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XPS720 H2C - Bios Corrupt?
Hello,
Background:
I just purchased another hard drive and installed Vista64 on it. I swapped out my original drive with Vista32 and left it in tact. Vista64 install went without a hitch. Next day turned my computer on and it wouldn't boot up (no boot disk?). I change Bios boot order and it fired up just fine, but now I have strange symbols on the Dell splah screen.... a smiley face followed by a C and a diamond shaped icon that runs along the top of the word DELL on the splash screen (the screen where you hit F2 to go into the Bios mode).
Anyone know what the problem is? The computer seems to be running fine. NO issues there at all. Just concerned about the weird symbols in the splash screen.
BTW, I re-installed the old hdd with vista32 and the still see the same symbols.
I also re-flashed the bios to A06 and that didn't help. I also did the CMOS jumper thing and that didn't help. I even pulled the battery and that didn't help either.
My System: XPS720 H2C. QX6850, 4gig Ram, 9800gx2, etc...
If anyone has any ideas how to get rid of those symbols and whether or not I have some other issues going on, I'd appreciate any info.
Thanks a lot.
Davet50
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September 29th, 2008 11:00
Sounds like you have a corrupted CMOS. IF you are under warranty I would get the board replaced. I feel it will only be a matter of time before.
There is also one other thing that i might be and that would be your video card when it operated in a VGA mode.
I would recommend that you reinstall your video drives and then test the video card and look for VGA test.
The video card operates in VGA mode during post.
Davet50
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September 29th, 2008 19:00
kodiakdl
17 Posts
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September 29th, 2008 19:00
Davet50,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply and for the info.
I'll try re-installing the video drivers again and see what happens. Not sure what the VGA test is, but I'll try to find it and run it.
Is there any way to test the motherboard to see if it's bad? It would be nice to see for sure if it's bad before I call Dell tech support. My computer is still under factory warranty.
Davet50
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October 7th, 2008 13:00
kodiakdl
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October 7th, 2008 13:00
Just wanted to update my issue for future reference.
I contacted Tech Support and they sent out a new motherboard. Problem solved!
Thanks Davet50 for your insight and advice. You were right on about the mb.