What color is the power button when PC dies, and is it steady or blinking?
If you have an add-in video card, physically remove the card from the PC and connect monitor to one of the onboard video ports, either VGA or HDMI. The onboard ports are disabled when an add-in video card is installed, so you have to remove the card for this test. See if that helps.
If this model has a PSU test button and PSU LED near the power socket, you can try this. Power off and unplug power cord from rear of PC. Press/hold front power button for ~30 sec. Wait another ~15 sec and then reconnect power cord to rear of PC and press and release the test button. The fans should spin up and the LED should stay lit for ~5 sec. If not, suspect PSU issues.
Any signs of overheating? Are CPU, PSU and video card fans all working? It's possible the thermal paste between the heat sink and CPU has dried out and will need to be replaced with a thin layer of fresh paste, eg Arctic Silver. Check the Service Manual for instructions to remove the heat sink. Lots of youtube vids about cleaning old thermal paste off and applying fresh paste.
If all else fails, strip PC down to bare essentials. Power off, unplug and press/hold power button for ~15 sec. Remove motherboard battery and press/hold power button for ~30 sec. Disconnect all internal drives except boot drive. Remove all PCI-e cards including video. Remove all RAM modules except the one in slot 1. (Slot 1 is the second RAM slot from the CPU.) Check/reseat remaining cable connections to motherboard for boot drive, CPU fan, and CPU power; check all front panel connections to motherboard.
Reinstall the battery and close up. Connect only mouse and keyboard to USB, and connect monitor to onboard video port. See if it works now...
Windows 10 Home. Downloaded from Dell site. First installation steps work fine per link you suggested. Installation fails on the first reboot and I get the "Automatic Repair" eventually ending in failure - Advanced Options or Reboot. If I boot to Command Prompt from Dell Advanced Start option, I can actually see the folders on the drive installed for Windows. I can also see the files on my second 4TB data drive. Frustrating that there are no errors on the install - it seems to have happily copied the first set of core files - or any hardware errors on boot up! All external devices disconnected but KB/mouse.
When I saw your battery suggestion, I was almost positive this would solve my issue. But I replaced battery. Now getting black screen when windows loads instead of message on auto repair. I followed instructions to upgrade BIOS to A14. Same problem. On old SSD or new 1TB drive, install looks good until all info is added and does restart. Sometime I got Windows screen for a few minutes before it died. All fans stop. Screen is black but does not go into save mode so still getting a signal. Re-ran Dell diagnostics. No error. Should I repost for "black screen"?
Reboot and immediately press F12. Assuming you see the menu, look for option to run diagnostics and run all of them, including RAM and hard drive. BTW: When you replaced the battery, BIOS got reset to the defaults, and it's possible those settings aren't correct for your hardware.
Couldn't edit my previous post... If fans etc stop, it's possible this is a power supply problem. If using power strip, surge protector or uninterrupted power supply, remove those and connect PC directly to a known working outlet.
Running out of ideas. Power strip not the issue. The only tests I can run with F12 diagnostics that I can find are additional memory tests which pass. So no error on Windows install to 2 different drives - one brand new. No diagnostics errors. Motherboard battery new. BIOS updated via USB boot. Black screen when Windows loads after all initial info entered or a minute or two later. Maybe video card dying in graphics mode?!?
The video card was the issue. Windows loads fine with video card removed using VGA. That was the last attempt to fix I was making - no plan to dig further - but this worked!
So now you have to decide if you want a new add-in video card with better output than VGA from the onboard port, assuming your monitor supports HDMI or DisplayPort, etc. Or if you can live with the reduced video quality from the onboard VGA port.
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
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November 7th, 2018 10:00
What color is the power button when PC dies, and is it steady or blinking?
If you have an add-in video card, physically remove the card from the PC and connect monitor to one of the onboard video ports, either VGA or HDMI. The onboard ports are disabled when an add-in video card is installed, so you have to remove the card for this test. See if that helps.
If this model has a PSU test button and PSU LED near the power socket, you can try this. Power off and unplug power cord from rear of PC. Press/hold front power button for ~30 sec. Wait another ~15 sec and then reconnect power cord to rear of PC and press and release the test button. The fans should spin up and the LED should stay lit for ~5 sec. If not, suspect PSU issues.
Any signs of overheating? Are CPU, PSU and video card fans all working? It's possible the thermal paste between the heat sink and CPU has dried out and will need to be replaced with a thin layer of fresh paste, eg Arctic Silver. Check the Service Manual for instructions to remove the heat sink. Lots of youtube vids about cleaning old thermal paste off and applying fresh paste.
If all else fails, strip PC down to bare essentials. Power off, unplug and press/hold power button for ~15 sec. Remove motherboard battery and press/hold power button for ~30 sec. Disconnect all internal drives except boot drive. Remove all PCI-e cards including video. Remove all RAM modules except the one in slot 1. (Slot 1 is the second RAM slot from the CPU.) Check/reseat remaining cable connections to motherboard for boot drive, CPU fan, and CPU power; check all front panel connections to motherboard.
Reinstall the battery and close up. Connect only mouse and keyboard to USB, and connect monitor to onboard video port. See if it works now...
fireberd
9 Legend
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33.4K Posts
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November 2nd, 2018 03:00
What OS are you trying to install?
Here is the instructions from the tenforums.com If its Win 10 look over these instructions to see if you missed a step.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/120352-custom-install-windows-10-a.html
ingminor
5 Posts
0
November 2nd, 2018 08:00
Windows 10 Home. Downloaded from Dell site. First installation steps work fine per link you suggested. Installation fails on the first reboot and I get the "Automatic Repair" eventually ending in failure - Advanced Options or Reboot. If I boot to Command Prompt from Dell Advanced Start option, I can actually see the folders on the drive installed for Windows. I can also see the files on my second 4TB data drive. Frustrating that there are no errors on the install - it seems to have happily copied the first set of core files - or any hardware errors on boot up! All external devices disconnected but KB/mouse.
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
November 2nd, 2018 11:00
ingminor
5 Posts
0
November 6th, 2018 09:00
When I saw your battery suggestion, I was almost positive this would solve my issue. But I replaced battery. Now getting black screen when windows loads instead of message on auto repair. I followed instructions to upgrade BIOS to A14. Same problem. On old SSD or new 1TB drive, install looks good until all info is added and does restart. Sometime I got Windows screen for a few minutes before it died. All fans stop. Screen is black but does not go into save mode so still getting a signal. Re-ran Dell diagnostics. No error. Should I repost for "black screen"?
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
November 6th, 2018 09:00
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
November 6th, 2018 09:00
ingminor
5 Posts
0
November 7th, 2018 08:00
Running out of ideas. Power strip not the issue. The only tests I can run with F12 diagnostics that I can find are additional memory tests which pass. So no error on Windows install to 2 different drives - one brand new. No diagnostics errors. Motherboard battery new. BIOS updated via USB boot. Black screen when Windows loads after all initial info entered or a minute or two later. Maybe video card dying in graphics mode?!?
ingminor
5 Posts
0
November 8th, 2018 15:00
The video card was the issue. Windows loads fine with video card removed using VGA. That was the last attempt to fix I was making - no plan to dig further - but this worked!
Power light was steady.
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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November 8th, 2018 16:00
Glad you got it sorted. :Yes: :Yes:
So now you have to decide if you want a new add-in video card with better output than VGA from the onboard port, assuming your monitor supports HDMI or DisplayPort, etc. Or if you can live with the reduced video quality from the onboard VGA port.