Question

DEll XPS 410 - XP Home SP2 system won't boot

Asked by: GMadd33

With no recent hardware changes, my Dell desktop will no longer boot. It remains stuck on the DELL Logo screen immediately after power button is pressed. Only 1 or 2 times out of 10 will it even let me in BIOS (F2) and I can't get into Setup (F12) anymore so can't try safe boot. I fnally got it to read the DELL Diag disk and it ran all diagnostics over 6 Hours? (4 Gigs memory and 2 internal drives (350G and 1000GIG - reason for length?)). In any case, it came up all test "OK". Where do I start ? Any and all ideas are appreciated?
Thank you

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Asked On
2009-06-14 at 08:47:04ID24490385
Tags

Microsoft

,

XP Home

,

Boot Issue

Topics

Microsoft Hardware

,

Microsoft Operating Systems

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: arixsinPosted on 2009-06-14 at 09:12:37ID: 24623913

I would try it with minimal hardware. Disconnect the 2nd hard drive, all but one memory stick, all the optical drives, floppy drive, etc and try it like that. In my experience, this is usually caused by it getting hung up on a piece of hardware during POST. If that doesn't resolve the issue, it could be that your motherboard has a blown capacitor or two.

 

by: mathollandPosted on 2009-06-14 at 11:47:23ID: 24624635

I would pull everything but the cdrom.  Pull everything, modem, anything in the pci slots.  Disconnect floppy drives, hard drives, memory card readers...etc.  Try to boot, will it boot with a windows cd in it?  Will it let you into bios if you don't have a windows cd?

If not, try pulling a stick of ram.  Pull the one closest to the CPU.  Try that, if that doesn't work put that one back in and try the other stick.  

If none of those does not work, then just like arixsin said, you have a bad motherboard.

 

by: GMadd33Posted on 2009-06-14 at 12:41:21ID: 24624835

Thank you very much. I had only previously disconnected external devices. When I took your advice and disconnected the analog monitor (from my dual scteen video card), it booted and gave me a BSOD saying I may have a video problem. I then re-booted to last good configuration and have a system back up with the 1 digital monitor so I can at least see what the next steps are. I will first get familiar with what "backing up to last good" did to my software/registry etc. but then may be looking for a new video card. I can't thank you enough but I really appreciate it. Thank you

 

by: mathollandPosted on 2009-06-14 at 13:19:32ID: 24624964

If you feel that your issue has been resolved, please accept the user as a solution, whether it was me or the person above.  Not trying to be greedy, but I need points haha!

 

by: GMadd33Posted on 2009-06-14 at 15:10:34ID: 31592260

This was the first response I received and led me to the problem definition so I have attributed the credit here. Thanks to anyone else who added their additional comments.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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