2 Dell's w/XP that Won't Boot Up

[Paul Calcagno]

Within the same week I have 2 friends with Dell computers (both are 5-7 year
old desktops running Win XP SP3) that have been running great. All of a
sudden neither will boot up, even if I keep pressing the F8 key upon
startup. For either computer I don't have any system disks. Absolutely
nothing appears on the screen during boot up. One computer shuts itself
down. Forcing either of them down and then re-powering does exactly
nothing. Actually one of them goes into an endless loop of trying to boot
and then shuts itself down. The other never boots at all. A call to Dell in
India on the one that never boots revealed exactly nothing, except the IT
Tech said she thought there was something wrong with the Graphics card after
we tried a few tests (including the RAM, unplugging everything and
re-plugging one at a time). She ended up concluding that the system needed
a new Mother board (???) but frankly her analysis wasn't too credible.
No matter what I've tried I cannot get either computer to come up in Safe
mode. Seems odd, like maybe there's a special virus going around or perhaps
some malware has gotten into the boot sequence.
Anyone have any suggestions for how to get these 2 computers to boot up?
Seems unlikely that both drives crashed. One computer is located in
Tallahassee and the other in Florida.
Anyone know of any viruses that could cause this behavior?
Thanks........................Paul C.

 

[Mark Adams]

Within the same week I have 2 friends with Dell computers (both are 5-7 year
old desktops running Win XP SP3) that have been running great. All of a
sudden neither will boot up, even if I keep pressing the F8 key upon
startup. For either computer I don't have any system disks. Absolutely
nothing appears on the screen during boot up. One computer shuts itself
down. Forcing either of them down and then re-powering does exactly
nothing. Actually one of them goes into an endless loop of trying to boot
and then shuts itself down. The other never boots at all. A call to Dell in
India on the one that never boots revealed exactly nothing, except the IT
Tech said she thought there was something wrong with the Graphics card after
we tried a few tests (including the RAM, unplugging everything and
re-plugging one at a time). She ended up concluding that the system needed
a new Mother board (???) but frankly her analysis wasn't too credible.
No matter what I've tried I cannot get either computer to come up in Safe
mode. Seems odd, like maybe there's a special virus going around or perhaps
some malware has gotten into the boot sequence.
Anyone have any suggestions for how to get these 2 computers to boot up?
Seems unlikely that both drives crashed. One computer is located in
Tallahassee and the other in Florida.
Anyone know of any viruses that could cause this behavior?
Thanks........................Paul C.

Sounds like hardware failures. Start with replacing the power supplies with
known good working ones. Disconnect the hard drives and reboot the machines.
If you don't get any video output to view the POST information, then you have
hardware issues. Check the monitor, connections, and cabling as well.

 

[Daave]

Within the same week I have 2 friends with Dell computers (both are
5-7 year old desktops running Win XP SP3) that have been running
great. All of a sudden neither will boot up, even if I keep pressing
the F8 key upon startup. For either computer I don't have any system
disks. Absolutely nothing appears on the screen during boot up. One
computer shuts itself down. Forcing either of them down and then
re-powering does exactly nothing. Actually one of them goes into an
endless loop of trying to boot and then shuts itself down. The other
never boots at all. A call to Dell in India on the one that never
boots revealed exactly nothing, except the IT Tech said she thought
there was something wrong with the Graphics card after we tried a few
tests (including the RAM, unplugging everything and re-plugging one
at a time). She ended up concluding that the system needed a new
Mother board (???) but frankly her analysis wasn't too credible. No
matter what I've tried I cannot get either computer to come up in
Safe mode. Seems odd, like maybe there's a special virus going
around or perhaps some malware has gotten into the boot sequence.
Anyone have any suggestions for how to get these 2 computers to boot
up? Seems unlikely that both drives crashed. One computer is located
in Tallahassee and the other in Florida.
Anyone know of any viruses that could cause this behavior?

Could be bad power supplies.

With the PC still plugged in (yet turned off), listen for any hissing
noises coming from the PSU.

You can try booting off a Live Linux CD (like Knoppix or Ubuntu). If the
behavior persists, then you will know that this is a hardware issue.
Could be a bad PSU. Or perhaps a bad motherboard (a number of GX270s
were kown to have leaky capacitors).

If the PCs work like a charm while in the Linux environment, then you
know you have a software problem and a Repair or Clean Install (you
would definitely need the Dell XP Reinstallation CDs for either) might
be necessary. Sometimes, this method works:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

You can burn your own XP Recovery Console bootable CD:

http://tips.vlaurie.com/2006/05/23/recovery-console-for-those-without-an-xp-disk/

 

[Andrew E.]

If pc sounds normal at start-up (fans running ok,etc),you might chk the
battery on the board.If its failed,youre BIOS settings become inoperatable &
the pc will do just as you claim...

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Hi Mark, Daave and Andrew. Thanks for your helpful suggestions. I should
have no problem checking out the power supply and the onboard battery
voltage.

While it still sounds a bit odd that 2 computers physically separated by 300
miles would exhibit the same symptoms, perhaps the weather was a factor
since in both locations, there were severe thunderstorms resulting in a
definite power failure in one of the 2 PC locations. Perhaps this trashed
the PSU. And for that matter an abrupt power reduction might have cause
voltage spiking on the Mother board, doing it in.

Thanks.................Paul C.

 

[Mark Adams]

Hi Mark, Daave and Andrew. Thanks for your helpful suggestions. I should
have no problem checking out the power supply and the onboard battery
voltage.

While it still sounds a bit odd that 2 computers physically separated by 300
miles would exhibit the same symptoms, perhaps the weather was a factor
since in both locations, there were severe thunderstorms resulting in a
definite power failure in one of the 2 PC locations. Perhaps this trashed
the PSU. And for that matter an abrupt power reduction might have cause
voltage spiking on the Mother board, doing it in.

Thanks.................Paul C.

I guess a good rule of thumb might be "If it doesn't POST, it's toast." ;-}

 

[HeyBub]

Sounds like hardware failures. Start with replacing the power
supplies with known good working ones. Disconnect the hard drives and
reboot the machines. If you don't get any video output to view the
POST information, then you have hardware issues. Check the monitor,
connections, and cabling as well.

No it doesn't. Two friends that know each other with the same symptoms in
the same week?

Did one give something to the other? Are they on the same network? Did they
visit the same dodgy web site? In other words, what else do they have in
common?

 

[Mark Adams]

No it doesn't. Two friends that know each other with the same symptoms in
the same week?

Did one give something to the other? Are they on the same network? Did they
visit the same dodgy web site? In other words, what else do they have in
common?

HeyBub, did you read my post to the OP? I asked him to disconnect the hard
drives and reboot the machines. If the hard drives are disconnected, how are
the viruses going to affect the POST? Yeah, I know there are BIOS viruses;
but how common are they- really? The only thing I have heard of that fries
the BIOS is a failed BIOS update. Until the OP posts back, we won't know
anything. Like I said- If it won't POST; it's toast. I've never seen a
mainboard that fails the POST and boots Windows fine. For whatever reason.

 

[HeyBub]

HeyBub, did you read my post to the OP? I asked him to disconnect the
hard drives and reboot the machines. If the hard drives are
disconnected, how are the viruses going to affect the POST? Yeah, I
know there are BIOS viruses; but how common are they- really? The
only thing I have heard of that fries the BIOS is a failed BIOS
update. Until the OP posts back, we won't know anything. Like I said-
If it won't POST; it's toast. I've never seen a mainboard that fails
the POST and boots Windows fine. For whatever reason.

Yeah, I read your post. It began with "Start with replacing the power
supplies..." which is equivalent to a kidney transplant for someone with a
rash.

A kidney transplant may ultimately be necessary, but it's more prudent to
ask: "Is there any Posion Ivy in your yard?"

 

[Mark Adams]

Yeah, I read your post. It began with "Start with replacing the power
supplies..." which is equivalent to a kidney transplant for someone with a
rash.

A kidney transplant may ultimately be necessary, but it's more prudent to
ask: "Is there any Posion Ivy in your yard?"

Did you read Paul's original post? I'll quote here (see above) "Absolutely
nothing appears on the screen during boot up." That my friend, is a hardware
failure. Let's see, we'll run a virus scan. Oh, but there's that little thing
about "Absolutely nothing appears on the screen during boot up". I have seen
perfectly good computers that ran terribly ("Absolutely nothing appeared on
the screen during boot up") that ran perfectly when the power supply was
replaced.

Did you read Paul's second post? I'll quote here "perhaps the weather was a
factor
since in both locations, there were severe thunderstorms resulting in a
definite power failure in one of the 2 PC locations. Perhaps this trashed
the PSU. And for that matter an abrupt power reduction might have cause
voltage spiking on the Mother board, doing it in."

Power supplies are easy to replace. To test, you don't even need to remove
the old one. Just disconnect the wires and attach the wires from the known
good one. Still no POST? Well I guess the problem is deeper than that.
Process of elimination, start with the easy stuff first.

Like I said before, it's difficult to diagnose problems with Windows when
the mainboard won't POST. "Gee, my car wouldn't start the other day. I had it
towed to my mechanic to check it out. He called a couple of hours later and
said the engine was missing. I asked him if replacing the ECM would fix it."

Until Paul posts back with more info. we won't know.