no post code no diag code

working on a dimension 2350 which i have on my work bench. dell does not have a definite answer to this problem.

big storm the other day lightning and you name it over a foot of rain. normally client unplugs machine during any storm but this time she didnt. client heard the machine pop. now when machine is turned on nothing happens.

light on system board does light up
no post codes
no hard drive spin can be heard
the a b c d lights on back of dell machines - a b c are not lit and d is yellow
no lighting up of keyboard
nothing to display no flashing of green then yellow not even that
both psu fan and case fan do spin

have tried a new dell psu - no luck
have recided all connections - no luck
pci post card give immediate FF as its code - no toggling through codes like a normal boot immediate FF

believe there is a shot system board but would like to see if anyone else has seen on the d light light up.

thoughts appreciated.

 

Pull any PCI cards, IDE cables, power to IDE devices and the memory then try booting to see if the diagnostic lights change or you get beeps.

 

whiskeyman

you are good. you should do this for a living. ha.

pulled everything and yep a and d lights are yellow and b and c are green which according to dell means the ide bus failure. plugged things back in and again the failure. pulled individually and it looks like the modem is the culpruit. with modem out things boot just fine and the lights are green. modem back in and problems again. will try a new modem in a different slot and see what happens.

ive had a lot of modems get hit by lightning this year but this is the first one that stopped the whole system from coming up.

everyday i learn something new plus the fact that when i ask for help on windowsbbs i am never disappointed.

getting a F7 on the post card which isnt in the manual but things appear good so because it did toggle through all the other codes probably means a successful boot.

thank you sir. if ever in wisconsin i owe you a drink.....greg

 

okay whiskeyman got a twist going on here. ran dells diags all check out good. boots into windows everytime now without a modem installed.

have installed 2 new dell modems and 2 best data modems and as soon as desktop appears system locks up tighter than a drum. no keyboard response what so ever. have to do a power button shut down ( not hard just enough that windows shuts down properly ). remove the modem and it boots fine. have used all 3 of the pci slots.

when i was talking to the vendor of the post card and what the F7 readout meant he said that if not in manual then usually problem points to the system board.

system does boot with these new modems unlike the bad modem that completely keeps system from booting. but all pci slots acting same way.

do you think its possible for a lightning hit to zap the pci slots even the ones not in use by the modem ??? cuz thats what it looks like. this is also weird. with the modems in and nothing functioning like the keyboard or mouse the screensaver does.

a - d lights green

again i ask for suggestions.

 

I have only had fried modems before, not PCI problems.
I would go to the BIOS and put in the "default" settings. No luck, reset the CMOS. No luck, flash the BIOS. No luck, try other PCI cards. If it only happens on modems, get an external modem, but I would expect that the PCI controllers were cactus (that may mean the chipset). It may keep her going until she needed to use a PCI add-in card though.

Matt

 

have never seen just and all the pci slots hosed. usually the modem gets wacked and worse case senario the whole board in a nasty lightning strike but nothing like this. weird. have reset bios back to defaults no luck.

being an insurance claim maybe better to just replaced the board. dell says 130.00 for the board.

 

dont think an external modem is going to work. reason why is even without a pci modem when windows comes up as soon as i try to use the keyboard or the mouse it locks up big time. nothing responds keyboard mouse nothing. have to power down using the power button.

the digital code of f7 that i get when using the pci post card is not mentioned anywhere in the manual nor as a code for dell post codes. pc certify techs tell me that if it aint listed then most likely the system board is having a problem.

have literally taken everything out of case and tried without the case same results. put back together same results. never seen a board act quite like this before.

 

I have to concur that the chipset got fried. Buying an original replacement board is the best option for the owner. There will be less issues to contend with by installing an OEM board.

I do build and repair PCs on the side. I get quite a few proprietary computers that are in need of repair. Most of them have been due to people leaving them plugged in during electrical storms. They believe those el-cheapo plastic surge protectors bought at dollar stores protect them.

 

even the decent apc or belkin 30.00 surge protectors people think will protect them no matter what type of storm. i try to tell them when you see lightning the only way to protect system is to unplug the connection from the wall bot the phone line and the computers power cord.

i do and i have a very expensive ups but i know only unplugging is the only way to 100% protect from storms.

thanks to all. always can count on the bbs site.....greg

 

During storms which are frequent here I unplug my PCs and modems from their UPSes. Good luck.

 

dont do it from the ups but do disconnect anything that can follow back to the computers, modem and router. ups not that big an expense that if it blows will just get another one.

 

Check out this link. If you search page for 'f7' just about all entries point to memory.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe7250/en/PG/g4277aa0.htm

Check out the memory diagnostics in Mattman's sig and make the floppy and run it.

Since devices CAN insist on certain memory ranges it is possible that it could be a memory problem.

 

had to believe memory in this case considering i ran extensive memory tests on each module and then together. used pc certifies diags, microsofts memory tester and nothing pointed to the memory. ran these tests in a continual loop for over 24 hours continually.