XPS 2710 wont boot sometimes

Question

Hi everyone...

I'm with a really big problem with my computer, it just don't boot, I can only see the black screen without any DELL logo but the fans and everything looks fine, i removed everything from the mainboard and check it several times, even i also changed the CMOS battery and I did the CMOS clear procedure a lot of times without any good result.

But, sometimes the computer just boot after i pressed F2 several times and then it restarts and works, sadly, when i restart the computer and wait a few minutes, the problem shows again and everything start from zero, is really hard to make it boot again. This only happens three times in a week mysteriously.

I also tried to boot from a DOS USB booteable device with Rufus and the BIOS A12 but it seems than nothing works. I just cant let my computer die with out fight :(.... So i've reading lots of thing here but nothing really works. Do you have any idea why this could happen?

PD, sorry for my english, i'm making my best effort writing this :)

SRI2007 · Accepted Answer

As I told you via private message, thank you by your concern but i solved by myself yesterday, it really was a headache but i fixed it.

I did this:

1. Clear everything about CMOS with the tipicall procedure

Disconnect the system from external power source.
Remove the computer cover and locate the CMOS coin cell battery
Remove or disconnect the coin cell battery
Press the power button for at least 10 seconds to drain all residual power from the system
Re-insert or re-connect the coin cell battery

2. Clear NVRAM and BIOS

Turn off the computer and disconnect the power cable from the electrical outlet.
Locate the 2-pin password connector (PSWD) on the system board.
Remove the 2-pin jumper plug and move it to the 2-pins on it left
Locate the 2-pin CMOS jumper (RTCRST) on the system board (I found two jumpers on the left down corner)
Remove the both 2-pin jumper plug and move it to the 2-pins on it left
Plug in AC power to the system and wait ten seconds for the CMOS to clear.
Move the both 2-pin jumper plug back to the original position.
Move the 2-pin jumper near the CMOS battery and plug it back to the original position, when you do this, the PC starts by itself.
On boot press F2 so you can access to BIOS, here i noticed than in my PC only recogniced 4GB of RAM when it was installed 8GB, on BIOS i changed the boot order and preference so I can boot from a legacy device and i disabled the safeboot.

3. Create a Bootable USB

Download the Dell Diagnostic Distribution Package (DDDP) from the following URL:
http://ftp.us.dell.com/diags/CW1322A1.exe
- The File Download window will show. Select Run to download the software.
- A User Account Control (UAC) window may appear. Select Yes to continue download process.
- The Dell 32 bit diagnostic window will appear. Select Continue to progress.
- The folder creation window will appear. Select Ok to use default folder.
- A Dell Diagnostic dialog window will appear stating "all files were successfully unzipped" . Select Okto continue.

The DDDP main menu will appear. Close the window by clicking on the X on the top right hand corner.

Navigate to the folder that DDDP was extracted to (Default Location:
C:\Dell\Drivers\R174621) and select the DIAGS folder.

Open the DIAGS directory and remove everything, Except for the following :

COMMAND.COM
DELLBIO.BIN
DELLRMK.BIN
AUTOEXEC.BAT
CONFIG.SYS
Insert a USB Flash Drive.
Navigate to C:\Dell\Drivers\R174621\ and double click on the application DDDP
Run the DDDP utility and choose "Install to a USB flash drive". This will make the USB Flash Drive bootable.
Move your BIOS.exe file to the USB
Save changes on BIOS, restart the system and at the Dell logo, press to enter the One Time Boot Menu.
Select the USB storage device to boot to the USB Flash Drive.
The system will now boot to a command prompt and display C:\>

4. Reflash BIOS from a Bootable USB

The system will boot to a Diag C:\> prompt
Run the file by typing the full filename e.g. O9010A12.exe and hit Return.
In this case, my bios was updated to the last version but it was corrupted, so i made an extra command to force the installation of the BIOS, I made this by tiping the full filename with /forceit and the end of the command.
You need to accept everything on the screen and later the computer will restart by itself, when everything was done, i finnally could see the DELL logo on boot and i could access to BIOS anytime than i want, so i restore all boot changes on BIOS, and everything works really great

5. Enjoy!!!

Finally, if you upgraded your system to Windows 10 install all drivers and enjoy your new computer. I'm so happy, finally i recovered my computer from the dead.

Credits

Thank you to DELL community forum and support.

I read everything here

www.dell.com/.../en

en.community.dell.com/.../19260157
www.dell.com/.../EN
www.dell.com/.../EN

DELL-Jennifer K · Answer

Hi,

Regret the inconvenience caused! But then I would ask you to confirm if you are facing this issue after any recent changes (software/hardware) have been performed on this system. Also confirm if you have initiated hardware diagnostics on the system by pressing the F12 Key on system startup.

Diagnostics performs a thorough check on system's hardware any component that has failed accordingly it will come up with errors.

Awaiting your response with the service tag of the system (send it via private message).

Kind Regards,

SRI2007 · Answer

Hi! Thank you for replying my post!

I've tried doing that but when I press F12 or FN with the power button doesn't work, I just didnt do any changes of hardware, my computer was working great but suddenly it didnt boot anymore.

From software i made a recovery from the original recovery partition loaded in the disk because my computer was slow, so later than I recover my PC without problems, I upgrade it to windows 10 with the official tool than I downloaded from windows website.

When the upgrade finished, the computer was fine, only a few drivers was missing, but even I was listening music with iTunes, then I turned off the PC and thats all.

I dont know why, but later in the second time than I loaded the bios succesfully, it only recognized 4Gb of RAM instead of 8Gb of RAM and everything was clear even the time and date, maybe this could help.

I sent my service tag via private message too.

DELL-Jennifer K · Answer

Hi, I have sent you a private message,do look into the details and assist me with the information. Regards, Jennifer #Iwork4Dell

otherminds · Answer

I am having the exact same issue. I look forward to trying your solution. THank you so much for posting this!

SRI2007 · Answer

You're welcome! I post this because I couldnt find anything to solve this issue and i made a lot of investigation  until  i finnaly could solve this issue, this works for you too???

otherminds · Answer

No luck. after resetting the CMOS, the computer turns itself on, as you mentioned. Unfortunately, however, the screen goes back to black. I cannot boot to BIOS because the Dell logo never appears.

Even more curious is the fact that the fan that should be on the motherboard is completely missing!! I am not a computer expert, but I have included a picture that shows the missing part. Any idea what the heck is going on here? I have also labeled the pins. I am not sure what the pin to the lower left is. Any thoughts?

i1085.photobucket.com/.../IMG_2557_zpswyn3jlyk.jpg>

Link to pic if image is broken:

i1085.photobucket.com/.../IMG_2557_zpswyn3jlyk.jpg

telecam · Answer

Same here. I had a perfectly working XPS 2710 but thought my BIOS SATA MODE needed to be switched to RAID MODE to utilize the 32GB eSata cache drive on my machine. Since making that change, the computer never goes pass the black screen, no DELL logo, no access to BIOS :(

I have tried everything listed in above posts... Looks like my motherboard is bricked.

Cheers.

telecam · Answer

Amazingly, after trying many of the suggested fixes I found in various posts, my XPS 2710 came back to life.  I am not sure exactly how but I pretty much manage to get access back to the BIOS by inserting Dell's OS reinstall disc and let the computer sit.  After a few minutes, BIOS screen popped up, I pressed F9 to reset it to defaults, wiped out the C: drive and reinstall the OS.

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