Any ideas before I give up?

[pctutor]

Dell Inspiron 2350 All in One, couple of years old, has a 32GB mSATA SSD, and a regular 2.5 inch 1TB drive. I don't know what's on the SSD.

Customer reported that the computer was booting up and displaying "No bootable drive" so I assumed HDD crash. When I got it in and turned it on, all I get are 5 beeps - 5 beeps - 5 beeps. Nothing displayed on the screen at all, doesn't get to BIOS.

Dell 5-beep code is related to power, and what I find is that it's the CMOS battery. Replaced it, still same result.

Also checked with a different power adapter, same result.

I pulled the 1 TB drive and it is readable and has the OS installed on it. I was able to recover the user files and folders from it.

To me this indicates the motherboard is failing. For the past few months, here in the Tampa Bay area we have had an unusually high volume of thunderstorms, and I've seen more than the average # of computers that have gotten messed up by an extra jolt of electricity during a storm.

Anything else I should be checking?

 

[Porthos]

Remove the 32GB mSATA SSD and try to boot. Had that issue once and it drove me crazy.

 

[pctutor]

Interesting - going to try that now. What is that little drive used to store anyway?

 

[glennd]

Did you reset the CMOS? A power surge can mess with the cmos settings even though they look ok. Go through the motions of resetting to default and save then reboot. Make sure the bios displays the hdd correctly.

Edit: must learn to read the OP about can't get to bios. Unplug *everything* from the motherboard, see if there's a jumper to reset the cmos.

 

[glennd]

The partition table and/or mbr may be messed up if the machine was running when the power hit. Interested to see if the hdd will boot in another machine and if the customer machine will boot with another known good hdd?

 

[pctutor]

All good suggestions, I will report back

 

[Markverhyden]

Did you punch in the service tag over at Dell to see what it came with. Not sure about that machine but many of them are supposed to use the SSD for booting the OS.

 

[Porthos]

I pulled the 1 TB drive and it is readable and has the OS installed on it.

 

[nlinecomputers]

The ssd is a cache. It will boot from it when it can.

 

[DonS]

May I suggest running the onboard Dell diagnostics to check out all the components, including that little ssd.

 

[NJW]

The ssd is a cache. It will boot from it when it can.

This is true. It should boot without the SSD, but may require startup repair to do so.

I have a current client who called Dell for warranty service and the tech incorrectly installed the whole operating system on the SSD, now he's complaining to me that the disk is full, but won't let me reinstall to the HDD. :shrug:

@pctutor Corrupt BIOS is entirely possible. I've had two this week, following spectacular thunderstorms at the weekend.

 

[pctutor]

Removed the SSD drive, same result at bootup - just 5 beeps repeated.
Dell's instruction for resetting the BIOS is to remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes. I had it removed for over an hour so that should be reset. I don't think either drive probably has any problems, since bootup doesn't even get that far.

 

[nlinecomputers]

5 beeps on most Dells is a motherboard fault. Real Time Clock failure. Sometimes it is a faulty CMOS battery but I've never had one that fixed it. Retrieve data and toss the unit.

 

[MichaelBits]

5 beeps on most Dells is a motherboard fault. Real Time Clock failure. Sometimes it is a faulty CMOS battery but I've never had one that fixed it. Retrieve data and toss the unit.

Is correct, it also indicates a motherboard fault. If a battery doesn't fix it (which it never has for me either) MB is toast.
I would also ward him away from All In Ones if he is going to purchase a new PC.

 

[mr m]

I'd still strip the mobo down to the essentials. Remove as much RAM as you can. Check all the ports for mangled pins. Ensure the power adapter is putting out a steady 19.5 V. Note that the original adapter is 180 Watts.

You never know how a shorted speaker, bad USB port or any other component will manifest itself.

 

[layoric]

Check the board for burned spots, traces, blown caps. Otherwise chuck it and replace.