Fixing a PC which doesn't boot up

londonman81

My PC failed booting-up last week.

I removed the HDD from it and installed it into a caddy which works on another PC.

Now want to set about fixing the original PC but before I waste any money, I would like to try an be sure I know the root cause of why it stopped booting-up (was getting as far as Dell screen but then going totally blank - i.e not reaching Windows load up screen).

Would it be a guaranteed fix if I installed a new HDD on old PC and re-loaded Windows using the Dell CD which came with my computer?

I am thinking of buying a 50 pound HDD but want to be as sure as possible that it will fix the problem.

Anything else I should first?

Thanks

googler

If you try booting it up without an HDD you should get an error message to that effect.

If not, there's something wrong with the Motherboard or the BIOS, with this also being re-inforced by you saying the HDD works OK in a caddy....

gonzo127

if your hard drive worked in another system then it is not likely that it is your physical hard drive at fault, however

it could be any number of other things however i would suggest poping your hard drive back into your old system and then trying a Ubuntu LiveCD in the try ubuntu mode as this should in theory discount the rest of your hardwear if it boots up properly since it runs the entire operating system from the disk and your systems ram with no lasting changes to your hard drive

if that doesnt work then i would check your RAM if you have 2 sticks take one out and try with just one, if that doesnt work swop them over to see if the other one works if your system then works it would be a dead stick of ram,

the other could be your CPU cooling check that the fan is not clogged up if so clean it (plus all other fans in your system), if you are confident enough you could change the thermal paste between your CPU on the cooler as this can dry up and stop working as well

debitcardmayhem

As the above have said and as I said yesterday

Not necessarily, there may be other problems, put the old disk back in, when you switch the pc on press f8 often when you see the dell screen. If that does not work then try going into the BIOS ie switch on again press f2 or delete it should say which on the Dell splash screen. Make sure the boot section sees your disk and is selected first.

Could be one of many things, eg a loose keyboard, loose memory chips, the list is endless it could be a problem with cpu fan well you get the gist. The Brain of the PC is the CPU and the Motherboard and BIOS that holds the other bits together

spakkker

Can you enter bios setup? Does dell logo appear before post screen or after it?
It's by far most likely that it's your windows install which is broke (software).

closed

backup your data, and restore to factory settings using recovery partition

JasX

Don't spend money. Put the ORIGINAL working hard drive back in having backed everything up elsewhere and if needs be reinstall windows.

seeing as the original hard drive is perfectly good what on earth makes you think you need to go buy a new one? -but, as per your other thread where you went and bought a completely unnecessary caddy against advice feel free to buy more stuff you don't need if you like.

londonman81

JasX wrote: »

seeing as the original hard drive is perfectly good what on earth makes you think you need to go buy a new one? -but, as per your other thread where you went and bought a completely unnecessary caddy against advice feel free to buy more stuff you don't need if you like.

I don't have enough space elsewhere to back-up the old HDD so I am thinking of leaving it as is i.e in caddy.

So instead I was thinking of buying a new HDD but wanted to be sure that nothing else is the problem.

JasX

londonman81 wrote: »

I don't have enough space elsewhere to back-up the old HDD so I am thinking of leaving it as is i.e in caddy.

So instead I was thinking of buying a new HDD but wanted to be sure that nothing else is the problem.

well two options -try to organise your existing data a little to make room for backing stuff up.

Generally documents and photos are quite small (unless you have a modern 12 megapixel camera and always snap at max resolution). And get round things that way.

If you have alot of music / videos perhaps you have taken up alot of space in which case worth investing in extra storage space as it is (you can always move it to a future PC if needs be).

No gurantee's things will work but you will have a HDD to use as extra space in whatever PC you use next.

If you go the second route I'd strongly recommend the 1TB Smasung F3 drive (Model# HD103SJ) from a performance perspective and its just the same price as any other 1TB drive.

Also sent you a PM.

debitcardmayhem

You still haven't answered the posts 2,3,4,5 . A new disk might not still work.

londonman81

spakkker wrote: »

Can you enter bios setup? Does dell logo appear before post screen or after it?
It's by far most likely that it's your windows install which is broke (software).

I think I can enter BIOS set-up (F2 or F12 i think) and Dell logo appears just before Windows logo would typically appear..not sure if it's before or after POST..