I hate Dell

Tobywon

Tobywon

Tobywon

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7 Jan 2009
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Germany
My friend has a dell computer that isnt working properly.
It has power going to the motherboard and the orange LED is lit, it powers up but it doesnt post. The chassis fan just gives 4 short beeps in quick succession and then a pause of a few seconds then repeats on a loop.
there is no graphical output and the graphics are on board.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what could be the problem????
any help would be much apppreciated.
 
This is what Google brought up under 'Dell beep codes 4 beeps'

'4 beeps - This indicates a non-functional timer. This indicates a problem with the motherboard.' Does not sound good you could try testing the ram one stick at a time and making sure everything is properly connected.
 
Yeah I would clear the CMOS/remove the battery and leave it for a while completely powered down so it drains, and then refit battery and power up, see what happens.

Unfortunately DELL, in my cases anyway, I'm gonna assume here it's out of warrenty? they can sometimes be ok in assisting with out of warrenty help, you can tell them that you'd be willing to pay to send it back if they can tell you what is wrong with it first and how much it would cost to repair, and then do the work yourself.. Normally works in tricking them when I use this method!
 
Ive tested with ram all give the same option, the LEDs on the front dont flash or do anything one shows its powered up. Havent tried pulling the battery out for a few mins. model wise its a smell Inspiron 530s *shudders to think i had to touch a dell must scrub my hands more*
 
I've got a Dell Dimension 8400 in the cupboard P4 3ghz, over 5 yrs old, still runs sweet as even though i've generally treated it like pants!

Btw, the LEDS are usually on the back around or near the LAN socket.
 
***Update***
Motherboard now posts but instantly blue screens upon windows trying to load, will try to find out what the fault is but its generally being a pain in the arse. any suggestions? corrupted boot partition/windows knackered and needs to be reinstalled to sort?
 
Maybe a nackerd drive? or dogey ram?

I hate dell as well! lol My laptop keeps messing up and my sister had to send hers back twice!
 
Sounds like the exact same problem i had in my old dell pc, turned out the motherboard was dead.

It started off not posting occasionally, then got gradually more often until it wouldnt turn back on at all except for the odd blue screen :S
 
Does your BIOS have AHCI options for the hdd's? I seem to remember mine BSOD'ing when this option was set to AHCI instead of IDE (or something else), when I didn't have the drivers installed for AHCI.

It was a while ago so I could be confusing this with something else, but it's worth a look. :)
 
Why are you moaning about hating dell?

Seems to me you have an issue with a computer that could easily be your "friends" fault. The make of the computer has no real bearing on the problem.

So hate away at all manufacturers; no one has 100% success rate.



..no I do not work for DELL just can not see the logic here.
 
actually i have yet to encounter a home user dell computer that functions correctly, hence why i hate smell tech computers (all hail Foamy)

and wouldnt a ram issue stop it from posting all together? currently has 2 1gig sticks in. have considered a hdd fault not been able to check in another system yet will hopefully do that this week. will also check the AHCI and see if its selected, dont expect it too be all the bios settings are on default so we'll see
 
has it posted since u bought it? If your first power up has this error, perhaps its a windows install issue and try reinstalling windows to make it work. If its not your first time, maybe the mobo has died and needs RMAing?
 
If the machine is now getting past POST have you tried booting into the utility partition <F12> and running the memory and system tests?

The 530s is a perfectly competent PC that uses standard components. If you’ve got access to other similar machine for testing then it should be easy enough to trace the fault.
 
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