Dell Dimension 4400 w/XP Won't Boot

[zaarenoc]

Dell Dimension 4400 w/XP Won't Boot.

This one powers up but won't boot. Won't boot from Floppy or CD/DVD. I took all the pci cards out, removed the ram, disconnected the floppy and HDD, and turned it on... I didn't get any post codes except the four LED's in the rear of the case stayed green.

I replaced the cmos battery just in case... the message with just the HDD connected is: Boot Failure: System Halted. I also tried a linux live CD, but of course it wouldn't boot. I can't access the BIOS settings. It has Dell BIOS A06.

I tried my P.O.S.T. (Microscope 2000) card and it showed "EA" as the code, but I couldn't find anything on that code in Google.

My daughter gave me 3 non-working computers and this is the last of them.

Any Ideas?

 

[eyeCpc]

The first mistake was removing all of the memory. You should have at least one dimm tested in each slot with the video card still in as well.

The fresh battery was a smart move there however since those go from time to time. With each dimm tried out if you still run into the boot failure message the drive or cable it is on should be replaced to find out or rule out there.

The first thing however is putting back one dimm to reach the first post screen since no memory equals immediate system stall there.

 

[philbar71]

ya your system will not post without ram. it wont hurt to run mem test to see if the ram is bad, also try a different dvd drive and hdd from another pc.