Solved Dell Dimension 1510 Won't Boot

[hArLtRoN]

I was just given an old Dell Dimension 5150 and whenever I press the power button, it turns on but nothing shows up on the screen and it just beeps. Any ideas?

Thanks,
hArLtRoN

 

[gregrocker]

You can work through the steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start,

but you'd probably be better off skipping to the step run to run Dell Windows 7 PC Restore, or for even better performance do the a Clean Reinstall Windows 7 with the Product Key on the COA sticker - unless Dell provided a Reinstallation DVD with SP1 which is the same but includes self-activation.

Be sure to read the Special Note for Dell owners at the end to determine if Dell Hardware Diagnostics from F12 Menu will still run from boot so you can save it's small partition during the booted reinstall. I would also run those now to see what they find.

 

[hArLtRoN]

It actually has an XP sticker on it. Says Vista capable. I wasn't aware of any XP forums so I posted here.

And I don't even get a boot screen

 

[gregrocker]

If you have a spare license you can install Win7 to see how it runs. I'd wait the full 30 days before activating to make sure it runs well. Adapt these steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

There is no Dimension 1510 found, so if you want to recover to factory condition the XP or Vista it shipped with then check here first on page 57 in Manual: Setup and Quick Reference Guide.pdf

 

[hArLtRoN]

I mistyped its a 5150.

And I would try installing 7 but the computer won't even boot to the bios. My monitor actually goes to sleep about 30 secs after turning the PC on.

 

[gregrocker]

What do you see on Monitor before it goes to sleep? Dell spash screen?

Is there any sign of mobo life? Open the case and look for LED light, fans on CPU, etc.

You can also carefully remove all RAM sticks after touching the metal case to discharge any static electricity, then power up to see if it beeps a warning about missing RAM. This is a sign of life.

Can you trigger F2, F11 or F12 during boot after repeated tries.

 

[mdd1963]

Does the PC in question use integrated video, or a separate graphics adapter? (Many will beep continuously if no graphics adapter is found; do you have a cheap/spare graphics card you can temporarily install, AGP or PCI-e, as appropriate depending on your computer's age?)

 

[hArLtRoN]

What do you see on Monitor before it goes to sleep? Dell spash screen?

Is there any sign of mobo life? Open the case and look for LED light, fans on CPU, etc.

You can also carefully remove all RAM sticks after touching the metal case to discharge any static electricity, then power up to see if it beeps a warning about missing RAM. This is a sign of life.

Can you trigger F2, F11 or F12 during boot after repeated tries.

There is no Dell splash screen. Never gets to that stage.

Green light on the mobo is on and the fans are running.

I will try that in the morning... see what it results

I never tried because it is never booted really, I will also try that tomorrow.

 

[hArLtRoN]

Does the PC in question use integrated video, or a separate graphics adapter? (Many will beep continuously if no graphics adapter is found; do you have a cheap/spare graphics card you can temporarily install, AGP or PCI-e, as appropriate depending on your computer's age?)

It has integrated graphics, however, the cover for the PCI port is missing where an external card could've been. So I think there may have been an external card previously.

The only other card I have is the one in my everyday computer and I'd prefer not to use it for testing just because if anything were to happen to it I'm screwed for a while.

 

[gregrocker]

Given that what might have happened is the video card was ripped out without resetting to default onboard GPU, or there isn't one or it's faulty.

If nothing else works you might be able to reset BIOS to defaults by an external method Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS to see if maybe a setting was change to accomodate a video card and not changed back. It's kind of a long shot and others might have better ideas, but what I would do before I'd give up.

 

[hArLtRoN]

Given that what might have happened is the video card was ripped out without resetting to default onboard GPU, or there isn't one or it's faulty.

If nothing else works you might be able to reset BIOS to defaults by an external method Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS to see if maybe a setting was change to accomodate a video card and not changed back. It's kind of a long shot and others might have better ideas, but what I would do before I'd give up.

I pulled the battery on the mobo out and everything is working fine. BIOS is recognizing everything.

Thanks for everyone's help

 

[gregrocker]

Glad to hear it. I'd boot into BIOS setup and familarize myself with the settings for the onboard video since it might have been toggled off when the missing video card was installed.

How is overall performance? If you're still interested in reinstalling or installing 7 I'd also try the SATA controller's AHCI setting in BIOS setup during the booted install during which you delete all partitions as discussed in Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

 

[hArLtRoN]

I actually installed Ubuntu 14.10 because this computer's purpose is for big downloads and such. I wanted to install an OS that wasn't going to be putting too much stress on the older equipment.

Overall performance seems to be pretty good. I've only briefly played around with it.