Dell XPS 720 Boot problems

Question

Dell XPS 720 with a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 1TB HDD, 3GB Ram, Nvidia GeForce 8800, Bios version A04.

It's having problems booting up. I will sometimes reboot a few times over and over until it freezes. It shuts off and freezes intermittently during the booting up process or if it happens to get further then the boot it freezes eventually. If I go into the bios setup it eventually freezes if I try to boot it eventually freezes it will often times freeze at random times during the bios screen or even not boot at all and just have a blinking "_".

I have reseated SATA cables, ram, cpu, and graphics card. I have individually tested the ram chips and it freezes in all configurations. I have swapped out the harddrive for a new one and it fails. I have tried to boot it up without the hard drive, dvd drive, etc in different configurations and it freezes each time. I have run the dell diagnostic disc several times it always freezes at one point or another. If i test the cpu it always freezes at APIC Mtest. If I run the system board test I get and "4C00-082D" error. I ran the symptom tree test on the system lock up symptom it passes everything and freezes on the "L2 Cache (Multiprocessor) - Alternating CPU writes test". Also the diagnostic lights sometimes but almost never read something like 123 or 34 but thats usually after I disconnected something or forgot to reconnect something more often then not they wont show up and the computer just freezes. Occasionally I've gotten a keyboard failure but have tried two different ones and seem to work fine so not sure if that matters or not.

I'm not sure whats wrong I believe I have tried everything short of replacing each part with a new one which would be way to expensive. So if anyone can point me in the right direction if the cpu toast or is the motherboard done etc. I would greatly appreciate it. If there is something I am missing or another test i could perform please let me know.

shesagordie · Accepted Answer

ThisIsAUsername

A Dell XPS 720 OEM refurbished motherboard can be purchased HERE, you may find a motherboard on eBay that costs less.

Personally, I would use the money, for either buying a new desktop, or my favourite, building your own system using standard ATX components.

Bev.

osprey4 · Answer

Hi Thisisausername,

Unfortunately, as you may have seen from searching, that 4C00-082D error may be related to the CPU or motherboard. However, I would make sure you've got the most up-to-date diagnostics, and run it from a bootable CD or flash drive, not the hard drive.

ThisIsAUsername · Answer

Thanks for your reply yes I did look up the error and it did say it was a motherboard or cpu error. I did download the latest diagnostic cd and have been running it from a bootable cd since the utility partition would fail pretty quickly. I was actually happy to get that error since it was the first actual error I have gotten to confirm there was a problem with something now I just wanna know what I can do to fix it. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Davet50 · Answer

If its your CPU which I would doubt then you could replace it. If it is the motherboard be prepared for a hassle just trying to find one and they are not cheap. E bay would be just about your only hope in finding one. And no other board will fit as the system is a BTX system and Dell is just about the only vendor that made this type of system.

ThisIsAUsername · Answer

So probably one of the two either cpu or motherboard? Any way to narrow it down?

Davet50 · Answer

without swapping the processor either into another system or trying another in our board there really is no definitive test. The general rule of thumb is processors rarely fail.

ThisIsAUsername · Answer

So most likely the board in which case im screwed since its BTX and kinda unique. Any suggestion on a cpu that would work with that computer just to make sure. I know since I am on the A04 bios that probably limits which cpus are compatible.

Davet50 · Answer

Bev is correct. While these were good systems at launch the extremely proprietary parts and set up does not lend to upgrades. For 600 you can get a good motherboard case and throw in a couple of hundred a decent processor and have a very good rig.

Even though my 720 was still chugging along I knew in the back of my mind that my 3.5 year old rig was living on borrow time so I retired the 720 and built my i7 sandy bridge system.

ThisIsAUsername · Answer

Thank you all for your help and advice I guess the old 720 will just have to join its brothers in the PC graveyard.

shesagordie · Answer

ThisIsAUsername It's a bummer when that happens.  :emotion-9: Bev.

Locked Topics – Desktops General

Dell XPS 720 Boot problems

Was this post helpful?