Dell has me stumped

[HCHTech]

I've got a Dell XPS circa January 2010.

Specs:
i7-860, 3x1GB RAM, PC3-10600
WD 500GB HD
Win7 HP-64
MSI PCIe video card

The reported symptom was no video when the computer booted. Onsite, this was in fact the case. No video at all, even though the computer looked like it was booting.

On the bench, I removed the HD to test it separately (I used both WD Data Lifeguard and the Seagate software - both short and long tests in both softwares passed without incident. Backed up the data and drivers while the drive was out.

When I booted the computer with the diagnostic CD (PC-Check), the video came up fine. I started a full diagnostic run, with these curious results:

The first time through with PC-Check, I got failures on the processor, in the X64 instruction sets. After 5 failures, the testing aborts, so I decided to run it again, skipping the processor to see what else might be up. A new chip for this rig would be about $400.

The second time through, I started with memory testing. About 15 minutes into the testing, the computer shut down hard. Booting it again brought back the no-video problem.

So...back to first principals. I tested the power supply = voltages are fine, and I haven't tried replacing the PS yet.

Visual inspection of the Mobo is unremarkable. No bulging or leaking caps, nothing out of place. I removed and reseated the RAM sticks.

Just for kicks, I tried a new video card - no change. Next, I removed the CMOS battery & cleared the BIOS. After mounting the original video card and reinserting the battery, the computer started up with video (the hard disk is still out at this point). I booted to a few different CDs without any problems. So I booted PC-Check again and ran a full diagnostics overnight. This time, no errors at all. I also ran the Dell diagnostics on the utility partition without error.

A several hour run with Memtest 86+ also had no errors (6 passes).

Ok, so remounted the hard disk. The computer has video but when the Windows logo starts flying in, it reboots. Tried a startup repair, unable to repair. Same behaviour in safe mode, and there are no system restore points. After disabling auto-reboot on error, I got a 7B stop code. So, I ran a complete chkdsk on the hard disk on my bench machine. The log showed a couple of instant tag fixes, about 1,900 unused index entries and security descriptors. Finally it stated the upcase file content was incorrect and that free space was marked as allocated in the MFT and volume bitmap. The summary shows 0KB in bad sectors and that repairs were made. This is when I ran the Seagate utility even though the WD utility had no errors.

So it still won't boot Windows, so I tried a upgrade install with the universal Win7 image on my Zalman - it halts after selecting the upgrade stating that the upgrade must be run from within windows. I've done this lots before, so I'm not sure what the hangup is this time.

The data is backed up, so I tried a factory restore, which didn't give any errors, but the machine still reboots at the Windows logo fly-in.

I tried reinserting the new video card to see if THAT made a difference - it didn't.

I'd like to keep the recovery partition intact if I can, but I'm thinking the next step is a complete wipe of the disk and a reinstall -- assuming of course that it isn't the mobo after all and I'm just wasting my time rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic here.

What would you do next?

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I'd try installing a new drive then loop the diags. If it acts fine from there, maybe try to restore the image onto the new drive and see how it acts.

 

[NYJimbo]

Put a fresh 1 or 2 gb stick of ram and see what you get.

Check temps on the CPU.

It's an I7, does the mobo have a video connector ?

 

[OzzyGeek]

For these types of issues I normally swap out the drive for one of my known working test drives which have a Windows Operating System installed to see if it will boot. You could also try a linux live boot disk and see what results you get. I also like to run spinrite at level 2 as well as active boot disks version of chkdsk these types of situations as well. You backed up their data which is the main thing.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Alright so you arrive on site you push the power button and you get no video but it seems like its booting. Did you kill the power for a brief moment and restore power and try it again? When you brought it to your work bench did you plug it up and immediately try to turn it on or did you jump straight into removing the HD?

You said when you booted the computer with the diagnostic cd the video came up fine but I assume before it even got to start booting off diagnostic cd you saw video on the screen right?

The last time I had a situation like that was an out of date dell that my dad had brought me (some company was throwing it away and he wanted it so they gave it to him) anyway very similar to yours after the removal of the cmos battery i didnt have the no video issue again but a week later after I gave it to him the same exact issue started again and I simply havent taken a 2nd look at it. Mostly because this is one of those mini things and I don't have a compatible PSU to try but if I had to take a guess I would say PSU or MB related.

 

[HCHTech]

Ok - thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I tried it twice in the field, with an unplug in between. When back at the bench, I powered it up first thing and got the same symptoms as in the field. It was then that I removed the HD and ran diagnostics from the CD - and it booted with video from the CD.

Yesterday, I tried a new hard disk, and was able to install windows just fine. Ultimately, I put in the original disk and reformatted just the C partition (this is AFTER the attempted factory recovery). This allowed me to install Windows. Last evening, I applied all of the updates from my WSUS disks, activated the install by telephone, and ran another overnight diagnostics, which reported no errors. It's been running on my bench all day without problems. I've rebooted it perhaps a dozen times today. I restored the customers data and all seems well.

So....what I *think* must have happened is this:

1. The BIOS became corrupted for some reason (power outage? We've had some good storms lately, although the customer didn't report any) which caused the no video situation.

2. The customer's repeated attempts to boot the machine and probably force it off in the middle of a boot cycle because there was no video corrupted the MBR.

So the fix was to reset the BIOS and then fix the MBR by reformatting the disk. EVERY other symptom was a red herring caused by the corrupted BIOS.

At least, I think so.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

cmos corruption hmm yeah I suppose...thats probably what I told myself when I fixed that other dell. let me know if it comes back.

 

[HCHTech]

Absolutely - that's the test, isn't it. I'll be holding my breath for a while on this one - definitely a little strange.

 

[PcTestCard.com]

I wonder if the PC got any Bios issue / system overheated previously.

Bill
Tech Manager, WPTinc.