Please help troubleshoot my Dell XPS

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Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi there,

I've a Dell XPS system and it stopped booting. This is what happens
when I boot the system.
1. There is an orange light glowing at the centre of motherboard.
2. The diagnostic lights are showing green,green,green,yellow. I
looked-up in the dell manual and it only says 'Other failure'.
And no BIOS beep codes..it stays silent.
So, I disconnected everything from motherboard except for processor
and memory but still the same problem. If I disconnect processor or
memory, then I get relevant BIOS beep codes.
I cant see what is wrong with it.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
VMB
x
 
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"VMB" <vmb_02@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:7f546149.0405050334.594a7d20@posting.google.com...
> Hi there,
>
> I've a Dell XPS system and it stopped booting. This is what happens
> when I boot the system.
> 1. There is an orange light glowing at the centre of motherboard.
> 2. The diagnostic lights are showing green,green,green,yellow. I
> looked-up in the dell manual and it only says 'Other failure'.
> And no BIOS beep codes..it stays silent.
> So, I disconnected everything from motherboard except for processor
> and memory but still the same problem. If I disconnect processor or
> memory, then I get relevant BIOS beep codes.
> I cant see what is wrong with it.
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> VMB
> x

You could use a POST Card.
 
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Did you also disconnect all drives?

"VMB" <vmb_02@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:7f546149.0405050334.594a7d20@posting.google.com...
> Hi there,
>
> I've a Dell XPS system and it stopped booting. This is what happens
> when I boot the system.
> 1. There is an orange light glowing at the centre of motherboard.
> 2. The diagnostic lights are showing green,green,green,yellow. I
> looked-up in the dell manual and it only says 'Other failure'.
> And no BIOS beep codes..it stays silent.
> So, I disconnected everything from motherboard except for processor
> and memory but still the same problem. If I disconnect processor or
> memory, then I get relevant BIOS beep codes.
> I cant see what is wrong with it.
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> VMB
> x
 
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Jock wrote:

>
> "VMB" <vmb_02@yahoo.com> wrote in message
[snip]
>> I've a Dell XPS system and it stopped booting. This is what happens
>> when I boot the system.
>> 1. There is an orange light glowing at the centre of motherboard.
>> 2. The diagnostic lights are showing green,green,green,yellow. I
>> looked-up in the dell manual and it only says 'Other failure'.
>> And no BIOS beep codes..it stays silent.
>> So, I disconnected everything from motherboard except for processor
>> and memory but still the same problem. If I disconnect processor or
>> memory, then I get relevant BIOS beep codes.
[snip]
>
> You could use a POST Card.

Sorry Jock,
What is a POST card!? I only know of the one with nice scenery! :)
 
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Wed, 05 May 2004 20:50:28 +0100, VMB <vmb_02@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Jock wrote:
>
>>
>> "VMB" <vmb_02@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>[snip]
>>> I've a Dell XPS system and it stopped booting. This is what happens
>>> when I boot the system.
>>> 1. There is an orange light glowing at the centre of motherboard.
>>> 2. The diagnostic lights are showing green,green,green,yellow. I
>>> looked-up in the dell manual and it only says 'Other failure'.
>>> And no BIOS beep codes..it stays silent.
>>> So, I disconnected everything from motherboard except for processor
>>> and memory but still the same problem. If I disconnect processor or
>>> memory, then I get relevant BIOS beep codes.
>[snip]
>>
>> You could use a POST Card.
>
>Sorry Jock,
>What is a POST card!? I only know of the one with nice scenery! :)

My XPS manual says for the green, green, green, yellow condition
to "Ensure that the cables are properly connected to the system
board from the hard drive, CD drive, and DVD drive".

Jack Mac
 
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Jack Mac" <camkcaj@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:m75j90pod4bi7ls0ikf84d5fmn9g53gsjh@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 05 May 2004 20:50:28 +0100, VMB <vmb_02@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >Jock wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> "VMB" <vmb_02@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> >[snip]
> >>> I've a Dell XPS system and it stopped booting. This is what happens
> >>> when I boot the system.
> >>> 1. There is an orange light glowing at the centre of motherboard.
> >>> 2. The diagnostic lights are showing green,green,green,yellow. I
> >>> looked-up in the dell manual and it only says 'Other failure'.
> >>> And no BIOS beep codes..it stays silent.
> >>> So, I disconnected everything from motherboard except for processor
> >>> and memory but still the same problem. If I disconnect processor or
> >>> memory, then I get relevant BIOS beep codes.
> >[snip]
> >>
> >> You could use a POST Card.
> >
> >Sorry Jock,
> >What is a POST card!? I only know of the one with nice scenery! :)
>
> My XPS manual says for the green, green, green, yellow condition
> to "Ensure that the cables are properly connected to the system
> board from the hard drive, CD drive, and DVD drive".
>
> Jack Mac
>


Typically the G G G A code produces a pre-POST stall complete with video and
text message after the dell splash screen. There are exceptions, obviously.
As the previous poster pointed out, if BIOS finds a drive to be missing, the
system would hang at that point with a detailed message on your monitor.


Stew
 
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

WSZsr wrote:

> Did you also disconnect all drives?
>
> "VMB" <vmb_02@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:7f546149.0405050334.594a7d20@posting.google.com...
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I've a Dell XPS system and it stopped booting. This is what happens
>> when I boot the system.
>> 1. There is an orange light glowing at the centre of motherboard.
>> 2. The diagnostic lights are showing green,green,green,yellow. I
>> looked-up in the dell manual and it only says 'Other failure'.
>> And no BIOS beep codes..it stays silent.
>> So, I disconnected everything from motherboard except for processor
>> and memory but still the same problem. If I disconnect processor or
>> memory, then I get relevant BIOS beep codes.
>> I cant see what is wrong with it.
>> Any help is greatly appreciated.
[snip]

Hi WSZsr,

Yes, I've disconnected all the drives.
 
Hi there,

I have the same diagnostic lights. GREEN GREEN GREEN YELLOW. The machine will attempt to post and it throws an error that fast that you can't read it and it will reboot about ten times and then it does nothing.

I was able to finally catch the error message when it decided to stay on the screen long enough.

Prior Boot Failure operation [SHUT].

I have looked to see what this was and can not find it anywhere on the web.

I have pulled the bios battery, removed power, discharged all power from system and waited more than a half hour each time, put the batter back in and the same thing.

I have the system down to bare minimums right now which is memory, and cpu. I did hook up a keyboard but being it won't go past post it will not recognize key strokes from the keyboard nor light it up.

Any info on this would be nice,
Thanks,
Shawn Mulligan
 
Wow - you dug back 5 years to resurrect this thread.

So did you follow the directions in the above posts related to what the status lights indicate - to "Ensure that the cables are properly connected to the system board from the hard drive, CD drive, and DVD drive". I would suggest disconnecting and reconnecting them to make sure - and while disconnected to inspect the connector for any obvious burn or other damage.

Did you make any system changes right before the problem arose?
Do you have another PSU you can use to see if another one clears up the problem?

You might also review this thread about boot problems with new builds - but obviously a lot may not apply and by taking system back to minimum you have already done some of those - but at least it provides a fairly comprehensive checklist:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
 
Well the story is my Father in law is a trash man and he gets me all kinds of computers and I see what they are and either get them working and resell them or I strip them down.

When I plugged the machine in it it booted to the alert screen with last attempt failed operation [shut] or something similiar and it rebooted 10 times or so before it stopped.

I reset the bios and it went to boot and it just rebooted like 10 times but no error message on screen. I switched spots with the memory and that made no change. So when I get this frustrated with a piece of junk I say the heck with it and go back to basics and that is to strip it completely down to absolute minimum.

And I still get the same error about operation [shut] or what every dell is calling it. I thought maybe that had to do with me trying to boot the system with the case open, so I held down the shut button and still the same error. So I pulled out another switch from another dell and replaced it and held the button in and that did not make a difference either.

So I floated around the web and this was the only forum that I could find that some one had real knowledge about how dell's systems work and when I seen about the diagnostic lights I figured I would look at mine and post it as well the with the error and hope to find something good. If not I am stripping the memory, the Hard drive and trashing the rest.

Thanks for your time and help,
Hope you get it back running for me,
Shawn Mulligan
 
All cable connections were secure. The cdrom drive is broken so I disconnected power from the cdrom and the cable to the board. But all other cables are secure.

I did not try another psu yet and yes I went through the list for does not boot.

But this happens with all devices hooked up and when they are all disconnected.

There are not docs anywhere to tell me what causes a SHUT error. If I knew what the SHUT error was I would know what needs to be looked at.

I can try another psu and see if there is any change but I highly doubt that will solve anything.

Thanks,
Shawn Mulligan
 
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