FW: [SLE] Need help diagnosing hardware problem
- From: "Greg Wallace" <gregwallace@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 23:05:18 -0500
On Monday, October 16, 2006 @ 8:52 PM, I wrote:
On Monday, October 16, 2006 @ 7:40 PM, Rikard Johnels wrote:
diagnoseOn Tuesday 17 October 2006 02:19, Greg Wallace wrote:
On Monday, October 16, 2006 @ 2:04 PM, Felix Miata wrote:
Subject: Re: [SLE] Need help diagnosing hardware problem
On 06/10/16 13:30 (GMT-0500) Greg Wallace apparently typed:
I am having a hardware problem with my machine and am trying to
always
it.
The first thing that happens is that my screen freezes. It has
justhappened when my screen saver was running, but I'm assuming that's
comesa coincidence. After the screen saver freezes, here are some things
that
have
happened on reboot.
What happens if you disable the screensaver and DPMS?
Could a screensaver problem cause the machine to not be able to re-boot?
I forgot where DMPS is controlled. Could you tell me how to turn it off?
1) The computer beeps twice and nothing happens. No bios screen
screen<snip>
up,
no disk activity, nothing.
2) There is disk activity as if the machine is booting, but the
giveoverlaying
is
blank.
3) Once, the machine actually booted, but what was on the screen was
pure
garbage -- a screen full of letters overlaying other letters
icons, etc. There wasn't a centimeter of blank screen space. It was
completely covered with this garbage.
My guess would be that I've got a video card going out, but item 1)
makes
me
wonder. Could a bad video card actually cause the machine to just
possible
two
beeps and not even try to boot?
All symptoms point to a video card problem, but this includes a
thinksvideo card slot problem. A BIOS may balk at continuing POST when it
thanit's supposed to have working video.
.
I'm starting to suspect the video card as the problem myself. Other
Ithe instance with the two beeps (which might could be caused by a video
card problem, though I have no way of knowing), all of the other cases
resulted in me not seeing any activity on the screen at boot up. I mean
screendidn't even get the bios screen. Then there was the time when the
twowas just completely covered in garbage. Even the time when I got the
justbeeps I still didn't get anything on the screen. I'm thinking I might
anyspring for a new video card just to see if that fixes it. I don't do
willheavy graphics, so I could get by with a fairly cheap bare bones type of
card anyway, so it probably wouldn't cost too much just to try that.
In all cases, if I let the machine sit for
maybe just 5 minutes it will re-boot normally (so far, anyway, but I
tend
to
think the problem will get worse over time). Once it's back up, it
to
run
for some time with no problems (I don't recall it ever happening back
Iback on the same day, but if I left it up long enough the second time
heresuspect it would ultimately lock up again). There's some pattern
thisin all of this, but also some inconsistency. Any help diagnosing
(and
problem
greatly appreciated.
These time differences make it appear it may be heat and/or voltage
wasthus power supply) related. If it hasn't had a dust removal since it
testnew, that's probably long overdue. If the machine was here, my 3rd move
would be to see what happens with a different video card, 2nd being
at
the
PS, 1st being cleaning. If you don't have another card to try, at least
try reseating yours. Try leaving the cover off and pointing a big fan
thatit to see if less heat is any help. If you have any cards in slots
vacuumaren't necessary to run the OS, pull them out to see if it changes
anything.
1. Cleaning -- Well, I cleaned it out as best I could. I tried a
say,and a wisk broom. It's hard to a lot of the areas because of all of the
things sticking up in the air and covering other things up. I have to
culprit.however, that it really didn't look all that dirty.
2. Power supply -- How does one test the power supply?
Overall, as I said above, I'm suspecting a bad video card as the
Thanks,
Greg Wallace
What DELL model is it?
Optiplex GX260
This might be a start for finding manuals etc:
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/index.aspx
I've already looked at the Dell site. It appears that my machine is too
old to have any info out there. Even for the newer machines, I couldn't
find any information about what beep codes mean.
--
/Rikard
Greg Wallace
Well, I took a look at that site anyway but couldn't find anything. Then I
did a google search and ended up at a web page under that site. There,
there was all sorts of good information. How to run a full diagnostic test
using the Dell CD you get with your machine, for one. I ran that and
everything checked out ok. However, another bit of information at that site
related to 4 little lights on the back of my machine, which I was not aware
of. Normally, all of those lights should be green. If there is a
combination of green and yellow lights, then you can match that combo to a
list provided with this documentation and it will tell you the specific
source of your error. So, the next time this happens, I'll check those
lights and, hopefully, one or more of them will be yellow, at which time I
can determine the exact source of the error! I sure hope they're not all
still green when it happens! Anyway, that gives me something to try the
next time it happens.
Greg Wallace
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