Dell Studio XPS 435MT issues loading new operating system

Question

Recently purchased this system off ebay for a great deal, The system is a "refurbished machine" that is suppose to be fully operational.

- unboxing, everything looks mint, i noticed it had a aftermarket no name power supply (PSU)

- I have attempted to load several windows operating systems onto the machine, I have also attempted to load linux and have failed.

The problem that I am getting is the machine is force restarting prior to actually loading the disk. I have a fresh copy of windows 8 directly from microsoft, as well as the original windows vista disks that are suppose to go onto the machine, Neither will load.

- I WAS getting "keyboard failure" messages, Blue screen of death after loading the dvd for a few moments due to a "recently installed device may have been installed improperly".. I have sense then replaced and triple checked EVERYTHING in the machine.

So to summarize it, I have an awesome machine, it fails to load ANY operating system EXCEPT IT WILL RUN BARTPE FROM CD.. which will allow me to use the machine. I have done memory tests and ran the built in system tests and it came back with 0 issues. I also updated the BIOS from 1.0.4 to the newest 1.1.4 (i think) and have seen no change.. any help, suggestions, smiley faces, or laughs would be wonderful at this point..

osprey4 · Answer

Hi Luckyguylulz, In the BIOS, advanced chipset features, try changing the controller mode to IDE. That usually makes the OS installation much easier.

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

thank you for your reply osprey4,

I do not have the feature mentioned above. I however do have the following:

SATA Mode: ata
Onboard Audio Controller: enabled
Onboard LAN controller: enabled
Onboard LAN boot ROM: disabled
Onboard 1394 controller: enabled

current bios version is: 1.1.4 the previous bios version I updated from was 1.0.1 : information listed here http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=R253098#OldVersion

osprey4 · Answer

Ok, ATA is the same thing as IDE mode. So what exactly happens when you boot to the Windows 8 disc? How about if you boot to the Vista disc?

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

leaning twords a bad ata port/cable possibly ... im getting mixed results if I attempt loading windows multiple times very strange The windows 8 disk is starting to actually load and have the circles actually rotating and the machine stays on sometimes...

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

With windows vista it will do:

then force restart...

I pulled a hard drive off of another 64bit system i have and placed it in the box and the machine does nothing, just black screen if i attempt to boot into it, If i attempt to boot into safe mode with it the machine will load half of the safe mode options then freeze and force restart

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

When booting with win8 or vista or linux... anything really windows will get ready to install and once it gets to the below screen:  it will sit there and then force restart...

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

I ran the built in self testing software that is in the bios and all hardware tested fine, nothing was corrupt or had issues with the test. However, I'm beginning to think theres a hardware issue somewhere.. I've never had an issue like this before when flashing a new .iso or loading any operating system at that..

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

Update: � While attempting to install linux as a last resort the install process stops due to 'no plug & play device found'  (then the box restarts as it has done with the other windows disks) so I assume thats were its getting hung up at...  On a side note: this computer does NOT have 'boot to utility partition' I have read this can cause issues.. but considering I have a blank hard drive I dont think that matters.. *currently disabling/enabling settings in the bios to mess with PnP devices' ..

speedstep · Answer

You should be able to boot a LIVE linux distribution with no hard drive at all installed.

If your ram is working it should boot either from DVD or from USB stick.

Since bad or burned at too fast a speed media is often an issue I usually advise getting a magazine with

Commercially produced DVD. 32 bit version try first then 64 bit version unless you know your CPU and BIOS properly support EMT64.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

http://www.microcenter.com/product/405925/UBUNTU_UNLEASHED_2013

http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2013/154

speedstep · Answer

Start with 1 stick of ram and try booting Live Linux with no hard drive attached and all hard drives set to OFF in CMOS. :emotion-3:

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

Thank you both for the reply,

I burnt a copy of Hirens Boot CD last night and have been doing some troubleshooting. So far, I've found nothing that indicates that anything is corrupt... So maybe it is the burnt speed that i ran the windows disks at.

I usually use active ISO burner for disks. I always set it to "Auto" mode as far as speed goes for burning. I'll test out bumping down the speed to about 8.0x or so and see how that takes...

speedstep · Answer

Burn DVD - R discs at 1X or 2X or 4x whatever is the slowest allowable speed and VERIFY the media after burn.

speedstep · Answer

Or Get a 16 gig or larger USB Flash drive and Use the Microsoft USB DVD Download Tool to make a bootable windows flash drive for install via a USB 2.0 port.

USB 3.0 ports don't work for install but can sometimes be set to USB 2.0 mode.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool\

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

Reloaded windows 8 32bit on 2x speed (slowest it would burn) that now freezes while attempting to boot it... does not force restart however so I guess we are making progress? (the system is 64bit) ** dell studio xps 435mt <~~

- The hard drive that originally came with the machine apparently has bad sectors .. and fails to do anything so that problem has been tracked down. (replaced with my own hard drive(s))

- Fails to boot/load linux via usb/cd/dvd still force restarts

will load Hirens.BootCD.15.2 like a champ however, all hardware tests and runs flawless on the diagnostics ... I have attempted to run Hiern and install windows via USB with the built in software that Hiren offers. Once I do so it states that it is successful.. and please restart the machine to complete the process. Once I do so I get a black screen and nothing loads. :emotion-22:

Roughly 25+hrs into troubleshooting...

LuckyGuylulz · Answer

Partial Solution: �   by removing the bios battery, 5 sticks of ram (leaving 1), powering off the machine by removing the power plug and starting the machine I have managed to get the machine to boot. The machine installed windows 7, restarted then failed... Attempted to install vista using the same method... fail.. windows 8 booted WHOOOO but cant install windows due to 'hardware that may not be compatible  with this machine' due to the hard drive  :emotion-40: ... �   I managed to get Fedoria 19 64bit installed after a few failed attempts. If you touch any setting in the bios menu you will have to reset the machine with the battery 'trick' to install windows/linux... which still is not guaranteed to work.  I have NOT got to actually sit down sense Fedora has been installed and physically go through everything to see whats functional and what is not, so maybe its just a fluke and once I restart the device it will throw another error. � Anyone know what hardware would cause a machine to act like this if its malfunctioning like so? I'd love to know... :emotion-15:

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Dell Studio XPS 435MT issues loading new operating system

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