Won't Boot

[mayagrafix]

PC will do POST, no beep codes, after OEM splash screen appears I can go into setup, and see that processor, RAM and HD all show up healthy in diagnostics, but after continuing with boot all I get is dark screen with a blinking cursor.

Tried to boot with a LiveCD, but after selecting Boot from CD in start up menu and initial CD splash screen appears, again the blank screen with blinking cursor appears and PC will not boot any further.

Is Mobo screwed up? maybe lost the BIOS? I took out the GPU card (instead using built in graphics on processor) and tried another HDD but no joy. CPU and Memory seem to be all right.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Robert17]

Check you HDD connectors, maybe change SATA (or IDE) port is the first simple test I'd make.

 

[redduc900]

... and try a CMOS reset if you haven't already. You might also want to list the system spec's, so we know what you're working with.

 

[mayagrafix]

Thanks for responding. Tried the CMOS reset, both in software and hardware, and switched the SATA conectors for the HDD. No joy, same dark blank screen and no boot.

This is a vanilla Dell 620s, with a Core i5 2320 CPU (64bit, 6 Gb RAM). SATA Drives, ATI 5450 GPU, and not much more.

The reason I tend to fault the Mobo is the first sign of malfunction was when the onboard LAN stoped working, and when I proceeded to troubleshoot that problem the whole thing failed as described above upon subsecuent reboot.

If the processor was bad, no bios and OEM splash screen right? and it should at least boot with a Live-CD, but it doesn't :>( so its not the HDD. Damm, and I still got 12 more payments to go!

 

[mayagrafix]

Surprise, surprise, SURPRISE! as my old friend Pfc Gomer Pyle would say. Ahem... Moving along with the saga, I moved the PC to my work bench in preparation for complete teardown and R+R whatever I thought was not working. Just for laughs I hooked up an old monitor, keyboard + mouse and gave it a go. Low and behold, the thing booted up all nice and fine just as if nothing had ever been wrong. !!!!!!!!!!

Now afraid of powering down and returning it to my desk. Any ideas? havent tried the RJ45 cable (ethernet) connection yet, which was the original problem, working with the wi-fi network. But CPU, HDD, Optical drive and PSU all working AoK.

Thanks for your input, I'll keep you posted as new developments occur.

 

[wingman99]

Are your USB's not working correctly?

 

[mayagrafix]

Yup. USB front + back all good. Onboard LAN still no good, I know its not a driver problem 'cause I booted into windows (its a dual boot: Win+Linux) and still no joy with the network, but hey, everything else works so I'm happy. I let it run all night doing some defrag as a stability test and so far so good. Maybe some kind of electronic Gremlins doing their mischief :>0

 

[wingman99]

You could always get a cheap NIC card.

 

[EarthDog]

Defrag isn't remotely a stability test either. Use Prime95, Torture test, Blend to stability test your PC...

 

[mayagrafix]

Now the problem is that it will freeze up after 10-15 minutes of use. The software is not the problem, cause it will freeze in windows or linux. Me still thinks its the MoBo....

 

[EarthDog]

Maybe. Try another power supply and see if that helps it out.

 

[mayagrafix]

OK, here is the latest: If I keep the PC plugged in, it wont boot as per original post. If I unplugg it for more than 5 hours, it will boot but will freeze after 10-15 minutes.

PSU or MoBo?

After trying all sorts of remedies and spells when it stopped working, I moved the PC to my workbench to strip it and just for laughs tried one more time figure out why it would not finnish start up. To my surprise, it started to boot again! Then next day it would not boot anymore. So I unplugged it and let it sit for whole day. Then it booted ok, but froze after 15 minutes.

Anybody have a similar experience? Thanks for your help and advice.

 

[EarthDog]

OK, here is the latest: If I keep the PC plugged in, it wont boot as per original post. If I unplugg it for more than 5 hours, it will boot but will freeze after 10-15 minutes.

PSU or MoBo?

After trying all sorts of remedies and spells when it stopped working, I moved the PC to my workbench to strip it and just for laughs tried one more time figure out why it would not finnish start up. To my surprise, it started to boot again! Then next day it would not boot anymore. So I unplugged it and let it sit for whole day. Then it booted ok, but froze after 15 minutes.

Anybody have a similar experience? Thanks for your help and advice.

Maybe. Try another power supply and see if that helps it out.

 

[mayagrafix]

Bingo. PSU seems to be the problem. I jerry rigged an old Antec PSU that would work with the mobo and so far so good.

Thanks for the heads up, now I got to figure out where to get my Dell PSU fixed. It is a slim custom unit as u can see in foto. Oh well, win some and lose some...