XPS 8700, won't reach login screen

If you are using machine without a good UPS (like APC), it probably took a surge-hit from the AC-Power-plug over-night.

The other thing it could be is just the hard-drive failed ... but if that was the case, you would still be able to tap F12/F2 on boot and get to BIOS and/or run ePSA Diagnostics.

Since this happened yesterday, I wonder if it was "busy" because it was installing (or at least trying to install) Windows updates. Tues 5/8/18, was Microsoft's regularly scheduled Update Tuesday...

Power it on again, and if you get the "busy" again, leave it alone for a while and see if it finally finishes what it was doing.

If not, you may have to boot from a bootable USB stick with the Windows ISO file on it (free download from MS) and see if you can repair the installation. You can download the file here, for Win 10.

Thanks for the responses! I do use a Cyberpower UPS, so I don't think a power surge would causes issues for my PC...at least I hope not.

I'm using my laptop to create a bootable USB drive as I type. How can I get my PC to recognize this drive when it's complete? I left it alone on the waiting screen for close to an hour at one point, and nothing. F2 still won't take me anywhere.

I will say that when I powered it on once since my first post, my PC immediately went to a blue screen that gave me repair options or the ability to continue to Windows 10. I wasn't expecting that and clicked continue quickly...and then soon went back to the black screen with the busy icon.

Thanks for the detailed information! I pressed F12 and was able to get the USB to boot.

I was taken to a menu to install Windows 10, but I instead clicked repair computer in the bottom left. From the next menu, i clicked "Use a device", then selected the USB flash drive for a repair. After a few moments, I was simply brought back to the menu at the beginning which asked me to install Windows 10 again.

I see under "Troubleshoot" there are a few more options. Startup Repair sounds promising, as does System Restore, Go back to a previous version, or even System Image Recovery as I think I have some on an external drive.

Is it worth it just trying all of these?

*UPDATE* I chose Startup Repair, since I assume I'm having startup issues. That seemed to do something. Eventually, the low-res screen running off of the USB drive went back to the normal resolution. However, I ended up with the blue screen I described before, that said "Windows Did Not Load Correctly." Last time I skipped by this, but now I chose to Reset this PC and keep my files. We'll see what happens!

While your files may be retained by the Reset, you' re probably going to have to reinstall your apps (and all recent Windows updates), but that's way better than losing everything if you had to do a clean reinstall...

If you still have problems after the Reset, reboot and press F12. Look for the option to run the diagnostics and run them, especially the extended HDD tests. If the HDD fails, you'll need to replace it and do a clean install of Windows on a new drive.

Even if the old HDD fails, you may still be able to install it as a secondary drive, once the PC is running ok again, and copy off your files onto the new one.

Good luck and keep us posted...!

Well, things looked promising after the reset. I was back to my desktop and my files were safe, most of which I had backed up anyway.

I didn't install any programs and promptly shut it down to do a HDD test just in case. And then, issues cropped back up. When I powered on, nothing happened. The fans were running and the power light on, but my monitor suggested it was sleeping. I shut it down again, and after powering it up the next time, it did return me to the login screen and all was okay.

I tried another restart, and mashed F12 this time, but it decided to go straight to the login screen. I decided to not take any more chances with my data. I tried multiple external drives on various USB ports, but none were being recognized. I didn't want to restart again and risk not getting back to a somewhat-usable desktop, so my PC has spent all night so far uploading lots of data to OneDrive.

I'll try doing some diagnostics after this, because something is clearly still wrong unfortunately...

Well that's progress in the right direction! Still sounds like something still isn't quite right. Symptoms suggests -to me- a possible HDD issue. So diagnostics are in order as soon as everything is backed up. Sure glad you're able to rescue your files, but don't forget email in/out boxes, address book(s), browser favorites lists, etc. :Wink:

And when was last time you replaced the motherboard battery? CR2032, 3-volt coin cell, ~$2.00?  You might want to do that before going too much further, if nothing else than to rule the battery out. First, reboot and immediately  press F2 to open BIOS setup. Copy down all current settings to be safe. Then power off and swap the battery. See the Service Manual for instructions to remove/replace the battery.

Are you saying only some USB ports are working, because I assume you're using USB mouse and keyboard, but USB HDDs aren't working?

Can you check to see if only USB2 ports work, but not USB3 ports, or if it's a combo of USB2 and USB3 that don't work. You might want to update or reinstall the chipset drivers:

Intel 8 Series Chipset Driver

Intel AMT HECI Driver

And if you have one, connect a powered USB hub with its own external power brick to the PC and plug those USB drives in through the hub. Do the drives work that way?

HDD issue is what I'm leaning with, too. After a restart, all USB ports starting working again, and I was also able to retrieve my Outlook files.

I've had many more issues since then, and I've restarted it at least 15 times. No matter what I try, I can't get F2 or F12 to register on the boot up. Now, when I initially hit the power button, the screen remains black for about 10 minutes at times before jumping to a screen that reads "Please Wait" with a caterpillar, and then it goes to the login screen. There is no Dell logo anymore.

When in Windows, I've tried going to Settings, then Recovery, then Advanced. This brought me to the blue menu I was at when I went to reset Windows yesterday. Here, I tried Troubleshoot and then UEFI, since I couldn't get there with F12. However, this led to another restart, and the computer just went to a black screen.

I truly appreciate your help to this point, since I would not have made an progress at all otherwise. I'm just not sure what steps I can do at this point to run tests without just seeing a professional. This PC is only 3 years old, I know that's practically a dinosaur in technology, but my 6 year old laptop runs just as good right now.

I will have to go purchase that battery and give it a try. It may take me a day to do this, but I will come back once I've changed it!

1. Power off, unplug and press/hold power button for ~15 sec
2. Open case and remove motherboard battery
3. Press/hold power button for ~30 sec
4. Install a fresh battery and close up

What happens when you boot now?

Okay, so I finally installed the new motherboard battery using the PDF manual for the XPS 8700.  The first screen to pop up simply had the message RTC is reset, BIOS Setup set to default, or something along those lines.

I just pressed F2 to continue. Eventually, I was brought to the all-too-familiar blue repair screen, where I could try continuing to Windows 10, or go to Troubleshoot. I have tried a few things now.

Startup Repair was one option I tried, but after about 10-15 minutes of checking for disk errors, I was told that it could not repair my PC.

Each time I've started it up now, I'm brought to the blue repair screen because it says it could not start correctly. Is this just a sign I need a new HDD?

Reboot and press F2 to open BIOS setup. Make sure the date and time are set correctly.

Do you have a small (eg, 32-GB) SSD, in addition to the boot HDD, in this PC that Windows uses as a cache? In this case, after you set the date/time in BIOS setup, make sure SATA Mode is set to RAID. If you don't have that SSD cache, SATA Mode should be set to AHCI. Then save the changes and exit setup. Does it boot now?

If not, now run the extended HDD tests from the F12 menu. It could be as "simple" as missing boot files or as bad as a failed HDD. Copy down any error messages you may see.

If the HDD passes all the diags, you're going to have to do a clean reinstall. So you'll have to boot from the Win 10 USB stick, wipe the HDD and do a fresh install, with SATA Mode set to RAID, if you have the 32-GB SSD installed.

Sorry for the delayed response! For the last two days, the PC has actually been running smoothly, though I still haven't installed many programs in case there is a major issue. I haven't restarted in a few days, just to make sure I had more copies of my important files (rather than going through a cloud service).

No SSD in this setup, just the HDD. I was sure to set the date/time in the BIOS setup when I was in that menu.

I will try to get to the F12 menu again. A few days ago, it was eluding me, but I will give them a shot and report back. Thanks so much for the help!