jakethesnake Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 Hi new to the site although have read anumber of posts. one similar to my own problem. operating system Dell6400 windows vista, ram was 2x512mb now has 1x1gb 1x512mb. think hard drive is 120gb samsung. Initially thought computer was dead but after continually shutting down and restarting got it to boot up. have run MBMA which cleared 36 infections and also run a pc health check which showed 350 items that need adressing one of which was a physical problem with the hard drive. I assume this is what is causing the system to fail to boot up. Is this terminal or can it be solved by a clean up programme or is it better to invest in a new hard drive? I have run the dell diagnostics and although i cannot see everything on the screen it beeps on the quick test and shows hard drive problem. All help gratefully received Regards Jakethesnake Quote
Jelly Bean Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 Hello and welcome... Firstly are you sure the computer excepts mixed RAM sticks? Mixed RAM sizes can cause issues with booting windows even graphics..... Can even cause the computer not to boot or to boot to a certain point with a black screen giving the illusion the computer has not turned on..... Removing the mixed RAM and inserting exact same size and speed may resolve an issue or issues..... Have you tried running chkdsk in command prompt? CHKDSK will check the hard drive for errors and try to fix them,if the errors are not fixed then time to buy a new hard drive.... Also another to try in command prompt is sfc /scannow,this will check windows operating system and try to fix any errors.... Memtest is another good one to rule out RAM as an issue or rule it in..... It appears this computer has a lot of problems if there is no files to save such as photos you may consider restoring back to factory default..... Quote Rwy'n ceisio fy ngorau......................
jakethesnake Posted July 28, 2011 Author Posted July 28, 2011 Hi Jelly Bean Have been trying to start it up tonight with no luck black screen not even dell logo coming on initial start up. Know its firing up as tried the dell diagnostics and got the beeps. can only get black screen so cannot see anything to do commands. What is CHKDSK and how do i start it ? Am bit of a dummy when it comes to this stage. How do I restore to factory settings if i have black screen? how do i do Memtest? computer shop installed the larger memory card when i had problems last year they didnt say to uprate both cards so I didn't know they needed to be the same. Used a trick I saw on this site last night to boot up which worked but not tonight, ctrl alt D Regards jakethesnake Quote
Jelly Bean Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 "Firstly are you sure the computer excepts mixed RAM sticks? Mixed RAM sizes can cause issues with booting windows even graphics..... Can even cause the computer not to boot or to boot to a certain point with a black screen giving the illusion the computer has not turned on..... Removing the mixed RAM and inserting exact same size and speed may resolve an issue or issues....." Quote Rwy'n ceisio fy ngorau......................
jakethesnake Posted July 28, 2011 Author Posted July 28, 2011 Hi Jelly Bean Thanks for your patience, dont have the original 512mb card so cant try that at the present time. will try and get an answer from dell. Regards Quote
Jelly Bean Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 ram was 2x512mb now has 1x1gb 1x512mb If you remove the 512 mb that may get you into booting......Yes that would leave just the 1 gig stick and be a bit slower,but the RAM mixed maybe the issue.....Also you may have a faulty power supply..... Quote Rwy'n ceisio fy ngorau......................
jakethesnake Posted July 28, 2011 Author Posted July 28, 2011 Just tried what you suggested but no boot up. power lights are glowing!! so there should power? Quote
Jelly Bean Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 Restting the BIOS may help,via powering off and remove the BIOS battery,count five replace and reboot. Power supplies do not always just fail or die....If they develope a fault they can still make light shine,as if the computer is still up and running....They may or may not cause CD/DVD drives not to open,they may allow you to power on a computer but not power it off. If you look very very close at the screen can you see a very light picture or anything on the screen? I ask this incase it is the back light that may of failed.... Have you tried restarting and repeatedly tap F8 key? Quote Rwy'n ceisio fy ngorau......................
jakethesnake Posted July 29, 2011 Author Posted July 29, 2011 Hi again Yes I am getting faint picture very hard to see info on screen. If it is failed backlight is it an easy fix? Tried tapping f8 got series of options difficult to see but going by earlier post from you tried factory image restore but still a faint picture showing windows vista some info i cant make out and dell logo. Managed to see folloe on instuctions and its going through initial run through as first time use but still with faint screen. I assume this confirms backlight failure. It has now bing bonged and has come up with the getting started screen. Will leave it at this stage and await a reply. Many thanks for your help and support Jakethesnake Quote
Jelly Bean Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 Jake if the backlight has gone and if it can be replaced as some models dont allow it to be replaced and some do.....I would look around for the best price on having it replaced.... Or it is replace the whole screen wich can be a costly job..... It appears everything else is working...... Your very welcome...... Quote Rwy'n ceisio fy ngorau......................
michelsmith Posted August 3, 2011 Posted August 3, 2011 Hi, By and large, system files which are missing or infected with viruses can result in a Dell no boot situation. In that case, we can assist you to find the missing DLL files. If by chance, your Dell PC is not booting then we can try to use certain commands to boot in Safe Mode. At times, Windows OS may not allow you to boot in Safe Mode. Apart from this, Dell no boot issue may occur if the disc drive or a USB drive is in use. This can happen if the bootable device order is modified. To get rid of this issue, we can suggest you to change the bootable device order from BIOS and allow the hard drive to boot along with Windows OS. Quote
KenB Posted August 3, 2011 Posted August 3, 2011 (edited) michaelsmith - Have you read the previous posts?? J-B has diagnosed a failed backlight ..... confirmed by jakethe snake ..... Yes I am getting faint picture very hard to see info on screen Where does missing dll files come from ??? Have you copied this from another forum ?? The answer is "Yes" !! See supportfordell. All this is doing is confusing the poster. If you don't know - leave it to those who do !| Edited August 3, 2011 by KenB Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
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