Desk top won't complete start up

[Rosalie]

I'm running Windows XP, sp2, on a Dell. Purchased Nov. 2002. When I try to
start up it only goes so far and shuts down on it's own. I can't even go to
safe mode. It does the same thing. I can hear a noise that sounds like it's
coming from the fan in my tower. Can someone help me? Is my hard drive dead?

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Dell includes the CD for booting and running setup. Press 'r' for repair,
and at the Recovery Console prompt, type
CHKDSK /R

If it's the drive, that may let it boot. If not, that fan noise may indicate
something wrong on the motherboard. Open it up and look for what is doing
that.

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Mark L. Ferguson
..

 

[Rosalie]

Thank you so much for answering. I tried booting from the disk but it didn't
work. I will open the tower and see if I can determine what the noise is.
I'm sure it's the fan. Any suggestions as to where I go from there? I'd
appreciate it. I hate to have to buy a new computer.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Replacing the fan is not too hard. Frys or other electronics outlets should
sell one for a few bucks.

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[Rosalie]

Hi Mark, I have no trouble checking or even replacing the fan. I can take
the tower apart as I do it periodically to clean and dust it. My question
is, is it possible that just the fan can be causing my start up problem as
it's only meant to keep the unit cooled and I didn't think it had anything to
do with the functioning of the unit. Thanks for your help.