PC wont boot - help

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liner33

Original Poster:

10,640 posts

201 months

Tuesday 29th July 2014
quotequote all
I have a Dell XPS PC running Win 8.1. I've been having various issues of late but now if it boots up ok it runs for a short period and then freezes making a horrible noise through the speakers, I have to hold down the power button to switch it off , when I try to reboot the power light flashes off and on but it wont boot.

I have a green LED on the back under the power supply and the yellow led on the motherboard stays lit ok

I've made sure everything is plugged in securely but now out of ideas




Jinx

11,343 posts

259 months

Tuesday 29th July 2014
quotequote all
Could be anything - I'd be tempted to clean out all the dust first, and unplug the HDD and try to get the machine to post.
If it won't post without and HD remove the GPU (if a separate card) and try again.
If that fails remove all but one stick of ram and try again, trying each stick individually.
A borked PC without some hint (post beeps or onscreen errors) is a nightmare to diagnose remotely but a bit of trail and error goes a long way.

PS ignore all above if still in warranty - punt it back to dell to sort for you.

Zato

324 posts

180 months

Tuesday 29th July 2014
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Could be GPU. Has it a standalone card on built in ? If standalone does mobo have a built in you can try.

edeath

333 posts

190 months

Tuesday 29th July 2014
quotequote all
If its running 8.1 don't you still have support from Dell?

Generally flashing power light on a Dell means a Power Supply or Motherboard failure.

liner33

Original Poster:

10,640 posts

201 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Done the dust and clean out and general check over

The pc is about 2 years old , not under warranty I fitted a SSD last year and installed Win 8 on that

Does it sound plausible that the power supply is failing and when my graphics card demand increases the power supply cant supply enough power therefore we get a freeze?


djfaulkner

1,103 posts

217 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
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Think the yellow led on the motherboard means its getting power.
As someone else mentioned - it could be the graphics card, if its a stand-alone one.

If you can swap it or use the on-board one, then try that.

You could try taking it out and booting up and see if the PC stays running, only thing is you wont be able to see anything so wont know if its booted correctly.


liner33

Original Poster:

10,640 posts

201 months

Saturday 2nd August 2014
quotequote all
well got it running with the intergrated graphics , does this mean my graphics card or power supply are goosed ?

I have a fairly decent GeForce graphics card but its been running fine with the power supply for two years, maybe i should upgrade both ?