Dead desktop?

So the wife's PC just did the 'blue screen of death' thing and now it won't start up.

Any tips?

Safe mode?

No Dave, completely dead.

I hit the 'on' button and it makes as if to start up but I get nothing on screen.

Wondering if the graphics card I have in it has died or we've lost the motherboards?

Do you get any beeps? Anything on the screen at all? Can you put in the windows disk and boot to that?

As the computer is booting, hit F8 and you'll get a boot menu.

Select "Enable VGA mode"

Open Control Panel, System, Advanced tab, Under Startup and Recovery click Settings, under System Failure untick Automatically Restart.


That will stop the endless reboot process.

Then do a system restore - it's probably a bad driver.

Didn't work either Grant, appreciate the input though.

Firstly, what make/model of computer are we talking about? Or is it a generic clone from the local computer store? Did it come with an XP CD?

Describe the boot process as best you can please mate - does it POST (count RAM, press F1 to enter Setup, etc)? Is it then you get a blue screen for a second or so, then it reboots?


If it POSTs (stands for Power On, Self Test) and you can enter Setup, change the Boot Device order to CDROM first, then insert the XP CD. It should boot from the XP CD. Continue through the setup process until it detects the existing Windows installation, then I think it instructs you to press R to do a Repair install. Do this - it will leave all your programs and data intact and just fix the underlying problems with Windows.

Let us know how you go, there's lots more things to try to get the system back and running yet.

PC is a Dell Dimension 2400 desktop. We have the XP disk somewhere - where is another question though as the wife put it away 'somewhere safe'.

Right now, I don't get anything on the screen. I have tried both the onboard graphics card and the other graphics card I have in the PC (Radeon 9200 pci).

Basic description of what goes on:
Hit the on button
Computer starts to boot up then stops
Computer then starts to boot up and seems to go through start up
Hard drive appears to be running, power supply is definitely running.
Both DVD Rom and CD Rom appear 'dead' and I get no activity on the monitor nor does the mouse 'come on' (wireless mouse).

I don't know what else to describe right now but if you ask questions I will do my best to answer.

Appreciate your patience and help on this.

So, do you get any display on the monitor - either connected to the builtin VGA or the video card VGA port?

If so, what display do you get? ie. what point does it boot to before bluescreening and rebooting?

Can you see the DVD/CDROM in BIOS?

Absolutely no display. Not since it rebooted the first time.

Honest Grant, nothing on the screen. The pc 'sounds' like it's booting up, but I'm getting nothing on the screen itself.

OK, I'm assuming you were previously connecting the monitor to the dedicated video card.

Open the machine up, and take the video card out.

Connect the monitor to the built in graphics and see what happens.

If you're still not getting anything on the monitor it might be time to take it to the shop. Is it still under warranty?

Thanks Grant, I thought of that but discounted it as a fruitless effort - I will give it a try.

As for age, the PC is around 2 years old - I've done some hardware updates but nothing significant.

OK, I'm assuming you were previously connecting the monitor to the dedicated video card.

Open the machine up, and take the video card out.

Connect the monitor to the built in graphics and see what happens.

If you're still not getting anything on the monitor it might be time to take it to the shop. Is it still under warranty?

Depending on the setup, he may need to go into the BIOS and enable the onboard graphics if he tries that. I know many machines force you to disable onboard to get the cards to work correctly, especially older models like that Dell.

Won't need to get into Bios.

Removing graphics card made no difference.

You can hear the hard drive running so my layman brain is convinced the m'board has taking a crap.

Hmm...still no display on the monitor.

Have you tried another monitor, just to discount it as the problem (or tried the existing one on another computer)?

Does it beep when starting up?

It's almost time to send it to the shop methinks.

Yeah, I tried my spare monitor.
No beep but I've always turned off all sounds like that so not sure that means anything.

The IT guys at work agreed to give it a quick look tomorrow, I'll let you know the diagnosis.

Well, diagnosis was one of the sets of ram I had in the PC had retired itself from use.

Hopefully you got a brand with the lifetime warranty and can just RMA it back to the company.

Gah, I feel your pain Ray.

Brand new PC I built - first set of RAM faulty. Replace. Second set faulty. Replace with set from new batch. Finally works.