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Black screen and no Booting of my Dim 8400
Hello,
Shortly after trusting the "optional" Micrsoft Update suggestion of updating my Dimension 8400's nVidia driver, I noticed some in-play game freezes of Call of Duty UO Multiplayer. I had to press and hold the power button until the whole system booted from scratch (not something I like to do) a few times. So, I figure that I'll rollback the driver. I never get the opportunity, and wind up getting frozen at the desktop, and having to do another hard boot.
Nothing. Black screen. I hear the CD drives starting to flash a light and briefly "whir," the hard drive makes a short attempt at its "read/write sound, but no beep, no Dell splash screen, no BIOS sequence. The power LCD would show green on the front, the first three diagnostic lights on the back would show green, the 4th amber, the keyboard lights would show green, then go dark after about 30 seconds. I removed all of the USB cables while attempting to boot, but no dice. If I ctl alt del while the keyboard is lit, all 4 diagnostic lights on the back turn green.
I opened the case and found no bulging or leaking capacitors. The system board has a steady green light. I the fan on the graphics board whirs, the system board fan whirs, the power supply fan whirs, and the little extra intake fan whirs. Everything's getting power. I removed the boards, peripherals, and memory modules while off, and reseated them. I even replaced the button battery.
Any suggestions?
mombodog
12.7K Posts
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October 14th, 2008 00:00
I would install another Video card, sounds like it went south, co-incidence I know.
Drivers cannot effect the bios post, so me thinks the card is toast.
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
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43.6K Posts
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October 15th, 2008 04:00
What color are the 4 diagnostic LEDs on rear of the tower? If not all green, look up error code here.
Press F8 before XP starts to load, and pick Safe Mode. If you get to the desktop, go into Device Manager and roll the driver back. If you can't get into Safe Mode, try "last known good" on the F8 menu.
Ron
woodycp2
3 Posts
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October 15th, 2008 10:00
Thanks!
They are all green. I'll try F8, again tonight; I'd been trying F2 as well. No image. I have noticed the hard drive makes a little more read/write sound when I do that, but the ruslt is the same. After about a minute of no activity, all lights on the keyboard flash at once, then go dead. Meanwhile, all of the power in the tower stays on.
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
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43.6K Posts
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October 15th, 2008 15:00
If you don't see anything on the monitor at all, it's probably the video card or monitor. First check the cable between PC and monitor. And if you can, test the monitor on a different PC, or another monitor on this PC.
Ron
woodycp2
3 Posts
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October 18th, 2008 11:00