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BIOS trouble --- so i think

By nick ·
I recently moved. During the move my Dell Desktop Comp stayed unplugged for about a month. It is about 6 years old.

When i pugged it back in and tried to power on it would not boot. The Hard drive comes one, the fans on the processor and power supply come on, the usb ports all have power, and 4 little lights on the back of the computer come on. The monitor, keyboard, and mouse never come on.

I thought that perhaps my battery died while it was unplugged for such a lengthy time. I changed the battery and i used the jumper to try to reset the bios. Still nothing. I never here the "Bios beep"

Could this be a problem with the mother board or processor?

Any ideas?

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Try removing

by cmiller5400 In reply to BIOS trouble --- so i thi ...

Try powering everything off, remove power, ground yourself to the case and remove the memory. Then hook everything back up (minus memory) and see if it beeps. If it doesn't, I would then unplug all the accessories (hard drive, CDROM etc) and then try again. If no beeps or post, then the processor/mainboard or power supply is gone. You can test the power supply, but lets see what happens with the other tests.

Edit: clarity

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It worked

by nick In reply to Try removing

It worked. When I removed the memory and then booted i got 3 short beeps. I then shut down, removed power and reinserted the memory and everything came on. All i had to do was reset the time and date and it booted into windows.

What is the logic behind removing the memory? What did that do?

Thanks so much for your help

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Moves are rough on a computer...

by ThumbsUp2 In reply to It worked

It often dislodges components just enough that they can't communicate with the rest of the parts correctly. Removing the RAM and rebooting without it will usually reset everything. But, if that doesn't work, you start removing other things until you finally figure out which component was "loosened" during the move.

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I'm glad

by cmiller5400 In reply to It worked

I'm glad it worked. ThumbsUp2 explained why.

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Moving blues

by mjd420nova In reply to BIOS trouble --- so i thi ...

I've run across this fault so many times that it's become a regular procedure after moving units. We first remove and reseat all memory cards and plugin cards. The other fault is caused by shifting of the system board on its standoffs during moving, this is a bit harder to cure but is another of the common faults. These are caused by abnormal twisting and pressures while lifting, moving and packing of units during moving and repositioning of the units.

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