markf Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 OMG. I was done working and left the computer sitting on. A couple of hours later I went over to turn it off. Black screen , no mouse, no nothing. I turned off the power. Now it won't start up. When I try and start, the power comes on and some fans start up but there is no boot up, no nothing. I have never experienced anything like this. This is my primary work station. It's a two year old Dell XPS with a quad 6600, using Win XP. It has the original drive and a second drive that I added a year ago when I went to 64 bit. So it normally starts up and offers a choice to boot to the old 64 bit drive or if by default it will boot to the newer 64 bit drive. I have tried unplugging one of the drives and then the other. Still no start up. Normally some lights on the front of the case come on when it starts up, before even the boot sequence. Now, nothing. I'm hoping for some trouble shooting advice and a miracle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 since the fans are running it seems your mobo is fried. but before replacing it try removing all ram and putting one of them at a time, this once helped start a pc of mine which had a bad ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 yup, in addition to RAM as mentioned above, make sure your videocard is seated tightly. When I run in to machines with your problem my first check is to pull all the ram and boot the machine, it should beep at you constantly telling you there's no RAM. if that doesn't happen your MOBO is probably dead. Same check works with most boards for the videocard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kippu Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 yes connect a system speaker to the motherboard and hear for any beeps ...before that open up the box and see if theres any burnout smell ...maybe the power supply could have burnt out and not supplying sufficient power Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 Thank you all for your replies. I tried pulling out the ram and starting up. No beeps, nothing but some fans turn on (including power supply). The video card is firmly seated. I called Dell and it cost me $50 to talk to a tech support guy who said the MB was dead. The Dell XPS was purchased in May 2007. It is out of warranty and Dell won't do anything at all for me except replace the Motherboard for $450 and I won't receive it until Dec. 22cnd. I am very unhappy and angry that this happened. It seems like this should not have failed so early in it's life. Very disappointed with Dell, will never be a customer of theirs again and will discourage anyone else from buying anything from the. End of rant. Looking at Newegg the motherboards are nowhere near $450. I'm wondering if it might be better for me to get a new case and a new motherboard from someone else and try and use all the parts from the Dell to re-build my own machine. the Dell has - Core 2 Q6600 (2.4 GHz 1066FSB) Quad Core and 8MB cache, Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX, 160 GB SATA, Another 160 GB SATA that I added that is set up with XP 64 bit and all of my core aps like MAX, Vray etc., 16x DVD/CD R/RW drive, X -Fi PCI sound Card, 750 Watt Power Supply, I guess the network card is built on to the MB., Came with 2 G Ram, I changed it a year ago to 4 ea, 2G sticks for a total of 8 gig What do you hardware experts think. Could you recommend a mother board and case that would work? What are the things that I should make sure of if I go the buy my own motherboard and forget Dell route? Thanks for your help with this. This is a huge bummer for me and (of course) comes at an especially bad time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kippu Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 choose any of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280%201070509908&name=LGA%20775 any of the asus which works with DDR2 will be a good one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 (edited) Thank you. I looked at the NEwegg MB's and narrowed the search. I chose Asus and then the ones that supported DDR2 667MHz RAM. There were some that supported DDR2 but did they not specify the 667MHz, not sure if that is important but I limited the search to those that listed 667MHZ. Then I further limited the search to MB's that had four slots for RAM and could support at least 8G RAM. I did this because I have the 4- sticks of DDR2 667MHz RAM. I realize RAM is not that expensive so perhaps I am placing too much emphasis on RAM compatablity? It seemed to work fine for me and I would like to limit my expense so... Filtering the search like above gave this result http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280%2050001315%201070631947&StoreType=-1&CompareItemList=N82E16813131377%2cN82E16813131393%2cN82E16813131401&bop=And The one on the right does not come with LAN. The other two do. I assume that LAN is on board network so I wouldn't need a separate network card? I'm leaning toward the one in the center. Any thoughts you may have on my selection process would be greatly appreciated. I'm not a hardware expert so... Thanks!!! Edited December 16, 2009 by markf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 I would go with the most expensive one and get the rebate. Lan on board is important becuase the less card you put in the more air flow is unobstructed, and the less power you need. plus this has all the bells and whistles. HP are assembling amazing computers and notebooks these days. I own a Dell lcd that I love very much, but I hate the company's policies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 Thank you Ihab. If I read correctly the most expensive one does not have on board LAN. Not sure what it has that makes it more expensive than the others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmccoy Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 When you bought your RAM did you have to get dell specific ram? I had to a few years ago when updating my precision 470. You may want to check to make sure that the ram will work in a non dell mb. if not, just get some new ram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 Thanks for your reply. I did not get Dell specific RAM so it should work with other MB's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 I called Dell and it cost me $50 to talk to a tech support guy who said the MB was dead. The Dell XPS was purchased in May 2007. It is out of warranty and Dell won't do anything at all for me except replace the Motherboard for $450 and I won't receive it until Dec. wow, that is criminal. 50 bucks for the privilege of being told to turn around and lube up is FUBAR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Thank you Ihab. If I read correctly the most expensive one does not have on board LAN. Not sure what it has that makes it more expensive than the others it does have LAN, it shows in the picture and is mentioned here http://www.motherboardpro.com/ASUS-P5Q-Pro-Turbo-LGA-775-ASUS-P45-ASUS-Motherboard-Retail-p-1286.html LAN Atheros® L1E Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET 2 I think NewEgg goofed up and didn't mention it. It also has every other thing you would want, twi tyoes if firewire, external esata...etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted December 27, 2009 Author Share Posted December 27, 2009 Thank you Ihab. I got my case, MB, PSU cooler and PS on Thursday at about 5:00. I put everything together and loaded Windows XP 64 bit and etc yesterday. Got my network and internet re-established. It all appears to be working. Still need to install Max, Vray, Pshop and some other things. Thanks to everyone for their help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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