AdvancedTech
Member
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Upstate New York
Hello all maybe someone can shed some light on this issue.
A customer brings me a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop that will not boot. The system has windows XP Pro 32bit installed.I power it on and its stays on however there is no hard drive activity and absolutley no image on the screen. I cannot get into safe mode nor enter the setup utility.I connect it to an external monitor with the same result. I tried holding the power button for a few minutes to remove possible static electrical build up both with and without the battery still no joy.
I then pulled the hard drive to remove the customers data and to run Gsmart to test the hard drive. I know that this diagnostic is not definitive but I was hoping to see if the drive had any issues I could point to. The drive passed all the diagnostics and I was able to save the data to one of my bench machines.
While doing this I installed a known good drive powered on the system and was now able to enter the setup utility. Using Dell restore media I reinstalled XP Pro...service packs and located and installed any missing drivers. At this point the system is running well and is very responsive.
I then reformatted the customers drive...Cloned the new installation to their drive installed in the system and booted successfully. I rebooted several times and all seemed well. Later that day I powered on the system to complete the repair and to restore their data and to my surprise it would not boot. I was back to square one.
At this time I was on the phone with another client with the machine still powered on. I'm not sure how long I was on with the client however about 5 minutes later the computer booted! I shut down and tried to reboot...nothing.
I once again pulled the customers drive reinstalled my drive and tried rebooting again..nothing. I then removed the hard drive rebooted..nothing. I removed and swapped the ram no joy.
I started to think that it may be a thermal issue however the machine never faltered during the OS reinstall or the cloning process. I reinstalled the ram..the customers drive and decided to call it a day and return to the computer at another time.
This morning I powered up and bingo...successful boot!! I was thinking about tearing the system down to check for dirt on the fan and cooling vents and to see if there is an issue with where the hard drive connects to the motherboard. I'll also recheck the power adapter and cord although they checked out ok earlier in my troubleshooting process.
I cannot return the system to the customer with this issue unresolved. Have I missed something in my troubleshooting? Any thoughtsor suggestions would be appreciated. Many thanks....
A customer brings me a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop that will not boot. The system has windows XP Pro 32bit installed.I power it on and its stays on however there is no hard drive activity and absolutley no image on the screen. I cannot get into safe mode nor enter the setup utility.I connect it to an external monitor with the same result. I tried holding the power button for a few minutes to remove possible static electrical build up both with and without the battery still no joy.
I then pulled the hard drive to remove the customers data and to run Gsmart to test the hard drive. I know that this diagnostic is not definitive but I was hoping to see if the drive had any issues I could point to. The drive passed all the diagnostics and I was able to save the data to one of my bench machines.
While doing this I installed a known good drive powered on the system and was now able to enter the setup utility. Using Dell restore media I reinstalled XP Pro...service packs and located and installed any missing drivers. At this point the system is running well and is very responsive.
I then reformatted the customers drive...Cloned the new installation to their drive installed in the system and booted successfully. I rebooted several times and all seemed well. Later that day I powered on the system to complete the repair and to restore their data and to my surprise it would not boot. I was back to square one.
At this time I was on the phone with another client with the machine still powered on. I'm not sure how long I was on with the client however about 5 minutes later the computer booted! I shut down and tried to reboot...nothing.
I once again pulled the customers drive reinstalled my drive and tried rebooting again..nothing. I then removed the hard drive rebooted..nothing. I removed and swapped the ram no joy.
I started to think that it may be a thermal issue however the machine never faltered during the OS reinstall or the cloning process. I reinstalled the ram..the customers drive and decided to call it a day and return to the computer at another time.
This morning I powered up and bingo...successful boot!! I was thinking about tearing the system down to check for dirt on the fan and cooling vents and to see if there is an issue with where the hard drive connects to the motherboard. I'll also recheck the power adapter and cord although they checked out ok earlier in my troubleshooting process.
I cannot return the system to the customer with this issue unresolved. Have I missed something in my troubleshooting? Any thoughtsor suggestions would be appreciated. Many thanks....
