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XPS 420 Steady Amber Light (Possible Pre-Bios Failure?)
Hello all who could possibly help.
I have had a xps 420 since 1/4/08 and have never had any problems. I'm not a big "computer person" so to speak, so i need some help.
The other day, my computer shut down, and whenever i try to reboot it, it goes right to a steady amber light on the power button. I've done some reasearch online, and read through the manual, tried to call tech support ,but my warranty has recently expired(convient for me).
I have come to the conclusion that it is probably a pre-bios failure, but i am not sure. None of the diagnostic lights come on, only the power light is a steady amber light, the ethernet plug is blinking (like normal), the network light, by the diagnostic lights, is steady blue, which is why my router that is plugged in is still working. This is the only reason i can post this because i have wireless to my laptop.
Anyway, the computer won't start up at all, when i try to turn it on, the miniview screen blinks white and turns off, and the fan starts to run very fast. Then after that the computer just sits there, nothing shows up on my monitor. My monitor finds a signal, but since the sysem isn't running nothing will show up. I cant even get to the setup menu to change BIOS settings. I've tried unplugging everything from the computer and restarting it numerous times, but nothing seems to work. It was just working fine the other day too.
I dont exactly hav a lot of money, so hopefully it won't be the motherboard like i've read in other posts. Any ideas and help is appreciated.
Thx
Specs that i can give.
Dell xps 420
Vista home premium 32-bit
3gb ddr2 sdram at 800mhz
512mb NVIDIA 8800 GT
500gb NCQ SATA HD(7200RPM) w/Databurst
fireberd
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June 16th, 2009 06:00
The Dell manual isn't very helpful. My best guess is that either the CPU or Motherboard has failed as you say you unplugged everything from the motherboard and it didn't make any difference. Did you try the memory as that is one suggestion the manual has. If you haven't done anything with memory, remove all except one memory module and see if that makes any difference. If it's no difference with the one module, replace that with a different module and try again, just in case one of the memory modules is causing the problem.
loggrman
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June 16th, 2009 12:00
Thx fireberd, but no luck.
Tried the memory stuff. Taking out 3 of the modules and leaving one in the DIMM_1 slot, didnt work. Then i tried each of the other three memory modules in the DIMM_1 slot, but no luck there either. I'll just have to look up prices for cpus/motherboards unfortunately, but first bring it to a shop and spend the money. Hope it's worth it. Thx for the help anyway. Maybe it is the memory and i just need new modules.
Thx again