HELP! Computer won't "start" up!!!

[dealmaker]

Guys,

Got a 2.5 year old Dell XPS used as the main PC in the house - its normally left on 24/7. Went to it last night and the screen was "frozen" - the mouse wouldnt move and the usual Ctrl/Alt/Del wouldnt achieve anything - so I held down the power siwtch and turned it off.

It now won't "re-start"! The power button illuminates (goes amber instead of the usual green) and all the fans seem to kick in at full blast - but nothing appears on the screen and the usual LED lighting (decorative) on the front doesnt come on - basically aside from a load of fan noise - nothing else seems to be happening!!

Now I am panicking as I have my full iTunes purchased back catalaogue on thsi PC as well as all the photos nad videos of the kids etc!!

Anything I can try to re-boot it? - or if it is goosed - how can I get the data off???

Thanks in advance!!

[FamilyGuy]

If the pics and tunes are your primary concern then don't mess about with trying to get it to start - just put the drive in another machine - either yours or someone else's and copy it off.

After that, put it back, try again and use f8 on startup to get safe mode.

[dealmaker]

I thinnk the problem might be that I have "two" drives (both 250GB I think) that the coputer "sees" as one large 500gb drive.

Would I need to pull both and find a PC that will take all of them? How do we know it isnt the hard drive(s) itself that has packed up????

Cheers!

[hazzel_frazzel]

Could be many things. Do you get a series of beeps come from the pc when it is trying to power on? If so, have a look in the manual of the motherboard and it will tell you what they mean, they are error codes. Might be worth having a look to see if the RAM is seated properly? Other things it could be is the PSU packed up, or a hard drive gone bad. This happened to me, and it was actually the motherboard had completely failed.

[khevolution]

may seem like a silly question, but when was the last time you opened it up and cleaned all the dust out of it, as i had the same computer/situation as you and after i attacked it with a vaccum and got rid of all of the dust, i left it for a while to cool down, and it booted back up fine and has been fine ever since

[theboyfold]

The main causes for a 'puter not to boot will be either no RAM or graphics card (both can work themselves loose) or no HDD can be found. A lot would depend on what else happens when you start your PC.

Do you get any beeps?
Do you see anything on the screen?
Does is sound like the HDD are spinning up? (Listen closely for a rattle like sound from inside the case)

[pugwash4x4]

have a XPS420 that i've had some problems with- giving it a good clean made a huge difference- the CPU cooler is one of these huge fin 120mm fan jobbies that gets very full with dust.

If you aren't getting ANY response from the PC when you turn it on then you might have a MoBo problem- normally you get beeps, or LEDs on the front of the PC- if you get NOTHING then try unpluggin all the connections to from then MoBo, ensure everything is properly seated, give it a good clean and see if its all ok.

[CommanderJameson]

Amber light on the front of a Dell means it's fecked to some degree or other.

Are there 4 green lights, arranged in a row, on the back? If so, look at the pattern on these and have a look in your computer's documentation (should be available on http://www.dell.com) to see what they mean.

ETA: The other thing an amber light could mean is it's in sleep mode, and stuck there. Press and hold the power button for about 10 seconds, then try starting it up again. Also try removing the power cable, counting to 10, re-plugging it, and starting up.

ETA: Here's some information about a Dell XPS 200, to give you an idea: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps2...

Edited by CommanderJameson on Saturday 27th March 11:36

[dealmaker]

Guys,

Thanks for all the advice and tips thus far.

So:

1) Its a dell XPS 630 (big bugger)

2) I opened it up and cleaned out all of the dust using a hoover and a can of compressed air.

3) I checked all connections on the motherboard (RAM, graphics card, hard drive etc)

4) I powered it up again

5) Still the same! Lots of fan noise - no signal to the monitor - and an amber light on the power switch!

6) All three fans seem to be running fine (PSU fan, processor fan, and an "extra" fan that seems to just sit in the bottom of the box)

5) There arent any lights on the back of the PC.

6) There's an amber LED which is on on the motherboard? I don't know if this is meant to be on?

7) Can be sure (because of all the vibration from othe fans) but I think BOTH hard drives seem to be running??

8) No beeping or flashing lights anywhere?


So any ideas on what it migh be or anything else I can try???

I'd always understod that if it was a hrad drive fault the PC should at least boot up - but this has NOTHING at all other than all the fans starting! - Bizzarley I hope it is the motherboard and then at least my data might be OK (fingers crossed!)

Any advice or suggestions gratefully received!

Thanks!

Edited by dealmaker on Saturday 27th March 13:41

[CommanderJameson]

In your position, I'd be thinking more about the data than the box.

Get the disk out and into a known good computer and then you can reassure yourself that your data is safe.

Reading around, the XPS 630 has been receiving a shoeing for all sorts of motherboard-related issues. I'd be inclined to bin it, get another computer, and put your now-checked disk into it and copy your stuff across.

Tales of Woe at PC Pro: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27448...
Tales of Hell at Dell: http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?c=us&l=en&...

ETA Links

Edited by CommanderJameson on Saturday 27th March 14:27

[welsh blackbird]

Just had exactly the same problem - dead motherboard. Bought a barebone system from Novatech and put the hard drive into it. Better than new!

[theboyfold]

From what you've done I'd find a way of getting the disks into another machine and performing a backup.

If you can't get inside another machine, remove the HDD and get yourself a HDD caddy and put the HDD from the dead PC in there. Then remove the data to another machine.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Pull the power and data cables off the drives and try to boot the machine - you should at least get a POST screen if the drive is knackered

If it does anything different you may have at least one knackered drive. If it's the same then the drives are at least not the primary cause.

Either than or try booting from a bootable Linux CD.

[mph999]

Take the graphics card out, plug the monitor into the onboard graphics, do you get any further ?

Martin

[Ian_T]

If yo have two disks, striped together as a single volume, as you say, then taking one out will not achieve anything. This is a RAID set (striped), and you'll need to be VERY careful how you handle this - data is spread over both disks, and you could lose everything if you do anything destructive to either disk. You definately won't be able to read either disk in another machine - the RAID setup is on the motherboard, and you will need the same RAID chipset to bring it back online.

It sounds more like a hardware problem with motherboard/RAM/CPU to be honest. Do you get anything at all on the screen? If not, and no beeps, then my guess will be motherboard failure. How old is it?

Edited by Ian_T on Sunday 28th March 18:10

[bigdods]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Pull the power and data cables off the drives and try to boot the machine - you should at least get a POST screen if the drive is knackered

Do this. I have a dell pc on my desk right now that had exactly the same symptoms. WHen turned on the power light went amber and nothinbg much happened. Unplugged hard drive, machine worked normally. Faulty hard drive replaced with a new one.

I hope that its something else (motherboard for example) as if it really is a faulty drive you've possibly lost the lot.

I would suggest removing and reseating the ram, if there is more than one stick remove and leave it all out apart from one stick, then try the others one at a time. Remove power from DVD drive and hard drives as well. If it has a video card and also on board graphics try removing vid card and using on board. If it then starts up start adding stuff back in until you find the culprit

Edited by bigdods on Sunday 28th March 13:29

[NiceCupOfTea]

Yes, check all cables too.

If the drive itself is OK there's a chance you could replace the drive electronics from an identical drive to lift the data off if that's the problem.