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9032
September 13th, 2010 05:00
Boot problem with Vostro 200
I have several Vostro 200 (2 years old) here at work. One of them failed to boot. The Dell logo appears, and the the machine goes through POST, but then nothing happens. I tried booting from the Windows Re-Installation disc, same problem. The PC will not boot from either HD or DVD drive.
Went into BIOS Setup - both drives appear there. Took a HD out of one of the other Vostros and connected it up... no change. Re-connected the original drive, and used F12 on the Dell splash screen and ran the extended diagnostics. No Faults Found. Rebooted the PC, and still no change. It will not go beyond POST.
Rebooted again, used F12, and this time selected the Hard Drive from the list of boot devices. The PC booted up fine into Windows - no errors or problems. Clicked on 'Start' - 'Shutdown' - 'Restart' (Windows XP), and the system shuts down, restarts, and doesn't go beyond POST again. Restart, use F12, and select the HD and it starts fine....
Does anyone have any idea what might be stopping the PC from booting normally, instead of always requiring F12 and selceting the hard drive? It was fine on Friday... this has only started happening when the PC was switched on this morning.
Thanks in advance for any assistance and suggestions.
John
fireberd
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September 13th, 2010 06:00
The CMOS (BIOS) may have been reset and the hard drive is not the first boot device? since F12 allows you to select the hard drive and it boots up. When you power on, press F2 to enter the setup and check the boot sequence and make sure the hard drive is the first boot device.
john-66
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September 13th, 2010 06:00
Actually it was the 1st boot device... I changed it to the second, and the DVD-Rom drive to be the 1st so I could try booting from the Dell OS disc... It didn't work. I was unable to boot from either hard drive or DVD drive.
fireberd
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September 13th, 2010 07:00
Reset the CMOS (BIOS) and see if that helps. It has to be something in the BIOS since you can select it with F12 and it will boot.
To reset the CMOS, with the PC powered off, open the case and remove the CR2032 CMOS backup battery on the motherboard for 10 minutes. Reinstall, observing correct battery polarity, and then power on and try. Since the BIOS was reset, you may have to enter the Setup and set the boot devices.
john-66
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September 13th, 2010 07:00
Good idea - I'll give that a try (though it won't be today at the moment as the PC is in use now that I got it booted via the F12).
I'll report what happens once I've tried it.