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103052
March 11th, 2016 10:00
Dell Precision T5400 stopped working
I've bought a second-hand T5400 in May 2015 and everything worked fine and smooth until a few days ago, when out of the blue, one morning, when I was surfing the web, the screen turned white. The machine kept working, but I couldn't do anything anymore.
When I restarted it (after force shutting it down), it didn't even get to load Windows - white screen, black screen, then flickering and turning blue, green etc. Totally crazy.
I first suspected my Acer display, but hooked it to another machine and it didn't have any problem.
Booting up once again, I pressed F12 and went to Diagnostics. This time the sceen stayed on for about an hour or so, until all the tests were finished. It gave me the following:
ERROR CODE 0142
MSG: ERROR CODE 2000 - 0142
MSG: HARD DRIVE 0 - SELF TEST UNSUCCESSFUL
STATUS: 79
I googled it, assumed it was signaling that the hard drive was toast and today I bought a fresh HDD, took out the "faulty" one and installed the brand new. When I powered on the machine, it let me start installing Windows, but lo and behold, after about 10 minutes into it, the god damned white screen stroke again! Few seconds later, that same annoying crazy colour-changing.
Then all attempts at restarting were fruitless. I mean the power button works, it doesn't do any beep error codes, the 4 lights on the front cover are all green, but after a while they disappear and only thing that remains on (and green) is a weird icon with some kind of triangle above and 2 triangles below, and the display refuses to start.
I just connected the "faulty" HDD to another computer - the good news for me is it's fully functional, no data is lost. The bad news is I have no idea what the *** is wrong with T5400.
Anybody any advice please?
Techgee
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623 Posts
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March 12th, 2016 06:00
Could be power supply, or graphics card. Could also be devices/connectors need re-seating.
adibadea
6 Posts
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March 12th, 2016 09:00
UPDATE: Now, when I press the Start button, the PSU fan goes on, the motherboard LEDs come on, in some random order, then they go off, and the computer is unable to power up the display. It hangs like this, "working", with no leds displayed and a "dead" monitor (which, by the way, works perfectly when connected to another computer). I really don't think it's the video card.
Techgee
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623 Posts
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March 12th, 2016 12:00
System is up, but no display - sounds like the video card has issues. I'd find a PCIe video card to temporarily test in your system. Could use an old card or even temporarily borrow a card from another PC. Should confirm or dismiss video card as the issue.
adibadea
6 Posts
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March 12th, 2016 22:00
Thanks, I'll try this (but right now I don't have any spare graphics card for testing). I was also thinking maybe changing the CMOS battery would help (?)
Techgee
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623 Posts
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March 13th, 2016 11:00
Changing CMOS battery probably wouldn't hurt. Of course, it will reset all your BIOS settings to their defaults, so you may need to set them accordingly if they've been changed from defaults. But, if your display isn't working and you need to change BIOS settings...
What graphics card do you have?
adibadea
6 Posts
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March 14th, 2016 22:00
The graphics card is Nvidia Quadro FX 4600
Techgee
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623 Posts
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March 16th, 2016 05:00
I'd try to reseat it in it's PCIe slot and especially reconnect the power connector attached to it.
Switching components (video card and/or PSU) is likely the best way to isolate the issue, unfortunately. You could try a different video card (or additional card, since you have two x16 PCIe slots) or try the FX 4600 in another machine.
Getting a potential video card or PSU replacement with a good return policy is another option. Used FX 4600s are on ebay for around $40.
Another thought: If you can bring the machine up as is and run Prime95 (which stresses only the CPU, not the GPU), it might indicate it's not a PSU issue, but the video card. You could also try to ping the machine on a network or see if a router can see it to see if CPU is working. Would be a potential indicator that it's the video card, and not the PSU.
adibadea
6 Posts
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March 16th, 2016 12:00
I resat it in its PCI-E slot, but there's no change. Computer starts, leds turn up green, monitor stays dead (and, like I said, the monitor works perfectly when connected to a different machine), leds turn off, computer still runs. Impossible to run Prime95 (or anything else, for that matter).
Cannot ping it - don't even remember the computer's name.
I'd hate to buy an expensive graphics card, replace the FX 4600, and see that it was not a video card issue.
Do you think it could be the PSU's fault, judging by these symptoms?
Techgee
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623 Posts
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March 16th, 2016 20:00
In terms of likelihood, I'd say it's most likely the video card, then PSU, and last something else (motherboard?). If I was a tech, I'd try swapping them out in that order.
If it was mine, I'd hedge and minimize cost if I was wrong. $25 including shipping isn't too bad for what I believe is the exact model GPU you have - see item on ebay here. That was cheapest - there are others selling it for $35 including shipping.
Next up in cost would be a PSU - I think these are around $40 to $60 used on ebay.
It really comes down to what you think the issue might be and what it will cost to test it and can you return it, sell it, or just keep it if you're wrong.
adibadea
6 Posts
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March 20th, 2016 06:00
PROBLEM SOLVED! It was the video card. Thank you very much for your advices. I bought a cheap ATI RADEON HD 5450, 1024 Mb DDR3, took out the Nvidia Quadro FX 4600, replaced it with the Radeon, and everything works absolutely great now.
Techgee
2 Intern
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623 Posts
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March 20th, 2016 12:00
Glad to hear it!