XPS 420 won't boot - hangs right after Dell logo

Is it possible that you have it set to check disk? Any automatic scans going on? I have Dell Tune Up on my 420 and it has an option to scan the disk at next boot-up, or even optimizing the registry or something. Give it some time and see what happens.  Do you hear your drives spinning?

 

Good luck!

It sounds more like a hardware problem.  Were you able to figure it out? Let us know what it was!

No, that's not it.  Thanks for the suggestion though.  I'm on chat w/Dell Tech support now.  I hope it's not a bad mobo or cpu like the other guy who posted about his xps410 on here.

 

This kind of shatters my confidence in Dell XPS, I paid so much more for an XPS machine and the quality behind the XPS brand because I need my hardware to be reliable for work.  My machine was bought in July so it's just a few months old.

 

Actually, it could also be a Windows Vista problem.  I have XP running on my XPS m1330 and it's been running great since Jan of this year, when I bought it.

 

Dell needs to provide compatibility for XP for their machines.  I would gladly go back to XP, Vista isn't worth the uncertainty and headache.

After over an hour w/Dell Tech we found out what the problem was.....MY STUPIDITY!

 

I feel so stupid but glad at the same time that it wasn't a major hardware problem like this guy had:

 

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=Tech_Talk_XPS&thread.id=84412

 

The problem was that I had a microSD card adapter plugged into an external USB card reader and THAT was preventing my machine from booting up properly.

 

I usually keep that same microSD card adapter plugged into my m1330 SD slot just to store it there and it never has problems booting up.

 

But both the tech and I forgot to unplug ALL USB devices before troubleshooting.  So, that's the moral of the story....UNPLUG ALL USB DEVICES before troubleshooting.

 

I'm really happy this was a minor glitch and I didn't have to do any motherboard swaps...whew!

 

Hope this helps other people to avoid this stupid mistake.  :smileytongue:

 

Oh and yes, my faith has been restored in XPS!

Hey,

 

for me it sounds more like a software issue. If the the BIOS is running well and a HW issue was detected the 4 Diag lights should shown the Error.

 

Diag lights on the XPS420 are located on the left side from the Miniview Display.

Look at the Manual for error codes if any are shown.

 

Disconnect all external HW like esata HDD, USB sticks, USB HDD´s, Printers etc.

Try after that a restart. Maybe it works out for you.

 

Have you try to enter the BIOS? Is everthing shown well? Like CPU, Memory and SATA Devices?

It is possible that a SATA cable is not correct connected. If you dont see any SATA devices in the Bios, just open the case and check all SATA cables on bothe sides.

 

Maybe this helps....

cu

dschieses

Oh my! I should have thought of that.  Just a couple of weeks ago, my daughter-in-law called me with the exact same problem and I gave her all of my trouble-shooting knowledge over the phone and nothing worked. So I told her to call Dell, and while she was holding, she spied her SD card in her reader.....

 

Guess I need to start thinking of that right off the bat!

 

Glad it was nothing else.  ENJOY!

I have experienced this with Windows XP as well. In a Corporate system, the employee had inserted a camera SD disk in a system that ran 24 hours every day.

 

The SD card had been in this system for weeks without issues.

 

Then the power to the building went off and when it came back up, the system was turned on and it would not boot.

 

I was called and it gave me a "What's Going On" moment, until I found the culprit.

 

Lesson learned.