where you type a reply
go advanced button
click on that
and you can manage attachments and upload pictures