PC Wont Make It To POST

[Extensa]

Hello SevenForumers I require your assistance today, while trying to provide assistance to someone else.

I am (attempting) to repair a computer for a friend. This is not the first time that I have worked on this machine, and am familiar with it. However, this time it has a problem which I can not fix.
This machine is a Dell Dimension E520. When you turn it on, it has one whirl of fan noise, tries to get past the Dell loading screen (bios information), has a "click" sound emitted, and then restarts. It never makes it past this initial screen. So far I have tried

• Unseating, and reseating the Ram. Tried individual sticks, dual combos, and all 4 at once. Nothing made a difference.
• Uninstalling the video card and using onboard graphics.
• Unplugging the Hard Drive.
• Tried unplugging hard drive, and inserted Windows XP Disk.

I am at wits end as to how to proceed. Does anybody have an idea of what this could be?

System Specs: Dell Dimension E520, Windows Vista x86, 250GB Seagate 7200 RPM HD, nVidia 9400GT, Intel Core2 Duo CPU

Thanks in advance

Extensa

 

[The Howling Wolves]

See if you can run Speecy or SIW and find out more info on CPU.
How about the fans?..................working ok?
Take hood off, make sure you ground yourself and plug it in to see if you can pin point where sound is coming from.
IMHO...that's what I would do.

 

[Lemur]

Pull everything except video. Try to make it to post.
If not, swap video.
Click might be hard drive. Click of death.
Fan noise could be from PSU, cpu, video, or additional fan unit.

 

[Dwarf]

Try disconnecting all drives and remove the graphics card (use the built-in graphics for testing purposes). Try one stick of RAM in the socket nearest the CPU. Power up. Do you get as far as OS not found?

 

[thomas242]

Well you can unplug all the drives and set the boot option to floppy and use a dos disk if you have one like I still do. See if you can latest get it to boots in dos if it dose I say the HD took a dump on you and your going to have to replace it

 

[Extensa]

@ Howling Woods - Cant make it into Windows to run Speccy.. Sorry All fans appear to be working okay.

@ Lemur - Pulled everything (minus GPU), HD included. Click is still present

@ Dwarf - Tried without Video Card, no difference. Still dont make it past this screen: View attachment 93214

The progress bar makes it to the end, then the computer restarts.

@Thomas - I can't get into the bios settings. The computer restarts before it will load them...

 

[Lemur]

Before you get to this screen, you are not offered F2 for bios?

 

[Lemur]

Please see if clicking sound is coming from PSU. A bad power supply could be the culprit.

 

[Extensa]

Okay.. So from what I can tell, the click is NOT from the the PS.

I am offered F2 and F12, however I cant get into either of them

 

[Dwarf]

Before you get to this screen, you are not offered F2 for bios?

We have Dells at work. The options for entering the BIOS or boot menu (F2/F12) only appear AFTER the progress bar has completed. Try resetting the BIOS to its defaults. Since you can't access the BIOS, you will need to do this by temporarily removing the motherboard battery.

 

[Wishmaster]

I agree, may be the PSU.

Is the CPU fan itself spinning up?
If not, it may be shutting down if it detects it is not working.


For the time being, I would continue to do as everyone has suggested and leave it with minimal HW untill you can isolate the issue. The less the better.

 

[Extensa]

Tried taking out the battery.. Still the same result.. Would the PC fail to boot due to a hot CPU? I pulled the heatsink off to check the fan, and the CPU is cooking hot

BTW : Identified Processor as Intel Core2 Duo

 

[Wishmaster]

If the CPU fan itself is faulty, the bios should detect it. It may even give a message about before it shuts down

And yes, it will shut down if the CPU gets to hot.
How soon it does so, depends.

Not sure if this is a cause to your issue, but a suggestion that may be worth taking a look at.

Does the fan spin when you power it up?
Do not start the PC with the HS off!!

 

[Extensa]

Yes, the fan does spin when the pc turns on.

Could this be a dead motherboard issue, seeing as I can't get into the BIOS, and it won't post?

 

[Extensa]

I'm just about at my project deadline. Do you think this is a dead motherboard? If not, what should I tell my friend?

 

[karlsnooks]

Extena,
Disconnect EVERYTHING. Remove EVERYTHING.

Keep the cover off of the unit until problem is located.

When you took the heat sink off of the CPU, did you then clean the cpu surface and apply heat-conducting paste. If not, do this first!

When I said everything, I didn't mean cpu but I do mean all memory, all cards, all drives, all external keyboards, mice, monitors.

Now when you apply power, what beep code do you hear?
Check that beep code against the documentation for that motherboard.

If you don't even hear a beep, then either the Power Supply Unit is bad or the motherboard is bad.

 

[Extensa]

Thanks for the reply Karlsnooks.. My friend ended up going shopping for a new computer this morning. Thanks for the info however, and I'll keep it in mind in the event that I'm ever in the same situation!

Thanks to everyone who helped, and +rep for all

 

[karlsnooks]

Extensa,

Glad to have been of assistance and I think your friend made the wiser decision.