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5 Practitioner

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274.2K Posts

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October 30th, 2008 14:00

inspiron 6400 cold boot problem.

Hi,

 I've searched internet and this particular forum (which is great) but didn't find a similar problem or a solution.

 

Problem:

 On cold boot (for example in the morning, after laptop was shut down for a night) screen remains black, no reaction at all, no bios loading, no dell logo. But it seems that WinXP actually starts up,I can tell this by LED indicators, no sound though.Also, when I whait a bit (like for Win to boot completely) and press POWER button, laptop shuts down and then starts properly without errors. Dell diagnostics tool shows nothing.

 Another thing - I've bought computer in UK 1.5 years ago as dell refurbished, problem always existed, but never had time and it didn't iritate me actually.

 

Best regards, and sorry for possible mistakes, I'm not English speaking :)

268 Posts

October 30th, 2008 16:00

either the CFL tube is near the end of its life and cannot start until it is warm or the video card has an intermittent short.

 

You can diagnose the video by plugging in an external monitor and see if it boots from a cold start. If it does, thn the CFL is dead.

5 Practitioner

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274.2K Posts

October 30th, 2008 18:00

thanks, I'll check the card. But are there other symptoms for tube?

1 Rookie

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87.5K Posts

October 31st, 2008 11:00

Yes, indeed.

 

5 Practitioner

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274.2K Posts

October 31st, 2008 11:00

so I plugged in the external VGA monitor. VGA monitor showed flickering aligned coloured pixels and dots.

video card problem?

5 Practitioner

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274.2K Posts

October 31st, 2008 11:00

maybe something can be done? instead of replacing the card?

because no other issues come up, nor in games or video.

1 Rookie

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87.5K Posts

October 31st, 2008 12:00

You can try reseating the video card and should run the Dell diagnostics on the video card (F12 at powerup).

 

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