Is it goosed?

[Repoman]

My Dell PC - which is about a month out of warranty - appears to have died.

It was getting very slow and Mrs Repo claims it was freezing on her (but no-one else btw). It is high spec machine running Windows Xp btw.

When you boot it now it just goes to a black screen with a cursor blnking malevolently and doing nothing.

Hitting the F2 or F10 buttons during boot up to access the start and boot menus does nothing. This is worrying because Dell's system restore option requires you to hit Ctrl and F11 during boot - and this does nothing either.

Any suggestions? How f**ked is it?

Should I return to Dell (although out of warranty) or take it to the local PC anorak down the road?

 

[Deleted account W]

Should I return to Dell (although out of warranty) or take it to the local PC anorak down the road?

The anorak down the road

 

[Cestria]

Its worth opening the case, if you are comfortable doing this, and checking that the various leads from the PSU and elsewhere are plugged into the main board OK and nothing looks obviously disconnected. Its sometimes worth disturbing these connections even if they look OK by unplugging them and then plugging them back in to make sure everything is making contact as it should.
Make sure the power lead is removed from the computer before opening the case.
Youre doing well posting with a dead PC...

Make sure the memory is correctly plugged in, even though you have not mentioned the PC bleeping during boot, again remove it/them and replace it/them. There are usualy leverage clips at the edges to do this. You kind of move the clips outwards to eject the memory, and when you push the memory back into the slots they move back into place. Honest....

And...I've also seen CPU's (yes its rare) that have worked loose, so have a look there as well.

If all else fails ring DELL (you will need your sevice tag number to quote - on the back of the PC somewhere usually ) and they will probably ask you the status of the four service LED's on the rear of the PC (if fitted to your model ) - they should , I believe all be solid GREEN , and complain bitterly, you never know.

Good luck.

 

[xpi0t0s]

If it's a Dell Optiplex GX270 or GX260 (not sure exactly which) there's a problem with the capacitors on the motherboard blowing up in some of the computers. The only solution is a new motherboard. Probably worth checking that the capacitors (metal cylindrical components) all have flat tops, if any of them are bulging or possibly erupted then you've got this problem.

 

[Repoman]

Thanks for the responses.

Got home tonight, tried it again, nada.

Then I thought - why not completely unplug it from the mains and plug it back in - and....it fired uo like a good un. Dunno why I thought of that - I could just have easily thought of pouring syrup into it such is the level of my knowledge.

Anyhoo - I'm still in a state of trepidation: Anything I should do to put my mind at ease.

And yes, I am now backing it up. Or I would be if I could find some DVD burning software...