Update its failed and wont boot now.

sho_me_da_money

"I backed up what i needed onto the spare 500mb hard drive which all went fine"

Where can I get one of these monster 500mb drives?

sho_me_da_money

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

OK you've done about as much as you can for now.

The next steps involve opening up the PC and doing stuff inside. Are you comfortable with that? It's really easy and there's tons of video guides on YouTube you can follow.

Given the technical expertise of the OP (summed up via his comments), I would strongly advise against the dismantling of his laptop.

OP - time to find a techie who can take physically take a look at the problem.

gk172

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

"I backed up what i needed onto the spare 500mb hard drive which all went fine"

Where can I get one of these monster 500mb drives?

And you posted help just to point out a typo :T

Toxteth_OGrady

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

Given the technical expertise of the OP (summed up via his comments), I would strongly advise against the dismantling of his laptop.

I believe the Vostro 400 is a desktop and the next step, trying a clear cmos, is easier than changing a mains plug.

@OP

Does this sound familiar?

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f15/solved-cannot-get-past-bios-vostro-400-a-342435.html

gk172

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

OK you've done about as much as you can for now.

The next steps involve opening up the PC and doing stuff inside. Are you comfortable with that? It's really easy and there's tons of video guides on YouTube you can follow.

To what extent - ive changed both hard drive and ram and optical drives.

Toxteth_OGrady

gk172 wrote: »

To what extent - ive changed both hard drive and ram and optical drives.

Happy days - you already know your way around enough inside to diagnose further.

Next step is to try clear cmos which just involves moving a jumper on the motherboard.

Do you have your Dell manual with a diagram of the motherboard layout?

gk172

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

I believe the Vostro 400 is a desktop and the next step, trying a clear cmos, is easier than changing a mains plug.

@OP

Does this sound familiar?

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f15/solved-cannot-get-past-bios-vostro-400-a-342435.html

Yes its a desktop thanks, I will have a go at the clearing cmos if you wouldnt mind guiding me and i think i will need to re read that post as some things are familiar but i have light in the power button.

Toxteth_OGrady

To clear cmos you just need to power down the PC then move the cmos jumper to the clear position for a few minutes. For good measure you could also remove the battery. Replace both in their original positions and then power up. If it works you may have to reset the system time/date. If it doesn't you'll need to start removing hardware to diagnose further.

Your mobo diagram is here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos400/EN/html/parts.htm#wp1184332

#9 is the battery and #12 is the cmos jumper. It will have 3 vertical pins coming out the motherboard and a jumper over 2 of the 3 pins (e.g. pins 1 & 2). To clear cmos you need to pull off the jumper and put it back on a different pair of the 3 pins (e.g pins 2 & 3). After a few minutes replace the jumper on the original pins.

sho_me_da_money

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

I believe the Vostro 400 is a desktop and the next step, trying a clear cmos, is easier than changing a mains plug.

@OP

Does this sound familiar?

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f15/solved-cannot-get-past-bios-vostro-400-a-342435.html

Clearing the CMOS is easy as pie but it is the extras in-between that can cause the problems especially when you are newish to it.

sho_me_da_money

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

To clear cmos you just need to power down the PC then move the cmos jumper to the clear position for a few minutes. For good measure you could also remove the battery. Replace both in their original positions and then power up. If it works you may have to reset the system time/date. If it doesn't you'll need to start removing hardware to diagnose further.

Your mobo diagram is here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos400/EN/html/parts.htm#wp1184332

#9 is the battery and #12 is the cmos jumper. It will have 3 vertical pins coming out the motherboard and a jumper over 2 of the 3 pins (e.g. pins 1 & 2). To clear cmos you need to pull off the jumper and put it back on a different pair of the 3 pins (e.g pins 2 & 3). After a few minutes replace the jumper on the original pins.

Jumping will get messy. Just pull the lithium out for 60 seconds and pop it back in. Same result, easier solution.