+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I hope someone on here can assist: I have a Dell XPS 4510 desktop that has worked flawless for the last several years. Since I got my tablet about a year ago the desktop has been used very little. It stays on doing auto updates mostly to keep our broadband internet going. This morning we needed to use it so when we shook the mouse to wake it up we just had a black screen. After doing control alt delete, esc, f8, f11, f12, nothing worked so I held the power button in for several seconds to do a manual shut down. When I turn on the CPU it will do the initial Dell start up page then moves to the Intel Matrix page ( just as it always has) then moves onto a black screen that usually has the windows logo on it, but the logo is not coming up and the black screen stays on. If I hit the control alt delete, the computer will reboot the aformentioned screens. The F2 and F12 keys work, but there is no option to use the restore points under either of those options. I am using Windows 7 home edition. Can anyone assist me with this? Thanks Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Shawn, boot it in safe mode and see what happens. I can help you with this. give me a call or txt later this evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 It wont allow me to boot into safe mode. Unless there is a way to get to safe mode using f2 or f12 that I have not found Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Try turning it off, or unplug it, and leave it that way for a few minutes. Then restart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Also dont forget the battery on the motherboard can keep the bios active. Go to the bios or boot menu and make sure your loading off HDD and not a CD or anything, also remove all CD/thumbdrives installed then retry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Sounds like the hard drive is dead. Go into your BIOS and see if you can see the hard drive or if there is just a CD/DVD drive, assuming you have one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 A corrupted MBR will also hang a HDD boot, but that is ultimately a drive issue and can be fixed with the Windows DVD. This first: also remove all CD/thumbdrives installed then retry. This second: Sounds like the hard drive is dead. Go into your BIOS and see if you can see the hard drive or if there is just a CD/DVD drive, assuming you have one. This third: If no go, try booting from a known good CD or USB key to verify the system. IF! you can boot from the Windows DVD, assuming you have one also, will typically rule out the rest of the system. Sometimes, Windows Updates can muck with drivers and configurations within the OS and partition table. Not typical, but can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Try turning it off, or unplug it, and leave it that way for a few minutes. Then restart. I turned off the computer and let it set for about an hour, turned it back on and nothing. The same two screens. Also dont forget the battery on the motherboard can keep the bios active. Go to the bios or boot menu and make sure your loading off HDD and not a CD or anything, also remove all CD/thumbdrives installed then retry. I went to the boot menu and it has the option to boot from USB and CD, but I am booting from the hard drive. From this menu I also ran the diagnostic and it passed all memory scans. How will I know if the motherboard is fried? Thanks for the responses so far. Here are the two screens it loads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Do you have a Windows DVD/CD or anything you know you can boot from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Umm, I do have the windows Vista disk that came with the computer. Do i just put the disk in and go to the boot menu? When I put it in earlier to see if it would auto run it did not respond. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 With this being an XPS system, do you know if you are running a RAID configuration on your drives? The likelyhood of your motherboard being bad is slim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Umm, I do have the windows Vista disk that came with the computer. Do i just put the disk in and go to the boot menu? When I put it in earlier to see if it would auto run it did not respond. Correct, go to the boot menu and select the CD/DVD. Because of your bios boot settings, it may not be set to auto-boot from ODD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Sounds like HDD is dead if it is not showing within the boot menu, load a CD go to boot menu and try to boot off of it like jagged said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Where would I find out if I was running RAIDS? I just stuck the vista disk in, loaded from CD, it spun up and gave me the microsoft logo after windows loaded files. Now I am stuck on a black screen with large mouse pointer in the center of the screen. Mouse does not respond either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Agreed, this is leading to HDD failure. Do you have backups? If it ends up being the drive, I have spares you can have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Here is the options on my boot screen.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 I am assuming the ST3500.... is the HHD? That was what it was orginally booting up from Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Mframe... it is my tablet, it wont allow me to insert the pic link into the body of the text after i load it. Sorry side note on our pic discussion the other day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 The ST3500 is the HDD. Select to boot from the onboard CD-ROM. Curious as to what USB device it would have for the first option. Do you have a printer or ipod! connected? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 You only have the Vista disk? If you were running W7 before I'd stop before you reformat everything. Granted, if the HD is toast you've already lost everything so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razor Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Ah, yes, I forgot... my external hhd. I was told earlier to unplug everything.... let me try that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 The system came with Vista. Even if you have the win 7 disk, you have to get way past where it is to do any harm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Fair enough. I just wanted to put it out there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Razor, Be sure to unplug ALL usb devices. Even an Ipod/music device can cause a booting issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Rob: it's a good point to make. I have had people wipe their entire systems due to one-too-many enter keys pressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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