boot up problems (CMOS ?)

[greyowl71]

I shut down my computer last night and when I powered up this morning all I got was the Dell logo screen to black screen with blinking cursor in upper left. I was not able to enter setup or boot menu as F2 or F12 did nothing.

This is a Dell Dimension 8400 with XP Pro.

There are 4 lights on the back (A-B-C-D) The A & B lights are green the C & D lights are yellow. I think thats supposed to mean expansion card failure, so I pulled all cards except video but there was no change.

I also reset CMOS using the jumper on the motherboard. Having done that I am able to get to a message - after hitting F2 for setup - that says floppy diskette seek failure. This unit does not have a floppy drive, but I can't access the boot menu.

Don't know where to go from here. I appreciate any help.

Thanks,

 

[wahnula]

Another case for leaving your PC on all the time....

Since resetting CMOS does something, I would test the battery, or remove it altogether. Questions:

When you get the "floppy fail" message are you still able to maneuver around the BIOS?

How old is the PC?

Can you boot to a CD like Knoppix or the Dell rescue disks?

When I get an oddball situation like this first thing I do is dismantle the system and reseat everything, all cards & cables, while giving it a good cleaning with canned air (outdoors!).

Tom's Hardware Forums has a thread where three different people had different problems: CPU, mainboard and PSU:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/51352-2-dell-dimension-8400-wont-boot

Unless you have a lot of spare hardware around this could be a tough one...



Tony

"If it can't take it, I don't want it

 

[greyowl71]

Thanks Wahnula,
I have reseated and unplugged almost everything. The insides could definately use a good cleaning.
I will try to reset / replace battery as I haven't done that.

To answer your questions - i am unable to get into the BIOS so therefore am unable to boot to CD.

The PC is 2 years old.

I'll check out the Tom's link but if you have any other questions or suggestions please send them along

Thanks

 

[firewolfrl]

sometimes you have to just be very quick at hitting the "delete", "F1", "F2", "F10" or just any key that gets you into the Bios.
if your keyboard has an "F-Lock" key then that needs to be hit before you do the Function keys.(F keys)
on some computers there is a limited time that you can get into the Bios and the manufacturer think that you can do it in under 2 to 5 seconds....right...it has sometimes taken over 10 minutes and multiple reboots till I am in on some of these fast Bios access screens

 

[wahnula]

lenovo support tells you to HOLD the F1 (F2 in your case) key during boot...

Tony

"If it can't take it, I don't want it

 

[BadBigBen]

Double POST: thread779-1417239

This is my answer on the other thread (I am going to mark the other as a DOUBLE POST and have it removed):

Sounds like your HDD has gone to the big hunting grounds...

check the power connectors to the HDD, the IDE/SATA cable...

unplug all HDD's and optical drives, then see if it will POST correctly...

PS: even though you may not have a FDD in the PC, the BIOS setting for it may still be present. when you reset the CMOS you reactivated the seek portion, which of course it can not do and thus it spits out that error...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[greyowl71]

Thanks BBB,
I think you're right.
Now when I get into POST it tells me; Drive 1 not found: Serial ATA, SATA-1

However, I have my drive installed in SATA-0 --
BIOS recognizes the drive. In addition, I removed the drive yesterday and took to a friends computer in order to retrieve some critical files, which I was able to do. That makes me think there is a problem with the MB, (I have switched cables with same result).

I guess I'm still confused.

 

[BadBigBen]

You could try to update the BIOS...

then clear the CMOS and load DEFAULT VALUES, look in the BIOS for a setting to UPDATE ESD or CLEAR NVRAM (some other BIOS's may have different names for the same setting), this will reset the NVRAM portion where the HARDWARE info is stored...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."