Dell Dimension E510 Boot-Up Problems

8292 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Old Rich, Jun 25, 2008

blackajck4247

Discussion Starter · Jun 12, 2008

OK, here's the deal. I just recently moved to Hawaii and entrusted a moving company to handle moving the majority of my stuff. On arrival, however, my computer, which was orginally working just fine, is now having problems booting.
When I try to start it up sometimes it starts a cycle of continuous reboots w/o ever showing anything on my screen or supplying power to anything connected to it, but I can tell it's going by the lights. For the few seconds it is active, the diagnostic lights light up 1-3-4 but otherwise don't do anything aside from reboot. I've looked for what the sequence stands for in dell support, but they don't say as far as I can tell.
Every once and awhile I can get it to boot up properly, but the diagnostic lights are going crazy while it's working. And even then when it seems to start booting it sometimes lists an error saying something about how PCI is in 1x mode, or something along those lines. Unfortunately I've got no clue what that means. Either way it refuses to do anything after that.
So what do you guys say, got any help/suggestions for me?

Edited for spelling. =)

Save

Status: Not open for further replies.

1 - 7 of 7 Posts

blackajck4247

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jun 12, 2008

anyone?

Save

Old Rich

· #3 · Jun 12, 2008

I'd start with opening the case and reseating everything . . Memory . . video card. . all power cables and data cables . . while you are in there, check the processor heat sink to be sure it is solidly locked in.

Be sure to diaconnect from the power . .

Save

Pharaohz

· #4 · Jun 13, 2008

Id contact the moving company and tell them. They have insurance for just this sort of thing. Tell em your going to be taking it into a repair place, maybe they could even suggest one. If they threaten to not pay, inform them you will be contacting a lawyer then. And do so. Call around the the free consultation ones. If you speak to a good one, for like 50 bucks he can have a letter typed up and sent to them also telling them he/you are planning on taking the moving comp to court if they doesnt pay. Also inform them the cost of this lawyer will also be billed/added to the cost of the repair bill.

Now if it has to go this far at some point the owner will cave because his lawyers hourly rate is way more then the cost of the repair bill and your lawyer fees.

There is a chance this will not work and you will be out the 50 bucks for the letter

But up the letter part, its all free.

Save

blackajck4247

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 15, 2008

Right, well they do have insurance for anything broken, it was a military funded move. But I kinda wanted to avoid going through anything with them by just managing myself, cuz I've got some pretty confidential stuff on there that I'd rather people not be poking around in without my supervision. I've already stripped it all down and inspected everything part by part and it all "looks" like nothing has been damaged, which is why I'm a little baffled. And like I said the only other thing that is different other than having problems booting is the PCI express slot running in 1x mode when it does boot up, which means nothing to me. Perhaps that has somethings to do with it? MY biggest (though probably not very well informed) guess would be that the mother board got damaged somehow and is simply showing no physical damage. Can anyone confirm? or have another idea?

Save

blackajck4247

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 24, 2008 (Edited)

Well, boot up problems never went away, and any suggestions would still be appreciated. But now I've got another boot-up problem. When I try to power it up it now gives diagnostic beeps: 1-3-2, and diagnostic lights 3-4, which both list on the dell website as a problem with the memory. I've tried everything they suggested on the site, including reseating the memory and trying the sticks separately until I find the faulty one. Well, that didn't work, the problem exists no mattter which one is plugged in. Which means it's either something else or they both got fried somehow. This all started though when I was trying to update the bios and on restart it hung like I previously mentioned as my first problem. That makes me think that the bios update got corrupted or only partially finished and now it doesn't know what to do. Please feel free to shoot my idea down and supply a more feasible sollution, or if you think I'm right, suggest ideas on how to repair the bios. This is really starting to annoy me as my only other computer is million year old laptop that takes almost 15 minutes to boot.

See less See more

Save

Old Rich

· #7 · Jun 25, 2008

You should be able to flash an older BIOS version . .

Save

1 - 7 of 7 Posts

Status: Not open for further replies.

Top Contributors this Month