XPS 420 Boot problem - Please help - Many people have the same complaint!

Is there another video card to try in this PC?

I might be able to pull one from my son's computer, but I have never tried to do this before.  Is it difficult?

* Remove the current video card driver from the Control Panel- Programs and Features- Uninstall. When done, turn the PC off
* Disconnect the power cord from the rear of the PC
* Disconnect the monitor from the video card
* Open the case cover and remove the video card
* Add the other video card
* Close the PC cover
* Reconnect the monitor to the video card
* Reconnect the power cord to the rear of the PC
* Power on the monitor, then the PC
* Load the video card driver. When done, restart the PC

Chris,

Hope you are well today.  Thank you for your help with my computer problems.  

Is there a recall for this problem I am having?  It seems that if Dell sold the XPS 420 systems with incompatible parts, Dell should replace the incompatible video cards for free.  If I take the video card from our old computer, then my son will no longer be able to use it.

Nevertheless, I want to try the steps you suggested, but I cannot get my system to power on at all now, therefore I cannot uninstall the video card driver.  Can I still perform the other steps below?

My old computer (Dell Dimension 8250 w/ Intel Pentium4 processor) used Windows XP and its video card is listed on the invoice as "64MB GeForce4 MX Graphics card with TV out"  

Will that work in my XPS 420 (intel Core 2 Q6600) that runs with Windows Vista?  The XPS 420's invoice says it has a ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro, 128MB.

Thanks for your help.

Kathy

hello to kathy and to all. i am also experiencing the same problem as you and the others. i also have an xps420 system, but with a nvidia 9800gt videocard.

when i thought about the issue today and having done some research, my problem arose far earlier than i caught on. it first began with my monitor simply going into powersave for a mere second and than turning back on. a few months after that i noticed a drop in video performance on my system (which for the past few months actually got better again). then, while running video games the other day the compur crashed. now today, i can boot up into windows but the computer crashes after a few seconds. i forgot to mention, for the past few months my pc has been making very, very loud fain noises.

i blame all these problems on a few possible casues: 1. weak rated dell powersupply units (though prob not the issue here, but could be) and 2. inadequete cooling and airflow in dell cases - one of the worst designs i ave seen in my life, where all pc compnents run hot, and becauses of this, they run the risk of being damaged, as many of us are experiencing. i would like some feedback from a Dell rep...i hope this is replaceable even though i bought my pc  2-3 years ago.

Chris, Hope you are well today.  Thank you for your help with my computer problems.   Is there a recall for this problem I am having?  It seems that if Dell sold the XPS 420 systems with incompatible parts, Dell should replace the incompatible video cards for free.  If I take the video card from our old computer, then my son will no longer be able to use it. Nevertheless, I want to try the steps you suggested, but I cannot get my system to power on at all now, therefore I cannot uninstall the video card driver.  Can I still perform the other steps below? My old computer (Dell Dimension 8250 w/ Intel Pentium4 processor) used Windows XP and its video card is listed on the invoice as "64MB GeForce4 MX Graphics card with TV out"   Will that work in my XPS 420 (intel Core 2 Q6600) that runs with Windows Vista?  The XPS 420's invoice says it has a ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro, 128MB. Thanks for your help. Kathy

How can you say the parts are "incompatible"? Hasn't the PC worked up til now, which would mean the parts are fully compatible?  But electronic parts do fail. Just a fact of life...

I don't work for Dell, so Chris probably knows a whole lot more than I do, but looking at the error codes for this model, code 3,4 is related to memory and 1,3 is also related to memory. So before you swap video cards, you might want to look at memory.

Power off an unplug

Press/hold power button on tower for ~15 sec

Open the case and carefully reseat the RAM modules in their slots.

Then reseat the add-in cards including the video card in their slots.

See if it boots now with only mouse, monitor and keyboard connected.

Ron

if memory was an issue, the pc would most likely not boot at all. the same may be true of a hard drive failure (my dell hard drive went dead 2 times on me, this is the last dell im ever buying, hand built pcs are the best option if you have the ability to make one, it fairly easy). if its a video card failure, you should notice corruption on your monitor before the card goes totaly dead, and if it does it wont allow a boot up either. 

kathy, since your sons card is older, it may be an agp card...i dont know if the dell con artists have both agp slots and pci express slots for video cards...dell makes it almost impossible to upgrade your pc or chane parts if you dont buy directly from them at their 100% above market value prices (impossible through their case design, weak power supplies, locked  bios, etc,) its easy to tell if the card has a slot on the motherboard... just take out your current card and look if the edges and slot size/design is the same...if not see if theres another slot on the motherboard that would fit your sons card...its just logicical testing.

i actually called dell today and luckily i had 70 days left on my warranty. dell support is another headache, i felt like i was talking to a robot that only understood simple commands, not due to their intelligence, but bcause of the language barrier.

to the dell rep...why does dell make it so difficult for people to upgrade parts, buying them from another party. if in the future any part dies, whichb im sure it will, ill be forced to buy an  obsolete piece of hardware for a high price or have a $2000 piece of plastic sitting in my desk. 

is there any number i can call to speak with an american, because each time i call i feel like i need to teach the phone rep everything just to understand me, only still to be able to help me with only basic stuff.

Ron, you are in denial and are just out to put me down. well you see, waht isaid was correct - it was the video card, and it is a heating issue. as i said, dell computers are terrible for the amount of money you put into it. the cases have terirblew designs, and i will repeat this again - that causes the system to overheat.

Kathy, i guess its too late, but you could have ordered a part only - the same video card for 50$ (dell sells a comparable card for 100$, hence my gesture to call the people at the con artists, theives, and liars.) you people offer 0 support, have outsoruced the jobs to people that cannot even understand us and offer 0 help, and you still come on here trying to defend this corruption. me, and others have been ripped off by dell - as i sad, i had parts faily on me MANY times. before this, with my home built pc, it lasted 8 years without 1 part failing.

@BigBeard86

You're not being helpful and in fact you're wrong. Only a few parts are unique/specific to Dell PCs and you don't even have to purchase the unique parts from Dell since quite a few resellers offer new/used/refurbished hardwarre for Dell PCs (eg, Ambry, Asendtech, Centrix, Discount Electronics, Impact), though they probably don't have as extensive a stock as Dell Spare Parts.

And you're wrong, a PC may boot perfectly fine even if there's a memory problem, as long as the bum memory registers aren't used. But once a system is fully booted and multiple apps are running, the system may try to use registers that are bad and it crashes. That's exactly what happened to my 8400 when one RAM module failed.

Random crashes don't even have to be hardware. Corrupted video drivers are notorious for causing random crashes. In Kathy Z's case, she's getting a LED error code so that says there's a hardware issue. The problem is the error code isn't documented, so it's harder to diagnose.

In your case, loud fan noises could mean a fan is running at high speed because the system is overheating, which could cause sudden shutdowns. It's possible 1) failed heat sink, 2) heat sink has detached from the CPU, 3) Thermal paste between heat sink and CPU is dried out and needs to be replaced, 4) too many dust bunnies are causing it to overheat, 5) some other fan stopped working and the noisy one is running at high speed trying to compensate.

Ron

Unfortunately electronic devices fail, and it seems like the new(er) ones fail sooner than the older ones did.

I retired a 10-year old PC that never had even a single hardware issue. But the replacement had several things go out in the first couple of years, including a RAM module and video card.

Hope the new video card solves the problem.

Ron

Ron,

I guess we could debate my use of the word "incompatible,"  but my thought was that a system as expensive as the one I paid for should run smoothly for longer than 2.5 years, if all the parts are made to work well together.  I bought it in August 2008 and began having this problem in December 2010.  I had my previous computer for 7 years before I had to replace it.

I took the XPS 420 in to a local computer repair shop today.  They diagnosed the problem as a video card that is bad (overheating).  They will replace ($90 parts and labor).  I'll let you know how it goes.