Posts by sgmkbc

So I got around to calling Dell today. Although my warrenty is up, a guy decided to help me troubleshoot it anyways. He said that the diagnostics (Fn+power button) shows you what is wrong. The flashing Num lock and Caps lock while the scroll lock was constantly lit means that the motherboard is bad. I will probably call the number he gave to me to have them install another one or try to do so myself.

-SGMKBC

I am not sure what actually happened, my son's computer. After it was no longer working, he did indicate that the screen had done some strange things several time over the course of several weeks prior to no longer functioning (while it was still under warranty) but because he was able to restart and things were fine didn't seem to think much of it.

In order to follow the instructions at dell: "http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...n/SM/index.htm" do I have to buy a special bootable BIOS cd from Dell or can this be downloaded from the web. I did download a file from the web (MXC62A08) to a cd and tried to boot , but does not seem to do anything. The cooling fan does run, the cd reader makes several noises, and the power led remains lit. Nothing on the screen, nothing at all (no runs, no blips, no errors) nothing.

When booting from the CD, should the BIOS battery be connected or disconnected? When pressing F12 prior to booting, how long should F12 be pressed during the boot process, my assumption (although I've been wrong more than once in my lifetime) is that pressing F12 has to be done while the computer in in the on mode in order to have power going to the key?

Is there like a majic button combination that I can push and this will all have been a bad dream?

Thanks for the help.

I tried the fn+power button trick to see if your hardware diagnostics will work. What I get is the number lock and cap lock blinking simultaniously and the scroll lock is steady on. The power led remains constant and the battery low led came on orange after being on a while and remains on green after plugging in to wall outlet. Are these symptoms helpful in further determining my next steps. I am reluctant to spend money on parts when I'm uncertain that the problem will be adequately remedied.

I also saw several comment about updating the BIOS from a boot disk. Is this something available to be downloaded?

Thanks for the help,

SGMKBC

TurtleVideo, how did you come to the conclusion that your have fried your BIOS? Also, can you give me a link to where you can purchase a BIOS Chip.

I have a Dell XPS M1210. I have been reading the forums trying to gather ideas that I could use to fix my computer.

The problem: When I start the computer the screen stays black, the Power LED stays lit showing that it is indeed turned on, and the LED that shows that the hard drive is being accessed turns on for only a short period of time. The computer stays at this screen and does not boot anything.

I've taken out the CMOS batter and let it sit for 10 minutes to see if resetting the BIOS would work, but it didn't. I've tried the holding down the power button for 30 seconds too. I have even taken out the hard drive and other components to see if it would boot without; doing my best to narrow down what is wrong. It still does not work. Any ideas?

-Step.