dimension 4300 boot problem and beeps

okay working on a dimension 4300. when system turns on i get 2 short beeps then the message f1 to continue or f2 for setup. pressing f1 just continues in a loop. f2 shows naturally the bios and all looks good there. hard drive defined, memory defined, etc.

resided all devices, unhocked all non essential devices, replaced hard drive with known good one, replaced memory with known good one. still same problem.

any thoughts ???

 

petec

similar to that yes. this is the error from the ami bios i am getting -

"2 short Memory parity error A memory parity error has occurred in the first 64K of RAM. The RAM IC is probably bad ".

so does this mean what i think it means ? board gone !!!

 

petec

now am getting on post card test a 20 which again according to your link and my book indicate bad dma register. again seems to be the board. there was a lightning storm last night dont see any scaring on board but it sure wont boot up.

 

yea, me to. have seen a lot of bad system boards and what they do or dont do but this is the first i've seen with this type of message.

 

have tried 3 different cmos batteries and even after resetting time, date, etc. machine still comes back with same message.

with the different batteries am also now getting "system battery voltage is low ". have looked that message up and all it says is to replace battery which i have done 3 times.

 

Hi,

There will be a setting in the BIOS "Load Setup Defaults" or "Load Failsafe Settings" or something along those lines. That may get you booted.

If it has more than 1 stick of RAM, just try 1 and try it in the different slots.

You could clean the connectors of the RAM and the graphics card with a soft pencil eraser.

Check that no screws have come loose and found their way under the motherboard (or wedged themselves between parts of the motherboard).

Check the capacitors (cylinders) on the motherboard that none are buldged or leaking.

mmmm...could be the power supply on it's last legs. Those Dells may require a "special" Dell PSU replacement.

All sorts of weird error messages would suggest to me some sort of power/connection/shorting problem.

Matt

 

mattman

have already reset the bios to defaults to no avail. even with new battery it keeps its settings but still comes up with the f1 and f2 message.

only has 1 256mb memory stick which has been tried in the other vacant slot along with trying a new stick to no avail.

will give the graphics card a cleaning to see what that does.

no screws nothing loose. have scanned the board and there appears to be no leakage or buldging that i can see. have used a powerful light and magnifying glass and i cant see anything out of the norm.

psu on these dells are special. have one ordered.

greg

 

Hey Greg, just remembered... "all sorts of strange error messages "...I had this when the power button on the case was getting jammed in.

Matt

 

i talked with dell and they had me flip the 115v to 220 and then back again and along with a brand new cmos battery the low voltage message finally went away. strange but it worked. then on the same machine did 3 xp installs with the xp cd which was still in the shrink wrap but kept getting a copy error on driver.cab. tried one of my cds and it went through fine. first time i have had a bad xp cd. didnt think it could be the cd because it was still in the shrink wrap. now hopefully dell will send me another one to replace the one i had to use on clients machine.

arent computers just fun sometimes. almost turns one to drinking.

 

Greg, thanks for the fill-in. Setting 110v to 220v and back has still got me stumped . Maybe a "Dell" thing, but will try to keep it in the memory banks.

Very well done on the rest.


Matt

 

that one had me stumped also. dont know if it did anything though but the machine was returned to the client yesterday evening and its working better than it ever did.