Blank Screen During W2k Boot-up

Hello everyone. This one's got me stumped ... Here's the scenario.

System Specs: DELL Precision 340 Workstation, Windows 2K, 256 MB RAM

Problem: Whenever someone powers on or restarts this workstation, about 2 out of 5 times W2K will load properly. The other 3 times, a blank screen appears right after the initial DELL BIOS boot-up. It doesn't even show the "Starting Windows 2000" process, its just a blank screen.

Attempted Solutions : I've swapped out the video card, monitor, primary HDD, disabled non-essential hardware, removed all PCI devices, and even polished the DELL logo on the case. Still having the same problem.

The only thing I did not replace was the memory module. The reason I think that this problem is *not* occurring because of bad memory is that once W2K loads, the user has no problems with the computer. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The last experience I've had with bad memory, the workstation kept freezing on the user. (Another long story...).

One test that DELL tech support had me do was boot from a DELL Resource CD. It worked every single time (Hope that this points someone to a solution). Any guidance will be MUCH appreciated.

Allen

 

... perhaps the HD is slow in spinning up and initializing?

 

Replaced Motherboard

After much more testing, DELL went ahead and sent me a replacement motherboard. It fixed the problem. Thanks for the input though.

Allen

 

Thanks for posting back with the fix.