J
James N.
Hi Guys,
I seem to be having a bizarre hardware problem with one of my Dell Dimension
8200 systems. First let me say that I have been working on computers for
years, I do it for a living, and have personally never seen a problem
exactly like this before.
The system was working fine yesterday until I decided to do a system
restart. I went through the normal process, the machine shutdown then
brought up the Dell splash screen, but instead of re-starting windows XP all
I got was a blinking cursor in the very top left hand corner of the screen.
I did a hard reset on the machine but that didn't do anything to resolve the
problem.
My first thought was that I either have a bad hard drive or a bad hard drive
controller on the motherboard. This is where the problem gets complicated.
I went ahead and removed the hard drive and installed it in my other
Dimension 8200 system. The drive works fine. It boots up properly without
any issues and I'm able to get to the windows log in screen. The drive
passes all manufacture diagnostics. (Seagate)
Since the drive works fine in another system, I figured I must have a bad
hard drive controller/motherboard. I got out a spare drive that I hard
laying around and installed it in the malfunctioning system. Guess what, the
system boots up just fine with my spare drive.
At this point, I've placed the original drive back in the malfunctioning
computer and am still getting the blinking cursor. I can hear the drive
spinning, so I know it's getting power. Another interesting note, I have run
the Dell Diagnostics CD and the hard drive test passes without any errors.
One thing that is strange is that the hard drive makes an unusual
buzzing/clicking noise when it's not being accessed, but when the tests are
running it sounds normal. I don't get any of these unusual noises when the
drive is connected in my other system.
I'm not exactly sure what the problem is, however I believe it is somehow
related with the motherboard or integrated hard drive controller.
Here are some of the things I've tried:
1. Tried new IDE cable.
2. Used external power source for HDD
3. Disconnected CD-ROM drives and used secondary IDE connector
4. Swapped video card just to rule it out
5. Removed all un-necessary PCI cards
6. Replaced bios battery and restored bios to defaults/verified all settings
7. Reseated RAM modules
Any hints would be appreciated at this point. Right now I'm at a loss and
don't know of anything else I can do except to start replacing parts,
starting with the motherboard.
James
I seem to be having a bizarre hardware problem with one of my Dell Dimension
8200 systems. First let me say that I have been working on computers for
years, I do it for a living, and have personally never seen a problem
exactly like this before.
The system was working fine yesterday until I decided to do a system
restart. I went through the normal process, the machine shutdown then
brought up the Dell splash screen, but instead of re-starting windows XP all
I got was a blinking cursor in the very top left hand corner of the screen.
I did a hard reset on the machine but that didn't do anything to resolve the
problem.
My first thought was that I either have a bad hard drive or a bad hard drive
controller on the motherboard. This is where the problem gets complicated.
I went ahead and removed the hard drive and installed it in my other
Dimension 8200 system. The drive works fine. It boots up properly without
any issues and I'm able to get to the windows log in screen. The drive
passes all manufacture diagnostics. (Seagate)
Since the drive works fine in another system, I figured I must have a bad
hard drive controller/motherboard. I got out a spare drive that I hard
laying around and installed it in the malfunctioning system. Guess what, the
system boots up just fine with my spare drive.
At this point, I've placed the original drive back in the malfunctioning
computer and am still getting the blinking cursor. I can hear the drive
spinning, so I know it's getting power. Another interesting note, I have run
the Dell Diagnostics CD and the hard drive test passes without any errors.
One thing that is strange is that the hard drive makes an unusual
buzzing/clicking noise when it's not being accessed, but when the tests are
running it sounds normal. I don't get any of these unusual noises when the
drive is connected in my other system.
I'm not exactly sure what the problem is, however I believe it is somehow
related with the motherboard or integrated hard drive controller.
Here are some of the things I've tried:
1. Tried new IDE cable.
2. Used external power source for HDD
3. Disconnected CD-ROM drives and used secondary IDE connector
4. Swapped video card just to rule it out
5. Removed all un-necessary PCI cards
6. Replaced bios battery and restored bios to defaults/verified all settings
7. Reseated RAM modules
Any hints would be appreciated at this point. Right now I'm at a loss and
don't know of anything else I can do except to start replacing parts,
starting with the motherboard.
James