Dell XPS 420 with Vista won't boot up

Hello Friends,

I have a Dell computer (XPS 420, standard setup) which runs Windows Vista. Yesterday I got home late from work and proceeded to use the computer (Internet). It was acting sluggish so I figured I'd do a restart. It shut down normally, but it would not restart. The fan turned on loudly (unusual) and just stayed on. Windows never booted up and I never got any of the usual images such as the Dell or Windows logos (in fact, there is nothing being sent to the monitor since the light in the power button stays yellow). If I leave it alone, it just stays that way, fan whirring away. The lights on the keyboard never light up either.

I had been gone for a couple of days before this happened. My kids had access to the computer but have limited accounts. My wife, who is a power user, says she may have left her log-in open. A downloaded virus is possible, I suppose, but I wasn't sure if hardware failure was a possibility as well. For the record I do have active anti-virus software and the kids' log-ins don't allow downloads, but if they were in my wife's log-in, they may have been able to do it. Still, it may be a hardware issue.

I am typing this on my daughter's computer, so I do have internet access. Any help at all will be appreciated. If you need more information to be able to help, just ask me. I'll put it up ASAP.

Thanks, Rich

 

I expect it is a desktop, not a laptop computer.

You should try "clearing the CMOS ", the instructions will be in the User Guide/manual. You can download the manual from the Dell website if you don't have it.

If that didn't work, I would try disconnecting the drives from the motherboard and see if it would start then (the Dell splash screens). It might possibly be a keyboard problem, so try another one if you can.

You could check if there are other fans inside the case and if they are spinning freely when you start up and that it is the CPU fan that is "over-revving ".

Failing all those I might suspect a power supply or motherboard problem.

I will move this thread to Hardware, since it is a computer problem.

You will need to include more details about the system specs. You should be able to find them by looking up the Service Tag information at the Dell Support website.

Matt

 

Silly question perhaps, but to clear the CMOS does the computer have to be restarted at any time other than at the very end of the procedure?

 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps420/en/index.htm

There seems to be two owners manuals listed, the second one down in the list from this link has a lot more information including a trouble shooting guide.

I had a very similar problem on a Dell laptop (just fan running and a blank screen) and found it was a memory module causing the problem which I suspect was fried by a power surge.

The specs don't reveal how many memory modules are in the PC, it might be worth removing one memory module at a time and seeing if it will then boot up.

 

OK, I tried everything listed here, and nothing seems to be working. I'm thinking it could be the RAM, since my surge suppressor/backup DID act up the day that the computer stopped working. I tried to remove one module at a time but it didn't work - perhaps both are fried...

I'm going to price some RAM right now. If it's reasonable, I'll just order a pair and see what happens. If it turns out it's not the RAM, well, at least my machine is a smidge faster.

Any other thoughts??



Oh, and here are the system specs as it shipped in January of 2008:

 

Yes Mark, Dell seem to have a manual for each piece of hardware (and two on Sundays )

 

Power problem? You can borrow a PSU from another computer to use for testing, the specifications (Wattage) need to be higher than the original power supply.

 

OK, I finally came up with the cash to buy some new RAM.... unfortunately, it didn't work...

I'm not sure I can get my hands on a power supply to try it out. It might be time to get it into the shop...

 

Have you observed the diagnostic lights on your PC. This link takes you to the Dell troubleshooter for your PC, scroll down the page to the diagnostics lights section, this might give a hint as to what the problem is.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps420/en/OM/HTML/trouble.htm#wp1076652