(This is a corrected version of a posting I did about two weeks ago)
I have an Inspiron 3500, running W2K, flawlessly untill two weeks ago.
I received a quick error message upon boot up, which said in part "Expansion ROM not initialized ........." The message disappeared and I could not run the computer since. When I reboot, I can hear the hard drive humming, however I do not see anything on the screen, not even the initial lines that run on the screen (POST, I assume)
Please do not ask me to remove any cards or devices that I just installed (I have not), nor do anything to BIOS or software because I can not even get to the BIOS. I have reseated the RAM without luck. I replaced the video card also, no luck...
I read several similar postings on this forum, but it appears that none of them reached any meaninful resolution. Does this computer have a small battery for the BIOS/CMOS like the desktops have? I could not find it.
Any help wil be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Fuad