Posts by SnowDog

Sorry, that was me not reading things properly :(

The diags still apply, just that you can't do much about - for example - the graphics having popped. All roads lead to the MOBO, so to speak.

What we'd do is have you remove the battery (and any peripherals), plug in the mains, and try power up.

If it still wouldn't POST we'd take it in and most times it'd get a new MOBO.

With all you've tried, there's not much else you can do.

In theory there's no reason why you can't use them, although some users may have compatibility issues with their browsers. This link is up to date:

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngapbr.html

There's no hosting issue that I'm aware of personally. I've not had a problem.

First thought is that it's not POSTing if it isn't booting from anything.... can it get to the BIOS?

Does it make a POST beep (only relevant if you know it ever did make one when it was working)?

What happens if you disconnect everything on the outside, then just power up from mains?

If still no POST/boot, then it's either the motherboard or something connected to it holding it from POST.

Does it have a separate graphics card or is it onboard? What PCI cards are connected?

If you're going to be serious about it, though, you might want to consider buying a domain name and webspace to go with it. You often get what you pay for, and if you pay nothing....

I'm not saying free hosting is bad, but if you're going to take this all seriously then it makes sense to consider all the options.

That's the kind of thing we look for if it's a choice between sending one or several components. But in this case, as you know the PSU is OK...

It's always tricky because there is the possibility that anything plugged into the machine could be involved. We've had rare cases where we've sent out mobos and it's turned out that, for example, the graphics card was fried. But 9 times out of 10 the mobo fixes it in a situation like yours.

One particular range of machines has a habit of burning out capacitors on the mobo and that causes the smell, it seems (in the cases I'm referring to). Smoke usually means the PSU.

That just means the program crashed out to DOS.

No, now you need to get the new HDD and fit it, then restore Windows and all the drivers.

I don't know if your machine is a branded model or a self build, but....

In our call centre we get a lot of problems with machines which either turn off (or are turned off) and then won't turn back on again.

We have the customer remove all cables, then plug in the mains cord.

If it powers up and won't POST, we book an engineer with a motherboard.

If it won't power up, we book an engineer with a PSU.

If there are any other pieces of info, like burning smells, pops, or intermittent power before no power at all, we decide whether to include either a PSU with the MOBO or a MOBO with the PSU.

In the vast majority of cases this works. I don't want to contradict Janine, but it is quite rare that we have to replace a CPU. The MOBO and/or PSU are most likely at this stage.

Is it a branded machine?

From what you have said, your PC isn't POSTing.

Has it ever worked? Or has it been like this from the first time you turned it on?

Go through the 'newly built PC' part of this thread:

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread27079.html

Until you find out this is just a guess, but maybe the board is shorting somewhere? Or maybe it's fried. But at least you'll know.

I remember the first one I built. I made sure I followed the case instructions to the letter: "It is essential that the metal spacers are fitted to the tray as these provide support for the board when the CPU fan is fitted"

The problem was, the standard Intel fan (at that time) worked in such a way that it deformed the board slightly, causing it to press against these spacer posts. And that caused a short, which in turn prevented POST.

It took ages to nail it. And I even bought a second board to diag it.

Fortunately it didn't do any harm and once the spacers were out it worked perfectly. That machine has never crashed even once.

That's one way, or some mobos have jumpers you can short to force reset to defaults.

How old is the machine and how long has it been working perfectly as far as this problem goes before it all went wrong?

If it was OK for a significant time, then suddenly wasn't, something has changed and it's that you've got to nail.

The reinstall technique is the final diagnostic: if it won't work after that there is a hardware problem. That's why they're doing it, and they appear to have tried everything else to their credit.

What else can they do? Send you an engineer? To do what?

Go along with them and the quicker it will get sorted :)

Had one the other day and the woman's daughter had mangled the front USB by trying to plug a firewire into it (I think it was an iPod).

Pins and front metal surround all bent, and machine having problems.

And don't get me started on when people plug mice, flash pens, or wi-fi adapters in the front, then either stand or lean on the cable.

USB damage can hold the whole machine down. We have had situations where engineers have been sent out with motherboards and it has been, for just one example (and there are others), the front USBs mangled.

We always check just to make sure.

Honestly, they do!

It's even more annoying when they've been told to do it - on a machine only a few days old. That happens, too. Unsurprisingly, they usually call back with the original problem.

Same here, more or less.

Windows Restore is great if you're installing something, it causes a problem, and you want to undo the problem. All at one time.

But do anything else in between and the outcome could be quite a muddle (based on just my own experience, of course). A lot of our customers run it (along with defrag!!!) the second their computer does something they don't like.

Well, rewording it it little, it doesn't always do it properly and it can just as easily stop other things working properly depending on what you did between restore points :)

I know what you mean, though. It's done the same for me before.

Someone will correct me on this if I'm wrong, but if the output for this is to go to the screen (I didn't think about what it was supposed to do until later) you'd be better using echo instead of print.

I know I always do.

It is discussed here:

http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/1/fid/40

Read this thread:

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread27079.html

It gives useful troubleshooting tips for testing a newly assembled PC which won't boot. SHould help you pin down where the problem is.

That usually means a syntax error of some sort.

Isn't the format for the print 'function':

print ( a string );

(Note the brackets).

And you've not got a paired ' in the last one.

And there's one in the middle with only one " in it which will need to be escaped using \" if you want it in a string as such.

And one of your <forms> bits has a > missing.

It doesn't look like it will work as it is.

Remember than inside 12 months they are probably covered by warranty...

In the UK, a little under £90.

http://www.studentcomputers.co.uk/laptop-battery/dell-laptop-battery-page-2.htm

Has it worked at all or are you building it now?

You really should go to that link I gave an read up on it, but:

Q. Hard disks being supported?
A. The program abilities depend on abilities of the platform the program runs:

Windows 2000/XP/2003:

• IDE, SCSI, SATA, USB & Firewire drives, various RAID controllers including 48-bit ATA.

Taken from the FAQs.

Well, I'd just suggest recovering it now. It'd be quicker.

I've never had a problem with it.

Incidentally, I don't know what you've heard about Ghost, but many manufacturers use that - and most of the small PC-building companies I know, too - to quickly put systems together.

The only problem you ever have with a working image is if it gets corrupt or if the disks you put it on get scratched.

There's actually a better option than that.

If you build your machine, set it up the way you want it including network connections, software, etc., then install disk imaging software, you can make your own recovery disks/partitions which restore back to a more useful configuration rather than just the 'factory state'.

Personally, I use Paragon software (currently called Exact Image):

http://www.exact-image.com/

But there's Norton Ghost and Acronis you could also use.

If we came up against this with a customer, we'd have to treat it as a motherboard issue of some sort.

If it was overheating that badly I'd expect there to be problems turning it back on immediately (and I mean power - not just no POST).

Does your BIOS have a temperature monitor in it?

Any USB damage? What if you disconnect the front board, for example?

What about running RAM and HDD diagnostic tests just to eliminate those?

Does it do it when you just power from mains (i.e. eliminate peripherals from the equation)

You've actually done far more than we'd expect our customers to do and it all points to a mobo issue.

Are you still a registered user? That should be the key. If you aren't, then you don't really want to be installing it anyway as the virus definitions will be out of date.

I don't think Norton would be supporting that version any more (4 years old), so to still have it working it MUST have been updated several times (and I mean the program, not the definitions)

That points at the setup file for Norton, then.

If downloaded files install OK, but just Norton doesn't.... well, you get the idea.

If you're a registered user you can download the file(s) again, can't you?

Just as a test, what happens if you download some other file for test purposes and try running it? Adaware or Spybot, for example (since they're useful to have)?

First thought is as you say: video card or drivers.

The quickest and easiest way forward would be simply to run the recovery Dell supply and see if it still does it after that. If it does, it's probably broken.

Since it works in Safe Mode, backing up personal files should be easy.

If it used to beep and it doesn't now then it isn't POSTing.

Turn it off and unplug EVERYTHING. Leave it for a few minutes then plug the power cord in. Turn it on and see what happens.

If it won't POST it is broken and you need to find out in what way. No POST often means a motherboard fault. Your other symptoms before the total failure could point towards the MOBO and other things.

Is there any USB damage or did this just happen out of the blue?

What machine is it?

I'm sorry, but I have to support them on it :)

Their job is to get your machine working as quickly as possible and if they send out an engineer with a spare part, which doesn't work, and then requires recovery anyway, that's a wasted visit someone else could have had, and spare part that wasn't needed which costs someone somewhere money. Next time you buy a Dell, that'll end up being you ;)

I work in the same job for another company, and the recovery option is a diagnostic tool. 80% of problems can be resolved over the telephone in spite of our customers (not meaning you, by the way) often demanding engineers because they deleted something and think something broke inside. Doing the recovery first eliminates any possibility of software problems in the original configuration. And it only takes 10 minutes in most cases (though Dell might be one of the OS recoveries, if I remember correctly, so a couple of hours).

But a couple of hours is better than a couple of weeks waiting for a part that may not be needed.

Work with them and they'll work with you :)

Technically, yes. But to fair: probably not :)

Dell will probably want you to recover the machine before they send anyone out though, won't they?

The 7E error can occur as a result of various things - software or hardware. Microsoft lists:

This issue may occur if a system thread generates an exception that the error handler does not catch. This may occur if one or more of the following conditions exist:

•If this issue occurs after the first restart during Windows Setup, or after Setup is finished, the computer may not have sufficient hard disk space to run Windows.

•If this issue occurs after the first restart during Windows Setup, or after Setup is complete, the computer BIOS may be incompatible with Windows.

•Incompatible video adapter drivers.

•Damaged RAM.

•A damaged device driver or system service.

•If the issue is associated with the Win32k.sys file, it may be caused by a third-party remote control program.

If it was me, I'd do a clean reinstall first to check if it still happened. Then attack hardware piece by piece to find out where the problem was. But that's just me because I have my drive imaged and can recover quickly. If recovery is a problem, try uninstalling and reinstalling video and other drivers.

Jigoro, do you get a blue screen for a split second when it restarts?

And formatting Sharron's cut-and-paste because she clearly isn't familiar with that function:

#1

<?php
/*
$Id: header.php,v 1.42 2003/06/10 18:20:38 hpdl Exp $
osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
http://www.oscommerce.com
Copyright (c) 2003 osCommerce
Released under the GNU General Public License
*/
// check if the 'install' directory exists, and warn of its existence
if (WARN_INSTALL_EXISTENCE == 'true') {
if (file_exists(dirname($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['SCRIPT_FILENAME']) . '/install')) {
$messageStack->add('header', WARNING_INSTALL_DIRECTORY_EXISTS, 'warning'); } } // check if the configure.php file is writeable if (WARN_CONFIG_WRITEABLE == 'true') { if ( (file_exists(dirname($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['SCRIPT_FILENAME']) . '/includes/configure.php')) &amp;&amp; (is_writeable(dirname($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['SCRIPT_FILENAME']) . '/includes/configure.php')) ) { $messageStack-&gt;add('header', WARNING_CONFIG_FILE_WRITEABLE, 'warning'); } } // check if the session folder is writeable if (WARN_SESSION_DIRECTORY_NOT_WRITEABLE == 'true') { if (STORE_SESSIONS == '') { if (!is_dir(tep_session_save_path())) { $messageStack-&gt;add('header', WARNING_SESSION_DIRECTORY_NON_EXISTENT, 'warning'); } elseif (!is_writeable(tep_session_save_path())) { $messageStack-&gt;add('header', WARNING_SESSION_DIRECTORY_NOT_WRITEABLE, 'warning'); } } } // check session.auto_start is disabled if ( (function_exists('ini_get')) &amp;&amp; (WARN_SESSION_AUTO_START == 'true') ) { if (ini_get('session.auto_start') == '1') { $messageStack-&gt;add('header', WARNING_SESSION_AUTO_START, 'warning'); } } if ( (WARN_DOWNLOAD_DIRECTORY_NOT_READABLE == 'true') &amp;&amp; (DOWNLOAD_ENABLED == 'true') ) { if (!is_dir(DIR_FS_DOWNLOAD)) { $messageStack-&gt;add('header', WARNING_DOWNLOAD_DIRECTORY_NON_EXISTENT, 'warning'); } } if ($messageStack-&gt;size('header') &gt; 0) { echo $messageStack-&gt;output('header'); } ?&gt; 
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR class=header>
<TD vAlign=center><?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link (FILENAME_DEFAULT ) . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'oscommerce.gif', 'osCommerce') . '</a>'; ?></TD>
<TD vAlign=bottom align=right><?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_ACCOUNT, '', 'SSL') . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'header_account.gif', HEADER_TITLE_MY_ACCOUNT) . '</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_SHOPPING_CART) . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'header_cart.gif', HEADER_TITLE_CART_CONTENTS) . '</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING, '', 'SSL') . …

Why didn't you just save your GIF with the name 'oscommerce.gif' and overwrite the one on the server, rather then drop yourself into PHP at this level knowing what you do?

How did you clean it out? Vacuuming is a bad idea because it generates static, and computers and static don't get on well. Can be even worse if you leave things plugged into the back.

To start with, unplug everything including the power and let it stand for a few minutes. Plug in the power and turn it on. What happens? Any sign of a normal startup with lights, beeps, and HDD clatter?

If not, it is possible you knocked something inside, so unplug it all again and open the side of the machine and CAREFULLY make sure nothing is obviously loose. Be really careful about touching anything because of static.

If that doesn't work it is probably broken and it is then a case of finding out what. When they won't go through POST (basically, that beep then displaying stuff) it is quite often the motherboard.

If you don't know what you deleted you're treading a fine line here, but why not just download the latest drivers for the Conexant hardware?

http://www.driverguide.com/

You'll need to know what chipset/model it is though.

But your machine ought to have been supplied with the driver disks if it was customer built.

Installing the drivers won't work if you deleted other stuff as well.

Does it do it in Safe Mode?

Does the L key have a symbol on it in BLUE? I'm just wondering if you have a Function (Fn lock) option and the L can be used with Fn to change its purpose. Just a thought, though.

Does the L key work in the BIOS? If you have the opportunity to set a password in BIOS you can test keys there.

The final test would be to do a full recovery and see if it solves the problem.

If none of that applies or works then you'd have to conclude a keyboard fault.

System Rstore doesn't put deleted files back!

When you say 'deleted' do you mean 'uninstalled'? What exactly did you do (i.e. how did you do it)?

What Make and model is your PC?

The HDD is the hard disk drive.

You'll need access to a computer with Internet connectivity and a CD burner, plus a blank CD-R.

Go to this link:

http://tinyurl.com/y9598x

Download the file and install it on the computer you are using at the time.

Then go to this link:

http://tinyurl.com/y5zohv

Download that file to your computer. Run it and allow it to extract files to the default folder (say YES to create the folder if it asks you).

Now go to All Programs and run the program called Imagewriter (you installed this when you ran the first downloaded file above). Put your blank CD in the drive and cancel any automatic Windows 'what do you want to do' messages.

When it asks which file you want to use, navigate to the c:\diagcd21\diagcd21.iso file and burn it to disk.

Once the disk is created, put it in your broken laptop, turn the laptop off, then turn it on again. It should boot from the CD and then give you the opportunity to run a Long HDD (hard disk) test. The utility supportsd a wide range of disk manufacturers.

If the HDD is faulty you'll have to get a new one fitted.

Well, you've lost anything on the drive by trying to format anyway, even if it didn't complete.

If formatting stops at 3% each time it's pointing strongly at a HDD problem.

To be sure, you could run a HDD diagnostic test, but I'd wager you'll likely find that's where the problem is.

Is the machine under warranty?

With only 10 feet and one floor you should have a good signal.

What we'd advise at work is reset the router completely, and make sure that Windows is controlling wireless on the laptop.

Then scan.

If the signal is weak, either the laptop or router is playing up.

Since the router appears new you could get it tested at the store you bought it from. They'll usually have a network they can test the laptop with.

The router will be covered by a replacement warranty more than likely.

When you go to BIOS what does it show as system time and date? Were those correct?

Well, in short, no.

It could be a case or one OR the other. But if you can't power up, there's nothing else you can do.

One absolute, final check: could you get it tested on another PSU at a store? If it won't power from that then that's it as far as the laptop goes without repair.

You wouldn't smell anything. One spark is enough, unfortunately.

The annoying thing is, they sometimes survive a hundred times worse.

At the moment, I'd suspect both the laptop and the PSU.

Another thought: if you inspect the cable to the PSU it doesn't look damaged, does it? We've had a few cases recently where the plastic has worn away and bare wires have touched and that's what caused the damage. It doesn't really help you, but the pressure you mentioned could have caused this if you had a damaged cable.

Right from the start this was screaming out that there could be a hardware problem with the sound card or possibly the PCI slot.

It looks even more like that at the moment.

In the UK, employers make it clear that if they have reasonable grounds for suspicion they can log anything you do. They make this clear in the Terms of Employment and, more usually, in the AUP for their IT systems.

I know from experience... ;)

And on the other side, I have set up keylogging for businesses, at least one of which caught and warned an employee for running a business, and another for accessing porn at work.

Since no one else has answered....

Just seeing if it is possible to get any pointers, does the BIOS screen show system time at all?

I'm just wondering if the CMOS battery had died.

Thinking of a few desktops I repaired several years ago when after every power up following a period of more than a few hours shutdown all the BIOS setting were lost. Replacing the battery fixed those.

Just musing to see if it's any help....