I am having trouble booting my computer

GrinningGSer

GrinningGSer

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3 year old Dell XP tower

Power switch on
Fan starts. lights blink and there is the normal whirring sounds
Dell startup screen appears on monitor and bar goes all the way across
Then monitor powers down and nothing else happens
No Windoze booting screen
Power switch and fan still on


I am now having to repeat this process approx 3-4 times before computer will boou into windoze


I do not know where to start looking... my experience of hard drive failures is that you get a dos type message saying that a drive or system cannot be found

(Everything is backed up cos I am expecting doom!)

Help
:D
 
run all the checks for the hard drive when your in windoze so it does a thorough chdsk on reboot. That at least will put that to bed for you If it shows errors and fixes them your done and dusted otherwise

I would look at the power supply meeself
Get a cheapo to try it. Be careful though some of the early Dell machines had non standard units............just check the cables on the motherboard connector on both the old and new psu match and you will be fine

:thumb2
 
Doesn't sound like hard drive to me - more like the motherboard, though PSU problems are some of the hardest to spot. Borrow somebody elses' PSU to check that out first.
Don't we all hate computers?:mcgun
 
I have run chkdsk and a few errors found
Still dont think it is the drive though
I wonder if I will be back on again tomorrow :rolleyes:
:D
 
I note that you say 'the fan still works' even though it won't boot...is this the PSU fan ? is the CPU fan working though ? If it isn't, it may be that the processor is overheating and shutting down.
It may be best to take the case side off and check if it is this, or if the fan power lead has come adrift from the MoBo.
 
ovenpaa said:
Do you get any beeps when you attempt to start the machine?
Click to expand...

Beeps only occur if you have a hardware failure,

The fact that you have the primary splash screen appearing or the white bar going across the screen shows it trying to boot, it has got past the Bios POST Checks,

So IMHO you have a hard disk issue, running chkdsk doesn't always show this up, please don't bugger about in side the PC if you not confident.

3 year old Dell is worth spending some money on, disc's start to fail about this time, my advice grab a new hard disk from a reputable manufacture (Maxtor / Seagate) and shift entire system over using software provided (MAX-Blast in the case of Maxtor Disks) simple, reliable if a little long winded process, but your end up with a fully functional PC and not have to re install all that contra ban software LOL, look at the Seagate / Maxtor ~ site simple instructions for replacing hard disk.

Do this now while it still boots, otherwise your be phoning someone like my lot to sort it :-)

R's

Graham
 
Correction. Beeps normally occur whilst the compoter POSTS, but can also happen during hardware fault/failure.
 
OK no beeps

took four times to get it going tonight

Time to try a new hard drive

Question.. I believe current HD is an IDE type not SATA (whatever that means)

I have found a Seagate Barracuda 320GB 40 pin IDC with interface ATA-100

I am not up to date with current HD technologies and do not know what IDC is !

Computer is a Dell Optiplex GX270 2.6Ghz tower approx 3 yrs old

Can anyone advise which HD to go for,,, say 320GB ?

I will actually get two because I run one as a backup using Ghost

:D
 
SATA is Serial ATA tiny little cable to hard disk, IDE is 40 pin ribbon cable

If you go on to Dell website support and enter the service tag from your PC it will tell you exact original spec.

Just check ATA speed but normally it don't make a lot of difference yours is probably a 100 or 133,

Don't forget to down load migration software from Seagate stick it on a floppy, or CD and just install one disk as secondary or CS (cable select) and boot from migration software and it should be a good ern.

Then remove old failing disk, put new disk on primary segment of IDE cable normally the farest away from mother board, reboot a couple of times for luck, LOL and then install install second disk,

A thought for better performance, if your cables are long enough put a Disk on each channel primary on master channel sometimes marked as a blue socket on mother board and CD/DVD drive on each channel if that makes sense? it makes coping from one disk to other etc faster.

G

PS Re Boot Beeps a lot do but Dells of your spec don't unless theres a problem.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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