Dimension 9200 POST problems

Question

Hi, my dimension 9200 has been sitting unused for some months, and upon returning to it today it will no longer boot.

When the system is turned on, all fans receive power and spin as normal, the hard drives spin up, and the dvd drive is also powered. However the monitor remains in power save mode, and no sound is heard to indicate windows is loaded.

I have tested the monitor and its cables on another system and it is working fine.

In an attempt to solve the problem I have tried the following -

Disconnected all peripheral devices.

Disconnected all hard drives, the dvd drive, and the tv tuner card from the motherboard. At this point the system gave a series of beeps on boot (1-3-2), and the front diagnostic lights 3 and 4 were illuminated, both of which seem to indicate a memory problem.

Removed and reseated both memory modules, trying them both individually then together. This then stopped the beep codes, and the diagnostic lights show 1-2-3, but still no monitor output or signs that the system is booting to windows.

The new light pattern doesnt indicate a specific error if i correctly understand the manual, so i reconnected first the original 2 hard drives and dvd drive, followed by the 2 non-original hard drives. None of this had any effect.

Removed and reseated the video card with no effect.

Used the clear CMOS jumper with no effect.

So to summarise I have removed and individually reconnected all of the components besides the processor, PSU, and the motherboard itself. I dont believe the PSU to be the problem as everything appears to be receiving power as it should. The only non-original components in the system are 2 additional HDDs, one SATA and one IDE connected via an adaptor, but these don't appear to be the problem, nor are they the disks on which the OS is installed. Currently, turning on the PC results in all fans starting up, including the video card fan, HDDs spinning up, and the DVD drive receiving power, however nothing is displayed on the monitor, no sound is heard, and a single press of the power button will turn off the system, which i believe implies that windows has not yet loaded. Lights 1, 2 and 3 are lit on the front panel.

If anyone has either ideas what the problem component is likely to be (motherboard or processor maybe?), or how i might find out for sure, or else a solution, I would be very grateful.

Thanks,

Adam Edwards

RoHe · Accepted Answer

Thanks for the reply, have just changed the battery to no avail. No change at all to the symptoms.  Adam Then you have to suspect that the video card failed... Ron

RoHe · Answer

... my dimension 9200 has been sitting unused for some months...

That suggests the motherboard battery died. It's a 3-volt CR2032 lithium coin cell battery, ~$2-$3 at discount stores.

Power off and unplug

Press/hold power button for ~15 sec

Remove battery and press/hold power button again for ~30 sec

Install the new battery (right-side-up!) and see if it boots with only mouse, monitor and keyboard connected.

Try that before you go any further.

Ron

EDITED

aedwards00 · Answer

Thanks for the reply, have just changed the battery to no avail. No change at all to the symptoms.   Adam

iov · Answer

I am having the exact same problem.I have 2 dell computers at the moment, a 9200 desktop and a studio 1735 laptop.  A few months ago the desktop died (due to memory error, to the best of my knowledge).  All of the diagnostic tools pointed to the memory anyway.  So I replaced the memory, and now after about 2 months of sitting, the computer will sound like it's powering up, there are no beeps (so it doesn't go past the BIOS), and the monitor does not receive a signal from the computer, so it doesn't turn on.   I have a feeling Dell made these computers die on purpose so we'd buy a new one.....just very odd all of these problems suddenly appearing on google lately.....

iov · Answer

Thanks Adam, I appreciate it.I guess that'll be the next step....try a new video card. :D

aedwards00 · Answer

I probably should have posted earlier to say that the problem I was having is in fact solved now. As suggested above, the video card appears to have been the culprit, changing out the original Nvidia 7900GS for a friend's old ATI 3850 (maybe 3870 i dont remember offhand) fixed all symptoms and the system now runs fine. One thing to bear in mind if you change the video card is to make sure that the psu is powerful enough, in my case it fairly close according to some online calculator i used, dell seem to use fairly low power units where they can so you might not have much spare power to play with.

Hope that might be of some help,

Adam

iov · Answer

I bought a new battery (since I thought that may be the culprit) and when I took the old one out, I tested it, and it was fine. How can I clear the BIOS without the computer powering up? Just remove the battery for 30 seconds? Because I did that if that's how....

Thanks for the reply. :D

RoHe · Answer

Thanks Adam, I appreciate it.I guess that'll be the next step....try a new video card. :D Did you clear BIOS and change the battery? Ron

RoHe · Answer

Power off and unplug

Press/hold power button for ~15 sec

Remove the motherboard battery

Press/hold power button for ~30 sec

Reinstall the battery (right-side-up!) and see if it boots with only mouse, monitor and keyboard attached.

Ron

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Dimension 9200 POST problems

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