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Dell XPS 420 wont boot
Hi, My Dell XPS420 has stopped working recently, when i turn it on the fans sound normal and the power light is steady blue, however diagnostic lights 1,2 and 3 are on, if i remove the ram then the computer makes a beeping noise, if i remove the power to the graphics card it also makes the beeping noise. However if i remove the graphics card completely the pc seems to boot up ( diagnostic lights do not turn on) however as i cannot connect a monitor to the computer without the graphics card i cannot see if removing the graphics card allowed the pc to boot up completely. could it be a faulty card or pcie slot? I dont want to have to buy a new card until i know for sure that is what is causing the problem.
This problem seemed to happen overnight as it was working perfectly the day before ( no crashes, or glitches when using it) My graphics card is an NVidia 8800GT that came with the pc,
could anyone tell me what the problem might be or if they have experienced a similar problem? If it is the graphics card are there any suggestions as to which card i should replace it with (bearing in mind i only have a 375W power supply) Thank you very much :)
osprey4
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January 9th, 2011 16:00
Hi Thatbryanguy,
Did you already look at the diagnostic section of your manual?
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
The best plan if you have already tried the recommended steps would be to bring your system to a local shop for diagnosis and repair.
ThatBryanGuy
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January 12th, 2011 16:00
Hi OSPREY4, thanks for the speedy reply. the diagnostic section of the manual isnt much help as the 3 lights indicate "another failure has occurred" and the only local shop I have is PC world and the last time i took my old pc there they charged me quite a bit just to recommend I buy one of their new PCs so that isnt really an option. would a graphics card failure be enough to prevent a system boot? Diagnosing this problem is being very hard as i have no idea whether or not error messages are appearing (not even the dell bios screen appears before the 3 lights, and i cant check if it does when i remove the graphics card because i have no other way of connecting the monitor)
Davet50
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January 13th, 2011 15:00
when you pull the ram and the graphics card do the diagnostics lights change? If you remove all the ram and all the cards and you still see the 3 lights the mother board is most likely bad.
ThatBryanGuy
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February 24th, 2011 12:00
sorry for the late reply, I have been quite busy with exams :S
If i remove the ram then only diagnostic light 1 switches on and my computer makes a beeping noise... the windows side show screen also says no memory modules found. If i have the ram in but no video card then no diagnostic lights come up but I do not hear the windows boot up sound through the speakers also a single press of the power button turns it off... if the PC were booting properly without the graphics card surely it should make the boot up sounds and the power button would need to be pressed down for longer right?
Edit: i thought it might have been the pcie slot however if i remove the power to the card while leaving it plugged in to the pcie slot the computer makes an extremely loud beep so does that mean its not a mother board problem? thanks
Davet50
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February 24th, 2011 13:00
If you have no video card in it should throw up an error code as well as a beep.
what indications do you get when you have noting in the motherboard except the CPU and the power supply connections.
Look specifically at your diagnostic lights, and power button light. listen for any beeps too..