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XPS 720 Red WinXP freeze at boot
I have a XPS720 that freezes at various places during boot. It seems to complete the boot in safe mode, but obviously much functionality is missing. To my knowledge, I haven't installed anything major recently, but have updated Windows several times. I cannot do a System Restore (the savepoints show up, but nothing happens when I select to restore to one -- I have since re-installed System Restore and this has wiped out my savepoints). I've opened up the box and reseated connectors, but I haven't tried reseating cards (this is next). Called Dell XPS support and they suggested re-installing Windows, which I'm loathe to do since it necessarily means re-installing a whole bunch of other software. I'll keep that as a last ditch option.
Any suggestions?
Thanks, WyrdForge
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DELL XPS720 Red
E6600 Core2 Quad 2.4GHz
XP Media Center 2005
2GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
1TB x 2 (Raid1) Hitachi DeskStar 7K1000
Dual DVD+/-RW DVD/CD-RW
nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB
Creative SB X-Fi
FPS SP2208WFP
Stanby: P3 (864MHz) W2K Pro
Resident dinosaur: Dell XPS R400 P2 (400 MHz) Win98
Davet50
14.4K Posts
0
January 3rd, 2009 19:00
Try running the Dell diagnostics. Press F12 at the Dell splash screen to enter the menu to acces the diagnostics. Woud suggest you run the full suite. This will take some time so be prepared.
You also and try doing a Repair Reinstall on the OS. This is not the same as a full reinstall and will normally not affect your files but as always it is best to back things up first if you can.
Davet50
14.4K Posts
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January 6th, 2009 11:00
Yes I too believe that errors in the diagnostics points to hardware issues. and not so much a windows issue. If you still under warranty contact Dell tech support. Do you know at which point the system froze duringthe test?
You should have still gotten disks with the machine. If you did not go HERE and request them
WyrdForge
6 Posts
1
January 6th, 2009 11:00
Davet50: thanks for the advice.
OK, so I ran the full 32-bit diags. Surprisingly, it took only about 1 hour to run through. Last time I ran this on my other XPS720, it took many hours. Anyway, no problems were found. But I ran it a second time (only the part that tests system freezes and shutdowns) and the system hanged. I will try again tonight.
Now, I'm guessing that at this point Windows doesn't even come into the picture. My point is that re-installing Windows (as Dell support suggests) might not be the appropriate solution, but might rather be hardware related. Would that be a fair assumption?
I'm not sure I can do a Repair Reinstall. This is a Canadian machine, and comes with a mirrored partition (I don't remember the exact term), but without any full install disks.
Steve Dieterich
1 Message
0
February 1st, 2009 15:00
I had the same problem you have right now with my XPS 720. I called Dell three times week before last and they replaced the motherboard. When the tech replaced motherboard he had the same problem. After 3 hours on the phone with Dell last Saturday, we found out it was an external USB 2.0 hub which was the problem. I now unplug the hub anytime it doesn't start and then plug it back in after the computer starts Windows. This may be your problem. Check it out and let us know.