Unsolved
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Brand new out-of-the-box XPS8300 won't start ...... solved!
Received a brand new XPS8300, went thru the setup guide to connect display, mouse and keyboard and it would not start. I could hear the fans coming on and that's it. Dell ST2410 monitor told me it was connected via HDMI cable but was not getting a signal from the computer. Monitor then went into power saving mode. Tried a different monitor with a DVI cable. Same thing. Connected speakers to hear if I was missing beeps during the POST. No beeps so it wasn't even getting that far.
Immediately called Dell tech support. For 45 minutes we went thru his flowchart with no results. He determined it was the video card (AMD Radeon 6770), ordered me a new one and told me a serviceman would call to set up an appt.
After the call ended I wanted to check if any wires, cables, cards, etc came loose during shipping. Those were OK but I noticed one of the RAM chips was sitting higher than the others and sure enough the locking lever on one side was open and wedged underneath the AMD video card. I mean it was stuck there. Had to loosen the video card in order free the lever and properly seat the RAM chip and lock it in place. Buttoned everything up, turned the computer on and IT WORKED!
There is only one spot a PCI Express16 video card can go in this computer's box. And that's right next to the memory module locks. I can see that it would be very easy to inadvertently unlock one or more of these levers while installing a video card.
Hope this helps someone out someday.
bacillus
14.4K Posts
1
July 24th, 2011 10:00
Good work...