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9583
February 10th, 2010 10:00
blue screen please help
I have a pre owned dell 531 that I bought for my wife, to replace an old faithful PC many years old, it has been really nice to use the 531 then today I was sending an email and I got the blue screen with its warning. I have tried some of the advice found on line and thought, when it started to tell me it was auto repairing, that I was in the clear. Then it just hangs at the dell logo.
I am now in trouble can anyone help me please.
I am able to communicate through my main home computer.
I am running Vista on both machines.
Thank you
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gimcrack555
6 Posts
0
February 10th, 2010 11:00
Since dell 531 is pre owned, I assume you don't have a recover disk or a Vista disk laying around.
I'm a Linux user, to fix. You just need a Linux LiveCD http://www.distrowatch.com May be try Linux Mint 8. And you have it fix, until you buy a full version Windows disk to to a full install. If you don't like to use Linux.
That's if it's software problem and not a hardware problem.
If you don't understand my suggestions. Find a local computer fix shop near you.
dsnr
39 Posts
0
February 10th, 2010 11:00
This issue may be very simple or extremely expensive to resolve. What we want to try first is to access the BIOS (F2) on the Dell screen. If the BIOS does not open than try at least 5 times with a "working" keyboard. If the dell screen just sits there than you have a corrupt BIOS and will require a couple hundred dollars likely to have it "flashed" so the computer will work. If the bios does load than unplug ALL cables to the computer except the mouse/keyboard and monitor and power cord and look around the bios for a "reset bios to default settings" option and do it and save and exit. If it is a laptop unplug literally every cable and cds/dvds and thumb drives and external hard drive and then restart the computer and if it loads properly than you will know the issue is caused by a peripheral that was connected. Leave that device disconnected when you turn on the computer all the time or look at support.dell.com for a BIOS Update.
Realistically it sounds more like the hard drive has failed on you or the motherboard needs to be flashed again. (and no you do not have access to bios flashing tools)
melary1
3 Posts
0
February 12th, 2010 07:00
Hi again thanks for the advice I went to try it and now all I can get is the on-off switch lights up with no screen and when pushed the hard drive light flashes a couple of times then it just beeps at me.
Two beeps every 3 seconds.
I am now feeling rather despondent am I now in the deep dark stuff or is there a chance it is still a simple little glitch.
Look forward to hearing and thanks
mel
gimcrack555
6 Posts
0
February 12th, 2010 08:00
2 Short Beeps Your computer has memory problems. First check video. If video is working, you'll see an error message. If not, you have a parity error in your first 64K of memory. First check your SIMM's. Reseat them and reboot. If this doesn't do it, the memory chips may be bad. You can try switching the first and second banks memory chips. First banks are the memory banks that your CPU finds its first 64K of base memory in. You'll need to consult your manual to see which bank is first. If all your memory tests good, you probably need to buy another motherboard.
melary1
3 Posts
0
March 31st, 2010 04:00
This was the first time I have used the dell community and in the end left the problem until a more competent friend was available so a few weeks have gone by since posting my problem. Needless to say we are now fixed and working so I would just like to thank those who helped me sorry it took me so long. The support was appreciated and in the end it appears that fortunately the problem was not expensive just took a lot of time to check everything and recover the machine.
Again many thanks to all.