HELP almost finsihed a project & my DELL won't boot.

  • Thread starter Thread starter rayc
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rayc

rayc

retroreprobate
Hello Folks,
I'm almost finished a new collaboration project and when I sat down to update a mix I turned on my DELL Inspiron 530 & the screen stayed blank while the machine seems to try to boot in 5 second cycles. No beeps and an amber light at font power button. If I disconnect it from the power by pulling the power cord out & then, after a minute, reinster it - it just continues the cycle. The same thing happned when I turned off the power at the wall & left it for 2 days.
If I hold in the power button at the fron the cycling will stoip but nothing else happens.
I backed up a week ago. Hope fully I'll be able to use that back up if all goes belly up.
Can anyone help?
The machine is ONLY used as a DAW & is like new. Very few programs are installed & all that are on it are audio/video related.
HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!
I cracked open the case to reseat the RAM & vid acrd (can't do one of the RAM cards properly beacsue the vid card is IN THE WAY & won't come out without being dragged across the RAM.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, the fans run - no boot up - just the fans cycling on & off with the power. Orange light on the motherboard is on when the power is connected & the thing is "on".
 
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It could be the power supply, are you hearing the hard drive spin up or the power supply fan starting and stopping?

Take out the ram and video card and completely reseat them. A completely black screen sound like a video card problem as you should get a message, is the monitor cable OK and the monitor OK?

Dead hard drive? Usually you would get a message on the screen, "no operating system" "can't find (some unreadable name) file" etc etc.

Alan.
 
Witzend,
I cracked the case & it's the fans doing the on off routine. I'd already done the card reseating thing. I've called a tech head. If was more than a reseat of on off job I'd have had to it over anyway. I'm not confident enough to do more than replace a DVD Drive or simialr.
Thanks for the help.
 
Are you able to get into BIOS during it's start up? Often screens take time to come on. Mine takes about 10 to get a picture. But it could be something in your BIOS is off and not allowing things to boot properly. If you can manage to get into it, put everything to default and try again. I had a similar problem back when I first built my computer. During Overclocking, I got to a point where the machine would restart during boot and just keep doing it over. I just needed to pull back my processor a little.
 
somegeezer.
Thanks for the perspective. Nope no screen image at all & no chance to get into BIOS.
Bummer eh?
 
rayc said:
somegeezer.
Thanks for the perspective. Nope no screen image at all & no chance to get into BIOS.
Bummer eh?
Click to expand...

Big bummer. I'm sure you will manage to get it sorted though. Have you taken it to a tech at all yet? Just get them to look over it and see what the problem is. They would probably offer to fix it for some stupid price, but most things are fairly simple to install yourself and a lot cheaper to buy the parts you need.
If you're in the UK, I know a fairly good site to get computer parts. I've built most my computer with parts from them.
 
If it won't go into POST, it may be a fan problem. If you've reseated the RAM, try another fan. It may not be the fan, but it's a cheap enough gamble.
The silver lining is that even if it is a mother board issue, you can remove the hard drive, and via something like a universal storage adapter 'import' the files into any other computer.
 
Unplug the mains power cable.
Press and hold the power on switch on the front of the pc.
Whilst holding, plug in the mains power and turn it on.
Let go of the front power button.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Unplug the mains power cable.
Press and hold the power on switch on the front of the pc.
Whilst holding, plug in the mains power and turn it on.
Let go of the front power button.
Click to expand...

What does that do exactly? I've never heard of anyone do it before. =P
 
It's a common fault with dell psus.

Can't say as I fully understand it, but it's something to do with a getting a greater surge than normal at power on.(or rather, restoring it to normal.)

Like i say, I don't know in detail, but it sounds like a cheap short term work around for failing psu caps or something like that.

I did the same thing on an old PC monitor before i finally had to recap its psu.


There's some long way round affair with cutting wires and shiz, but idk anything about that.
 
I know this will sound dumb but... I had similar symptoms where the bios seemed to get stuck looking for data on a removable media drive... Try pulling the power on DVD / CD drives (internal) and unplug anything you dont need - and try a boot.
I also remember a similar issue with legacy Keyboards and mice....
All you need for a boot is power, keyboard, mouse and monitor pull everything else and troubleshoot...
Good Luck
PS avoid making BOIS changes unless you are sure :)
 
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Thanks folks,
I tried the front button thing. It has another version where you unplug as you holfd the button down & it drains the caps. Unplug, reset, drain, replug, restart, swear, (well I didn't actually do that - I gace that up in 1973 because I did it sufficient to make a sailor blush), walk away & leave it for a day or two, try it all again, try with thumbdrive in/out, CD in/out etc.
I tested the screen with another computer - NO problems at all - lovely picture in fact. Switched powere points, power cords, power chords, changed the feng shui, light bulb and room ambience - even changed my shirt & hairstyle.
Nada!
I have the machine at work waiting for my preferred techie to come & get it. He was to collect it on Thursday. It's Monday night now & NO SHOW!!!!!
The biggest bummer is that I can't run the project on any of the other computers in the house as the ReaVSTs seem to eat up much more PCU power than the old Cakewalk ones. I can load the project but when I hit play it stutters for a moment & then holds its tongue whilst stalling the entire machine (that's what I get for having a 27 track project!
If/when I have some success I'll get back to you with a yipee.
Bruiser - if I had it with me I would!
 
shit. sorry to hear that dude.

If you could be arsed, try a cmos reset and battery change while you're waiting for that guy.

If you don't know how to do that, it's really simple. Give it a google.
 
rayc said:
Witzend,
I cracked the case & it's the fans doing the on off routine. I'd already done the card reseating thing. I've called a tech head. If was more than a reseat of on off job I'd have had to it over anyway. I'm not confident enough to do more than replace a DVD Drive or simialr.
Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Hi,
Sorry for the late reply I have been on the road, the cycling fans thing I have had in the past, it was something to do with the power supply not being latched on by the mother board. Sorry for the non-technical terms, I had to change out the mother board on that machine and it fixed the problem, also check the connection of the small 2 wire plug from the power supply to the mother board, this lead tells the power supply to start when the button is pushed.

However it could still be a power supply problem. Have you got another power supply you can try?

alan.
 
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