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Assistance with Black Screen, Boot No Startup on Dimension 2350
Ok, so when I turn on my computer, the blue Dell logo appears and then the screen just turns black and Windows will not boot at all, not in any mode. There are no beeps. The LED lights on the keyboard do blink twice, but I think it normally does that. The only thing is that the power light is just blank. It's not green like it's supposed to nor does it have any color at all, which someone indicated to me it could be a hardware problem. The day before, a ton of spyware tried to load onto my computer; and actually I was using a car search engine site that I've had problems with spyware in the past (I switched to Firefox from IE and thought nothing was going on). Avast! caught some of them before getting onto the computer, and I did a couple of scans and removed at least one trojan, and rebooted the computer successfully. The next day I got the black screen. I assumed that it was a virus, but since I've never had a hardware problem in the almost 7 years of owning it, I thought that may be a problem now. I tried many things already in Recovery Console to try and get it to boot (except using the fixmbr or fixboot commands), but to no avail. I also tried to use Avira burned to a disc, but had problems with the display that seems to only happen with Dells, so I couldn't proceed with that. Although I don't really know the benefits of using it, I was able to run the Utility Diagnostics thing (by pressing F10, I think, holding a key down while first booting), and there were no failures except for the floppy, CD-RW, DVD drives, because I didn't have discs in them for it to test.
Any suggestions? Is it possible for a virus to cause hardware to fail? I did upgrade the memory during the summer, but never had problems with it.
PC is a Dell Dimension 2350 with Windows XP SP3, 1GB memory, Pentium 4.
Illjazz
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December 31st, 2009 08:00
Oh yeah, sorry. I have XP Home Edition. I did try the chkdsk /r. It found errors that said it corrected, and still the same black screen.
Downix
78 Posts
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December 31st, 2009 08:00
Are you running XP Pro or Home? In the recovery console, run CHKDSK /R, and if that does not work, Pro offers a Repair Install if you try and install the OS. That would get you up and going.
shesagordie
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December 31st, 2009 12:00
Illjazz
Is the power button LED, solid green, blinking green, solid amber, blinking amber, or off?
Check the reading of the diagnostic lights on the back panel?
Does the power supply fan run?
Bev.
Illjazz
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January 1st, 2010 04:00
The power LED is completely off. When I tried to boot, I watched it the whole time, and it never comes on at all.
I did try looking for the diagnostic lights on the back panel, which I saw in the FAQ in the forum, but couldn't find where it is on the back. Where exactly are those lights?
At least one of the fans are working. I guess I'm not sure if it's the CPU or the power supply fan. However, when I was looking for the diagnostic lights, I noticed there's a lot of dust accumulation in the back and on the fan that's visible from the back (is that the power supply fan?).
Illjazz
43 Posts
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January 1st, 2010 10:00
Ok, I can answer these better now. Like I said before, there is no power light whatsoever. Both fans are working. I did find the diagnostic lights and got this sequence: AB, BC, ACD(I think?), then AD. When changing from BC to AD, an extra light flickers quickly, so I'm not sure on the ACD. There's nothing there for AD, but AB=Memory modules are detected, but a memory failure has occurred, BC = system board failure and ACD = PCI bus controller. Is system board failure mean motherboard failure? Could this all be caused by faulty memory? I guess I should try reseating the memory or switching them or one at a time.
shesagordie
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January 1st, 2010 12:00
Illjazz
The best method to identify the four diagnostic lights is, by the colour.eg GYYG and all you need to mention, is the final sequence of lights. Are there any 'Beeps'?
You can try reseting the RAM and installing the modules, one at a time and see if it makes a difference
No difference and if you are comfortable working around computers, you could try the following:
Note: The only 100% method of testing a PSU, is to install a know working power supply.
Unplug the cord from the power supply, hold the power button in for about 15/20 seconds, open the case, unplug the 20-pin power connector from the motherboard and jump the Green wire to one of the Black wires, reconnect the power cord and power the system, if power supply's fan and the hard drive runs, then the PSU should be good.
Note: Do not remove any wires from the plug, use a small piece of wire or a paper clip as a jumper.
Power supply checks out and the system still does not work, again remove the power cord, hold the power button in for several seconds to discharge the residue power, reconnect the 20-pin connector to the motherboard.
Remove all the PCI cards, the video card [if applicable], memory, all peripherals, disconnect the data and power cables to all the drives, check that the front panel cable is connected to motherboard, with nothing else connected to the system, reconnect the power cable and power the system on.
If you do not get any beep codes and/or there is no change in the diagnostic lights, then it would appear that the motherboard has died.
Bev.
Illjazz
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January 2nd, 2010 08:00
There are no beeps. How do I know when to observe the final sequence? Or should I say that when the yellow lights were on A and D is the diagnosis I want? I did restart a couple of times, and it was the same sequence of yellow lights as I stated above.
I'm just now learning my way around the computer, so I'm not sure if I can do all that. The first thing I will try is the memory thing and if that doesn't work, I need to try and save the information on my hard drive to another place. Once that's done, I might feel more comfortable doing those other things you suggested. I am hoping that it may just be the power supply.
ronlove
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March 12th, 2012 16:00
yes Iam running windows xp