Boot problem OptiPlex 745

Question

Hi,   I have the weirdest issue with ten (yes, 10!!) OptiPlex 745's. They are all brand new. Have XP Pro SP2, Office Basic, PDF Converter from Nuance and Symantec AntiVirus 10 corporate client installed. It's random, but all of a sudden a machine will just not boot completely. We get past the Dell splash screen, then the Windows XP splash screen appears, goes away and a black screen appears. The computer sits there. The hard drive light is blinking jus about every second. We have had it sit there for hours and it won't do anything else. On three computers so far we have done a complete Dell hardware diagnostic. All hardware tests fine. I was suspecting the PDF converter software at first. It still may be. But the one machine we have it not installed at all, just got the same thing. It won't boot. Eventually you can boot up completely, most of the time. Also, most of the time you can still get to Safe Mode and Safe Mode with networking. In one case, I was not even able to do that. Very strange behavior I have not been able to solve. Has anyone had this problem before and does anyone know what to do about it?   Thanks,   Bart

Hydralisk00222 · Answer

Did you upgrade to build 5001 for SAVCE10? Older versions have been known to lock up the 745 machines.

gyro07 · Answer

We are also experiencing the same problem.  Configured our last GX620 on 1/9/07 - no problems. Got shipment of 10  - 745's.  Have tried configuring 2 and they both have this black screen/lockup problem. Event viewer show a srv ctl mgr error  'The following boot-start driver(s) failed to load: eeCtrl Fips intelppm SAVRT SAVRTPEL SPBBCDrv SYMTDI   They also both have an error that repeats  'The Group Policy client-side extension Software Installation failed to execute.  Please look for any errors reported earlier by that extension. Will continue to try and troubleshoot and possibly contact dell support.

Pro-2-Call · Answer

I installed the SAV 10.1.5 and that seems to be fine. Although every once in a while it might still lock up when you reboot after installing 10.1.5. At least they came back after the next boot. Whereas with the older client some would just not boot up at all. It might also have to do with a MS update. But we're not sure. We're not getting anything in the event viewer since Windows doesn't boot at all. It gets stuck right after the Windows splash screen.   The one thing I know for sure is this. After manually uninstalling the SAV 10.1.4 client on the workstations that wouldn't boot normally anymore, the computer would boot up fine. Then I installed 10.1.5 and it was fine also.   I looked on both the Symantec and the Microsoft knowledge bases and can't find anything on this at all.   Thanks for your responses.   Bart

gyro07 · Answer

Found solution on Symantec site http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/pfdocs/2006103112061748?Open&docid=2006103112061748&nsf=ent-security.nsf&view=pfdocs&seg=hm&lg=en&ct=us   You can do a search on their site for Dell 745 Updating Symevent files is supposed to resolve this issue.

Pro-2-Call · Answer

Way cool. That's a good find. Don't know why I couldn't find it in their knowledge base.   THANKS,   Bart

Vwc Comp Tech · Answer

Hi all, We had this same exact problem, although since I did what I am about to explain only one of the computers have repeated the odd no boot problem and  I am still not convinced about the SAV issue.   I installed all of our routine software on the 745, MS office 2003 pro, Adobe Reader SAV Corp 10.x. And the problem was very random, once I was able to ge the computer software all installed and ready to turn over to the user when boom it just started to happen again. So I took the hard drive out of the computer and bought it to another 745 that we had, that was working fine, and the problem followed the hard drive. So, It was either the hard drive of the software on the drive. Then I took the misbehaving 745 back to my office and ghosted it up to the network, then loaded back down to a Maxtor SATA drive i had as a spare. I figured this would tell me that if it was the Hard drive or software. Sure enough after I reimaged the Maxtor the computer worked fine. I had Dell replace both drives (Seagate) as I had two of these models misbehaving. So, I don't understand, only one of the computers has not booted normally, but only once, i figured it was a flook.    We are running SAV ver 10.1.0.394. This is the version of SAV we have installed everywhere and I have it installed on another new 745 we just got, so far no problem.

gyro07 · Answer

Although updating Symevent files was supposed to fix the black screen issue, for our configuration of the 745s it only worked when SAV 10 Corp was installed as the last step. For security reasons, we chose not to take this route. Instead, we reinstalled XP SP2 using our Volume License, made sure to leave the Dell Utility partition as it was, and then Ghosted this configuration. Going this route, we were able to build our workstations as normal (installing SAV 10 Corp at the start) and they’ve been running with no problems.

Now, if you feel that you don’t mind installing SAV 10 at the end of your process for building workstations, note that this still presents a problem with future updates. We had one 745 which we built with Dell’s standard configuration, adding SAV 10 last, which had the black screen issue come up again after Internet Explorer 7 SP2 was installed. Who’s to say other updates won’t make this issue resurface.

All of this drew us to one conclusion: The 745 black screen problem is attributed to Dell’s new software configuration.

dennis54 · Answer

I have had 4 Optiplex 745 with Symantec Corportate Edition and the comptuer will boot into safe mode but not normal.

this is what dell had me do

After trying a few things (uninstalling video and letting OS re-detect video and install correct drivers) Dell Tech said that there was a known issue with the BIOS version and Symantect.

Several steps to solve problem

1- boot into safe Mode and go into BIOS and under devices, select SATA 1 (which is CD ROM) and then turn OFF, then save and exit BIOS

2- install new BIOS

go do support.dell.com, upper right hand corner where it says KEYWORD SEARCH type in ”O745-020100.EXE” (first digit is letter ‘O’)

click on download and select RUN (this will download file and then computer will reboot and then flash BIOS )

after computer reboots should see text Updating BIOS, then Update of BIOS Successful

then computer reboots to desktop

3- make change to Symantec ***

click on Start, All Programs, Symantec (client??),

at Symantec main screen there is option to CONFIGURE

click on this, then (I think first option) click on FILE (something)

on the File dialogue box there is button upper right for ADVANCED, click on this

NOW, first option is checked something like Symatec Boot, need to check the other option (something like Symancec Anti virus)

Click OK or Apply, until program closes.

Reboot computer and when get back to desktop go to Symantec and see if can open, if will open then is OK

4- boot and F2 into BIOS

go back to DRIVES and turn SATA 1 (CD ROM) back to ON, then Save and Exit

Once computer reboots check to see if CD/DVD is found

5- click on Start>My Computer, IF CD/DVD Icon is shown here, then it is functionally

*** sorry, but the excact symantec screen option verbage escapes me. but maybe you can figure it out. Hope this helps

ewookie · Answer

hi, same problem here. we found the symantec solution for updating the symevents file and some registry key that needed to be changed. tried both, but it didn't work. not sure what build of symantec we're using. it seems to have started occuring after a windows update about a month ago. we had 2 systems that came down with this problem on the same morning. one system was deployed 2 days before. the other was deployed 2 months before. there had been a new windows patch/update that had been released and installed via automatic updates the night before the problems occurred. today, a new system was being setup and after 2 windows update/reboot cycles, it came down with the same illness.

my solution:
1. boot to "safe mode with networking"
2. download radeon x1300 driver from www.ati.com
3. run the downloaded file so that it extracts the driver files. when the ati setup wizard starts to run, it errors something about directx. that's ok, don't care.
4. goto device manager. right-click on the primary and secondary display adapters and 'update driver'. don't use any auto-detections. say that you'll select driver from list. click have disk. point it to the driver files in C:\ATI\..etc. use the driver it presents.
5. reboot

never happens again after i do this. curious if this works for anyone else...

Locked Topics – Desktops General

Boot problem OptiPlex 745

Was this post helpful?