Dell pc not booting up!!

jase_uk_2

Hi
I seemed to have a big problem woth my Dell Dimension 5150, as i turn it on the Dell logo appears with a loading bar underneath, but it loads so far and then just freezes, it then does nothing. Any advice would be gratefully recieved as i have several hundred family pics on my hard drive.

jase_uk_2

p.s.

im on my works pc at the moment and will be until around 5.30pm today.

Browntoa

see if you can get into safe mode

http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml

and use system restore to back a week or so when it last worked

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/systemrestore.mspx

if that does not work then there are CD's you can download like Ubuntu or Puppy Linux (linux based) that boot the Pc from CD, you can then burn your files/pictures off the PC

Dells have a hidden restore area that you access by hitting CTRL F11 when you first see that Dell logo at the top of the screen, once you have the pictures off the hard disk then use that to restore everything to the day it left the factory

DON'T DO RESTORE UNTIL THE PICTURES ARE OFF AS EVERYTHING GETS DELETED

jase_uk_2

thanks for the quick reply,the trouble is it wont let me do anything, it just freezes. It stops on the page where it gives me the option to press F2 / F12 for set up etc, but wont allow me to enter these options. it seems to freeze even before windows loads up.

Browntoa

sounds like a hard disk problem , or possibly a component failing

does it beep ?? , these are called POST beeps and depending on the number of beeps it can identify the possible cause.

it might be worth opening the PC up and checking all the ribbon cables are plugged in ok and unplugging the ram and reseating it, also the graphics card if it has one

if the motherboard or some other component has failed you can add the hard disk to another PC as a slave and extract the pictures

jase_uk_2

Hi, thanks, the pc bleeps once when it is turned on, but to my knowledge it has always done that, i had a look inside and all the cables are ok, it looks like its freezing during the bios loading, i think i may have to take you advice and take out the hard drive.

Browntoa

you can get this sort of thing off ebay to allow you to connect the hard disk to a usb port on another Pc cheaply

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SATA-3-5-2-5-IDE-3-in-1-to-USB-2-0-Cable-Adaptor-UK_W0QQitemZ290136894596QQihZ019QQcategoryZ74941QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

use one myself, if it's an IDE drive then you need to move a little strap on the back to the SLAVE position, theres normally a sticker on the drive to show you the setting

Maplins do a similar thing but it's a lot more money than the ebay ones

jase_uk_2

Thanks Browntoa, i may buy one of those looks handy. thanks for you help, i'll let you know what the outcome is. :T

jase_uk_2

would a 'caddy' do the same thing, its just that i can get one tomorrow for a reasonable price rather that wait for delivery through ebay.

Browntoa

yes, caddy is the same

sevlow

I have a Dell PC which had the same issue from new. I found through trial and error that boot up would not complete when external devices were attached to USB ports.

Turn off your printer/scanner or any other attached usb devices and unplug the usb for any external hard drives if you are using them.