Dimension 8300 BSOD & Not Loading into Safe Mode

Question

I have a Dell Dimension from 2004 with Pentium 4 HT, 1280 MB ram, and 80GB ide hard drive. I think a nvidia graphics card nVidia 64MB DDR nVidia GeForce4 MX, v.45.02, A05 because the bios on my PC says revision A05 when booting. First when I booted it said the low voltage because the cmos battery was dead. I manually changed the date and booted into Windows XP but got a BSOD even restarting multiple times.

BSOD BSOD

After I restart it asks me to Run into Safe Mode (With Networking, With Command Prompt).

But loading into any safe mode just takes me on this screen. After 20-30 minutes the screen goes black but the PC is still on.

Cards inside PC Sound Blaster, and some other graphics card, and USB ports card. I plugged the VGA into the other card but no signal.

PS This is the first this computer been used this 2010.

One time when it booted up it ran a chkdsk because the hard drive was "dirty"

Had 3 stages. after it finished just black screen

I want to get this PC working because I have some old pictures on it and want to recover them.

fireberd · Answer

It acts like Windows is corrupted.

However, since you just want to get data off of the drive best option is to install it in a USB IDE adapter and try to get what you want off of it.

Here is an example of an inexpensive adapter from Amazon

CLICK

Dev29 · Answer

Hi do you think this adapter is good?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/IDE-SATA-to-USB2-0-Adapter-Converter-Cable-For-2-5-3-5-Inch-Hard-Drive-HD/223518354052?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item340abb6a84:g:NY8AAOSwT~9c3Zmw

This video is quite useful to

https://youtu.be/0UtHJnMlDAY

RoHe · Answer

What color are the 4 diagnostic LEDs on rear of PC when it won't boot? See page 54.

What color is power button on front of PC and steady or blinking when it won't boot?

Did you actually replace the motherboard battery? Just manually setting the date and time isn't the solution for a dead battery.

Power off, unplug
Press/hold power button for ~15 sec
Open case and remove motherboard battery (check Service Manual for details)
Press/hold power button for ~30 sec
Install fresh battery (CR2032 3-volt coin cell battery, ~$2)
Close up and connect mouse, monitor and keyboard
Reboot

Dev29 · Answer

The LEDs on the back they change multiple times but after I exit the bios they change to all green. Sometimes it say loading ide configuration. Do you think the dead battery is causing this problem?

I'm going to remove the dial up internet card, sound blaster, usb card, and someone other card.

Trying to isolate the problem.

Dev29 · Answer

I removed all the excess card and only had the video card still got the error. I'm going to buy the button coin battery from ebay or amazon.

RoHe · Answer

You can get that CR2032 battery at Walmart, most drugstores, etc. Just stay away from cheapo "no-name" batteries which die quickly, if not already dead when you open the package...

The 4 diagnostic LEDs are supposed to blink while the PC is doing the POST (Power On Self Test). It's only the final pattern that matters. So if all 4 are green, then the hardware tests ok.

Get the new battery and do what I posted above to reset BIOS and see what happens, including the diagnostic LED pattern again...

Note: We won't see any images you post until after the moderators review them, even if you can see them...

Dev29 · Answer

Yeah I found a inexpensive battery off of amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Duracell-Lithium-Battery-Lasting-Count/dp/B07G7KRQQ5/ref=sr_1_12?crid=MFYMQE63JY9U&keywords=cmos+battery+cr2032&qid=1576638020&sprefix=cmos%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-12

speedstep · Answer

Hard drive is physically bad. There are no soft fixes for physically bad hard drives.

Inspiron Desktops

Dimension 8300 BSOD & Not Loading into Safe Mode

Was this post helpful?