Hello every one;

Diagnostics will not continue to run on my system. Problems are shown as follows;

During initial stage of running Diagnostics on blue page, suddenly the color on display is being changed to white w/ nothing diplayed on it. And high pitched loud warning sounds immediately follow; sound like chime bell, three and two high beep sounds heard alternately. Then I have no other choice but turning it off. But Windows XP runs fine after next boot up though.

Here what I tempted to;

1) Tried to restore system back to the past system check point, but was not restored.

2) Reinstalled 8500 system software including Diagnostics from CD shipped by Dell.

3) Detached all out peripherals such as mouse, printer etc. except AC power adapter before testing. But did not make any difference.

Major reason I tempted to run Diag. was I've been experiencing some strange aspects on the computer recently(last 2-3 weeks) as follows;.

1) The strange 2-3 low pitched beep sounds are heard recently on the near the end of  stage of every booting time. It's been  bugging me about two weeks. But my keyboards are not stuck.

2) I experience frequently that I must click twice on the same botton in order for my command to be fulfilled. I notice the computer will not respond w/ one click.

3) Settings such as on display, even in certain word processor, or in other program are being changed unexpectedly. They seem "unstable."

3) In yesterday morning, I encounterd that the most of programs did not respond at all. Clicking icons never responded. After turning off and on computer, the problem still remained, and it was seriously slow to respond after that.

For your better understanding my situation, let me tell you what I am doing;

1) Run NAV every weekend as scheduled w/ newest updated virus definitions, and Auto Protect featur is on guard 24 hrs.

2) Run AD-Aware after each check up on email.

3) Run Norton System Doctor for monitoring system. And run defragmenter accordingly.

4) Run fangui(Fan Control v2.2.0) for monitoring HD, CPU etc.

Here some upgrades I've done;

1) Video Card Upgrade: to NVIDIA GeForce 4 4200 Go 64MB from ATI Radeon 9K 32MB. I've  done it myself a month ago. I'm enjoying its great functions without any problem.

2) Memory Upgrade: Memory module w/512MB purchased from Crucial.com a week ago. I installed it in connector slot 'DIMM A' w/ 256MB module in 'DIMM B.'  Since then I've been experiencing great joy w/ a huge improvement in speed.

Well, the above two parts make such a rare combination.

Anyway, what shall I do now w/ this Diagnostics problem?

Please accept my apology for the inconvenience due to long story or any other. . .  

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards to all encouragers!

Peter

And still  Happy Owner of Inspiron 8500;

P4-M 2.2GHz, WSXGA+ 15.4" Samsung, 768 MB PC2100 DDR Memory, 40GB IDE HD Hitach 5.4K rpm, DRW/DVD Combo 24x, GeForce 4 4200 Go 64MB DDR, WindowsXP Home Edition

Message Edited by CephasRock on 03-01-2004 07:30 AM