"New" Dell will not boot.........Post error
Got a new (refurb) Dimension 8400. Seemed to have sporadic problems booting and would get stuck at POST.
The progress indicator for POST on start-up would just freeze with no error message. Could not hit F2 or any keys.
Rebooted again and this time received a message alerting that the system was halted and could not boot. That it had encountered an Ithr error and to contact Dell Support.
Of course I should have learned my lesson in helping others to not buy Dell even if it were a bargain.
So I tried putting the memory in reverse locations, tried one 512mb PC34200 memory stick instead of the 2, reflashed the Bios, still could not boot/get past post. A lot of times would just hear steady beeps.
Ideas?
Bad memory, Bad motherboard, Just a fool for buying a Dell I assume.
Have 1 year warranty but damn if you can get through to them on the phone. I have a small business helping others with PC's, recommending them, etc.. I should have stuck to my guns and followed the advice I give my 150 customers thus far--Never buy a Dell, never accept a Dell as a gift.
Only things in the unit are an SATA drive, 2 CD drives, modem, and Geforce 256mb card--all came with unit.
Thanks for any help,
Peter
The progress indicator for POST on start-up would just freeze with no error message. Could not hit F2 or any keys.
Rebooted again and this time received a message alerting that the system was halted and could not boot. That it had encountered an Ithr error and to contact Dell Support.
Of course I should have learned my lesson in helping others to not buy Dell even if it were a bargain.
So I tried putting the memory in reverse locations, tried one 512mb PC34200 memory stick instead of the 2, reflashed the Bios, still could not boot/get past post. A lot of times would just hear steady beeps.
Ideas?
Bad memory, Bad motherboard, Just a fool for buying a Dell I assume.
Have 1 year warranty but damn if you can get through to them on the phone. I have a small business helping others with PC's, recommending them, etc.. I should have stuck to my guns and followed the advice I give my 150 customers thus far--Never buy a Dell, never accept a Dell as a gift.
Only things in the unit are an SATA drive, 2 CD drives, modem, and Geforce 256mb card--all came with unit.
Thanks for any help,
Peter
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Good idea. Have system at a frends house who is playing with it.
Else I would shoot the damn thing. Now I know what rhymes with "Hell". I should have followed my own advice and never ventured into Dell waters.
Thanks so much
Else I would shoot the damn thing. Now I know what rhymes with "Hell". I should have followed my own advice and never ventured into Dell waters.
Thanks so much
Just a thought... Try removing the battery and running off AC power at boot. If there is a faulty battery it can often times lead to boot problems even if you have the ac adapted plugged in.
Erik
Erik
ASKER
It is a Desktop.
There should still be a battery in there for the BIOS but removing the jumper does the same basic thing.
Rich
Rich
disconnect the hard drive and cd and then try to reboot. See if u get past the dell screen with an error
Sounds like a bad motherboard, I'd stop fooling around and just call Dell. Contrary to what you say, Dell is pretty good as off-the-shelf factory systems go -- much better than HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc. I do try to avoid the low-end models, however.
my 2 cents which means nothing so please don't anyone get crazy over my opinion....
People get real defensive now a days....
I agree with u pacumming, I have serveral clients that had a dell and everytime it would break they would give a wrong explaination to the problem. My most recent customer call them because the dell screen wouldn't go away so they took him to unhook the hard drive and try to connect it to the cd ide, he did that and then they said well the motherboard is bad and to buy a new one....I took a 1 minute to determine the hard drive was bad, replaced it and never had a problem since. and these where top money products. I guess it is all in who had good experiences and those who had bad. With me and people I know they all been bad...............
did u try another hard drive??????
People get real defensive now a days....
I agree with u pacumming, I have serveral clients that had a dell and everytime it would break they would give a wrong explaination to the problem. My most recent customer call them because the dell screen wouldn't go away so they took him to unhook the hard drive and try to connect it to the cd ide, he did that and then they said well the motherboard is bad and to buy a new one....I took a 1 minute to determine the hard drive was bad, replaced it and never had a problem since. and these where top money products. I guess it is all in who had good experiences and those who had bad. With me and people I know they all been bad...............
did u try another hard drive??????
Dell's QC on MBs has gone to hell, I was a major service center for them in this area many years ago, I finally told them, forget it, your boards are basically defective when they leave the convict camps of mainland China. They were real happy to hear this, but for many models we struggled with, it was true. Send it back in warranty, now, and tell them you want an entire NEW system that is guaranteed to work, or your money back. I would stick to that, if it were me. No sympathy for Dell any more.
Dell refurbs have i believe, a 14 day return policy no questions asked and shipping is free if you return them in exchange . I have bought many(more then 10). I have had problems with one. Got a better computer in exchange. Also, compusa is a joke. Seems to me you have more smarts than all of em over there. Unless, your lucky enough to get the one guy there who knows something about computers and doesnt work there for the tshirt and name tag that reads"im a tech" (same with best buy)
Dell has ateast a 90 day warranty on all refurbs(sometimes onsite is free). Get something to drink, a comfortable chair and call dell's tech support and be prepared for thier "techs" to make you do everything they can possibly think to do to the computer before they finally authorize a return.
Dell has ateast a 90 day warranty on all refurbs(sometimes onsite is free). Get something to drink, a comfortable chair and call dell's tech support and be prepared for thier "techs" to make you do everything they can possibly think to do to the computer before they finally authorize a return.
Did u try changing the battery on the board?? Try to just have the RAM and the video card in and then try to boot up without any CDROM and Hard Disk attached. A fatal error can also come if some of the components on the baord are not initialising and that can include the hard disk or maybe even the video card for a bad memory. Did u try leaving the system at the POST screen. Sometimes if any component is not initialising then it will present you with an error message after sometime.
Ok maybe DELL sucks for quality now and reserves best quality for high end systems. Lets try and get u flying for now and if u cant just burn the plane errr board and get a replacement :-)
Dan
Ok maybe DELL sucks for quality now and reserves best quality for high end systems. Lets try and get u flying for now and if u cant just burn the plane errr board and get a replacement :-)
Dan
ASKER
CompUSA said bad memory today. I did not have more memory to test. But to me it did not seem like bad memory as you have to use pairs in DDR2 per Compusa and the 4 slots ion the MOBO. Thus it would work sometimes with one memory module and not both. Strange considering the rule I was told is that the memory had to be in pairs.
Thanks, Peter
Thanks, Peter
ASKER
Still no boot past BIOS progress screen.
Think I may just take it to CompUSA and let them take a look even though under warranty. Saw one post on Google with another person who had this problem but no resolution. I wrote them.
Thanks, Peter