No POST screen, no windows boot up sound.

Hi all,

Strange thing happened where booting does not produce a POST screen and OS doesn't seem to load. The way it seemed to happen may provide some clues as to what is going on.

How it happened: I turned on the computer tonight and though I normally have a two display setup, my secondary display was the only one that produced my windows desktop. Going through display properties, nvidia's control panel assured me that there was no other display connected (and I haven't been messing around with the cables recently so it was connected for sure). I didn't know whether my monitor had gone bad or that particular DVI out had gone bad on my 8800gt. So I tried switching the two monitors across the two DVI ports and upon reboot, neither monitor had left power saving mode at any point during this time. I also noticed that Windows wasn't loading because there was no boot up sound, sparse hard drive activity, and finally because I couldn't connect to my mounted network drive on this computer.

What I've done thus far: I've tried pulling out the power cable and holding the power button down for 30 seconds. This changed nothing. I tried removing all the RAM and my PC produced the beeps I was expected, complaining that their were no RAM modules. I them stuck one of the RAM sticks back and my PC had gone to the original state of no POST nor Windows login sounds. I've tried the monitors with a different computer and both of them do, in fact, work.

I've never had this happen to me so I don't know what the procedure is. I am worried it might be something with the motherboard given that the hard drives don't seem to load anything and the GPU doesn't seem to show anything. What should I do next?

Thanks in advance.

 

I think that this is more liking to a power supply failure, how old is your PSU ?? as it loses 20% of its output each year.

iain.t :major

 

Well, it's a refurbished computer provided under Dell's warranty, so I don't know the exact age. I've had the computer for 2 years since the replacement.

 

It definitely could be a PSU problem.

***

You want to get a POST screen. So try disconnecting the HD and DVDROM and see if there is any change.

Then go ahead and reset the CMOS by unplugging and removing the small watch-type battery for a minute or two and then putting the battery back in and starting up. See if you get a POST screen.

 

Alrighty, I tried disconnecting the two hard drives, dvd-rom and removed my sound card completely. No POST, the monitor doesn't even twitch once from power-saving mode.

I then tried to removed the CMOS battery for two minutes. After putting it back in, no POST.

I noticed something interesting though. I've moved my computer from my main desk and only took the monitor with it for further diagnosing. Turning on the computer produced two beeps after a bit which I intuitively thought that it was complaining about a lack of keyboard. When I plugged in my keyboard, the beeps ceased upon reboot, so I take this as a sign that POST is coming up but perhaps not enough power is being dedicated to the GPU?

What should I do next?

Thank you sach2 and iain.t

 

EDIT: Upon another reboot with a keyboard, I still had the two beeps. Pressing either F1 or F2 will reproduce the beeps while the computer is still running,

 

I apologize for the triple post.

I narrowed the beeping down to the first three daignostic lights being lit up on my Dell machine. The manual lists the following for this combination of lights:


Another failure has occurred.

Troubleshooting
• Ensure that all hard drive and optical drive
cables are properly connected to the system
board (see "System Board Components" on
page 89).
• If there is an error message on the screen
identifying a problem with a device (such as
the floppy drive or hard drive), check the
device to make sure it is functioning properly.
• If the operating system is attempting to boot
from a device (such as the floppy drive or
optical drive), check system setup (see
"System Setup" on page 166) to ensure the
boot sequence is correct for the devices
installed on your computer.



This combination of lights came on even after I disconnected all the hard drives, the optical drives and the sound card from its slot. So I can't imagine it being any of these.

 

It seems to be either the PSU or the Graphics card.

The two beeps are usually an indication that BIOS has found a change. Perhaps when you moved the computer the power was disconnected long enough to reset the CMOS where when you removed the battery it wasn't long enough or the A/C power was still connected.

So you are getting no display but most likely the BIOS is giving you an error accompanied by the beeps such as "No primary HD found" or other error. Then giving a choice of F1 to retry or F2 to enter BIOS/Setup.

To rule out the beep being no HD try putting that back in. If the beeps stop then it is most likely either a bad video card or not enough power to the card.

I'm not sure how to diagnose either of those without swapping them out for another working one. I guess that model PC does not have onboard video as an option?

 

Putting the primary HD back in does not stop the two beeps.

Picture of my power supply, just in case:
http://i52.tinypic.com/20uomyf.jpg

 

I'll have to think about it tomorrow.

The beeps can't be connected to the power supply. The power supply can be bad but it is 750w and the card requires 400w so there is a lot of leeway.

The beeps have to be connected to HD or keyboard or Video or maybe asking to set date & time. Date&time is unlikely, CDROM isn't necessary, no beeps before with no video. So probable HD or keyboard. Add the second HD just for testing purposes.

 

Well, I shut off the power and took out the CMOS overnight. I plugged everything back in the morning, keyboard and both HDs, optical drive and sound card. Still get the beeps.

 

Hmm, do you have any bootable CDs around-such as an installation disc? If you start with one of those do you get the two beeps?

Is the keyboard USB or PS/2?
Which model Dell are we talking about?

 

I have tried to start the computer without the HDs connected and an Ubuntu DVD in the optical drive. Still get two beeps.

The keyboard in USB, I don't have the PS/2 kind. I might have a converter somewhere from usb to ps/2 but it was colored green (like for mice); would that still work for a usb keyboard if I needed to try?

The model is XPS 720
Link to owner's manual: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps720/en/OM_EN/NP756A00.pdf

page 68 was where I found the diagnostic lights.

EDIT: Just tried the green converter. The keyboard didn't light up at all, and pressing F1 and F2 produced no beeps. The bootup beeps were still there.

 

Hi,

I don't have much time today. I've been reading several threads and there are a lot with the 123 lights and two beeps and no video that end with the motherboard is bad.

I haven't found anything promising. I'll look around a bit more late this evening. Several of threads I read had included swapping video cards but getting the same results.

 

At this point, it seems like something will have to be replaced. What do you think is the best course of action? Should I purchase a year's warranty?

 

Same problem solved in link below, not sure if it will help your case but it's worth a read. Make careful note of what the poster says in his last post about having to use a standard (VGA) monitor to fix the problem.

I hope this is of some help.

good Luck


Edit: some articles suggest this to be a symptom of an MBR infection as well. I know very little on that matter and cannot say if this is so or not however.

http://forums.hexus.net/help-technical-advisory/183768-dell-dimwnsion-3100-wont-boot.html

 

Hi Leo,

I haven't had time to look around but my best guess is that something will have to be replaced. I'm not sure how the warranty situation works? If it is a reasonable price and this would be covered then yes I would definitely consider the warranty.

It seems to me it is motherboard or video card--neither is cheap. I didn't see anyone with similar symptoms attribute to power supply.

***
I only read the first 10-15 links I found on that model and similar diagnostic codes. I will look around a bit more to see if anyone else found an alternate cause.

 

I bought a 2 year warranty. Given my track record with this model breaking down, I think it's worth 2 years. Perhaps, if they cannot repair it, I will get the computer replaced entirely, which at this point may produce a whole new model with faster components (one can wish ).

They are sending a technician to replace the motherboard and the GPU. We'll see if that is enough.

 

That was Dell's solution on the threads I read. Seems a bit excessive since it is just replace "everything" but I guess it works for them.

I'm curious how the warranty works. You can just call them with a broken computer that is out of warranty and they let you buy a warranty and send someone out? That doesn't seem like good business. How much does the warranty cost?

 

Well, the computer was bought in late 2007 at around 2K dollars. Two year warranty starting today cost me 300.

Yes, it seems essentially that you can purchase warranty when your computer breaks. Last time this computer broke, they had sent me the same model but refurbished with an extra 2gb of RAM, and an extra 160GB hard drive (don't know why). This time, if the problem can't be fixed by replacing parts, it seems I could get a brand new model for a replacement.

Dell's warranty works in strange ways.

 

Hmm,

$300 isn't cheap but from what I read it is either the motherboard or graphics card. You get both replaced by a technician and another two years warranty service. It seems like a good deal to me.

Just curious what was the original problem that got you the refurbished unit?

 

Well, the technician came in and told me that in his experience with this model, 9 out of 10 times, it is the GPU. He replaced the GPU, and voila, it works. I did encounter an issue where the computer wouldn't get past BIOS with the RAM chips installed in a particular order. I switched them from slot to slot until all 4 of them allowed me to load windows. This is strange, what can this be and should I run memtest? Windows hasn't crashed yet and I haven't run into any anomalies.

Regarding the GPU, this is kinda annoying because I had recently had a friend mount an aftermarket cooler (zalman vf1000) onto it since the stock fan was outrageously loud. I will need to mount this cooler onto the new graphics card so can you tell me of a forum for asking questions about this sort of modifications?

My original new system stopped turning on about 10 months in. The only thing that would happen when I turned on the power button is that the power button would blink an amber color. I can't remember what the tech bothered replacing because eventually he gave up and I got my whole computer replaced.