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Dell 8400 Boot problem

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nonterran   10-14-2009 at 07:58:59 PM

I have a Dell Inspiron 8400 desktop that locked up and had to shut down via the power button. When I tried to boot up the only things that power show activity, are the psu and the cpu fan. I tested the power supply and found it had a fault in the voltage. I replaced it and I have the same problem. The CPU fan powers up and sounds like a jet engine, and I get no abcd lights, no BIOS post or beeps. I suspect a problem with the motherboard. I have tried removing the 2 512 mb sticks and get no bios beeps at all. I reseated them and still nothing. I only have the sata HD connected and still only get power to the psu and cpu fan. Any ideas why I would not get a BIOS post? Thnks in advance!

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aylafan   10-14-2009 at 08:22:31 PM
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nonterran wrote :

I have a Dell Inspiron 8400 desktop that locked up and had to shut down via the power button. When I tried to boot up the only things that power show activity, are the psu and the cpu fan. I tested the power supply and found it had a fault in the voltage. I replaced it and I have the same problem. The CPU fan powers up and sounds like a jet engine, and I get no abcd lights, no BIOS post or beeps. I suspect a problem with the motherboard. I have tried removing the 2 512 mb sticks and get no bios beeps at all. I reseated them and still nothing. I only have the sata HD connected and still only get power to the psu and cpu fan. Any ideas why I would not get a BIOS post? Thnks in advance!



I had the same problem 2 nights ago with my Dell Dimension E520. My computer wouldn't have a BIOS post and the fan sounded like a jet engine. The problem was that my videocard was overheating. So I used onboard graphics for a few days and now my videocard works again.

If you don't have a videocard, then I'm out of ideas.

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Message edited by aylafan on 10-14-2009 at 08:24:48 PM
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shortstuff_mt   10-14-2009 at 08:58:53 PM
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It's very possible that your dying PSU took something with it to the grave. The motherboard is a good guess. Going through this checklist should help you eliminate other possible problems.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] t-problems

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nonterran   10-15-2009 at 04:34:21 PM
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aylafan wrote :

I had the same problem 2 nights ago with my Dell Dimension E520. My computer wouldn't have a BIOS post and the fan sounded like a jet engine. The problem was that my videocard was overheating. So I used onboard graphics for a few days and now my videocard works again.

If you don't have a videocard, then I'm out of ideas.





Thanks for the input, but this system does not have an on board video port. I tried a different pci express video card and a pci video card to no avail. Still have no video and no post activity. I found several refurbished mobo's that are priced very nicely, so will just replace it. Should do the trick. Thanks to you.

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nonterran   10-15-2009 at 04:36:15 PM
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shortstuff_mt wrote :

It's very possible that your dying PSU took something with it to the grave. The motherboard is a good guess. Going through this checklist should help you eliminate other possible problems.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] t-problems




I went through the checklist you kindly provided but most of the items do not pertain to my system, so unable to test them all. Thank you for your input, but found some refurbished replacement mobo's to purchase at a reasonable cost, so will go that route. Thank you.

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