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by rg11 1 view

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I have a dell PC that has been acting up and crashing. I was going to back up my info on a usb flash drive. I plug in the drive and get the blue screen. Reboot. I log in start to copy to the flash drive, came back in a few minutes and the screen is black and the keyboard isnt responding(num locks, cap locks is staying off) So I had to cycle the power and now nothing is happening. The monitor isnt getting a signal, keyboard wont respond but the cd will spin and the hard drive will spin. I am not getting any beeps either even if the drives are unplugged from the MB. I am thinking the power supply, MB, or processor went. Any tips?

12 replies

by cg it

got another PC around? if so attach the drive as a slave. grab all the data you need either a burn to CD/DVD or move it to folders on the PCs drive.

Got a friend who will let you put your drive in their comp as a slave? if so, try that and grab the data.

Next question is: is the Dell under warranty?

by nilt

It sounds to me as though the USB bus had an overvoltage. This can easily fry other bits on the motherboard. I've seen enough dust accumulate in rarely used USB ports to short them out when you plug something in.

The CD and HD would both spin even if they weren't plugged into anything but power. The fact that they do so indicates your data may be intact. Between the video having no signal and the keyboard being partially unresponsive, though, I would agree you need to recover data off the HD via another system and consider warranty replacement if it's still covered.

by mjd420nova

It does sound like you fried the USB port interface circuit. Check around the connectors and connections to the MOBO. The drives sound fine but the BIOS should be checked for USB device functionality. Had the same happen, but it was a seldom used parallel port and it made a nice crater in the top of the chip. The Navy called it "Easter egging". Meaning the easiest solution will be to look at everything very closely and some will require a good lamp and large magnafier lens. Double check yourself and try a good power supply.

by hal 9000

Well personally I'm fairly lazy so instead of Slaving the HDD I would put it into a USB Caddy and recover the data that way. But as you do this if you have encrypted the data you'll need to copy the encryption Key so don't forget that as it's really important.

The other possible problem that you may run into is that you can not access the User Files so you'll need to follow the directions at the following URL on How To Take Ownership of Your Files.

http://tinyurl.com/3aw7

If the Unit is still UG Return it to the seller or maker and get it repaired but first make sure you have a solid working copy of all your DATA.

by nilt

As Col said, a USB enclosure can also be handy. I need to update my personal terminology;I use a USB to IDE adaptor almost exclusively nowadays myself. Hehe.

Any luck on this issue yet, RG11?

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