Dell Inspiron 6400 Starts Then Stops

[jase9112]

Hey there. Windows XP user with a Dell Inspiron 6400 which seems to have died.

It starts up normally when I press the power button for about a second, getting into the Dell loading screen with a gray status bar at the bottom. Normally the bar would fill up in about 1-2 seconds and a screen would load with the blue bar at the top before going into Windows XP's shell.

Now the grey bar gets about 1/8th the way to being full and my system suddenly cuts out. The caps lock/scroll lock/num lock still stays lit appropriately and the plug in light stays illuminated. The little symbol that lights up to show the processor working keeps blinking every now and then but that's it. The screen just stays black and nothing happens. It doesn't get far enough into startup for F8 to do anything. If a cd is in the drive it goes through the standard checking-your-cd-at-start-up sounds while the screen is black then it just sits there doing nothing.

So any help on what could be wrong with it?

[hughv]

If you have the diagnostics CD, try running it:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/om/trouble.htm#wp1062918
Load the XP install CD and see if the HD is detected. Run the repair install if it is.
You may have a bad drive or other hardware failure.

[dusty604]

Hey there. Windows XP user with a Dell Inspiron 6400 which seems to have died.

It starts up normally when I press the power button for about a second, getting into the Dell loading screen with a gray status bar at the bottom. Normally the bar would fill up in about 1-2 seconds and a screen would load with the blue bar at the top before going into Windows XP's shell.

Now the grey bar gets about 1/8th the way to being full and my system suddenly cuts out. The caps lock/scroll lock/num lock still stays lit appropriately and the plug in light stays illuminated. The little symbol that lights up to show the processor working keeps blinking every now and then but that's it. The screen just stays black and nothing happens. It doesn't get far enough into startup for F8 to do anything. If a cd is in the drive it goes through the standard checking-your-cd-at-start-up sounds while the screen is black then it just sits there doing nothing.

So any help on what could be wrong with it?

Hi I have the same problem. Temporary solution for me was to unplug the computer from the wall and let it run without the plug in battery. when not in use plug the battery back in and it will re-charge your lap top---I am trying to find out why plugging the battery in is turning the screen black. Hope it help and if you find out more, let me know. tks dusty604