I am posting here hoping someone will be able to help me with a problem that began with my Dell Precision 4600 (XP) computer yesterday. I've done some reading online, but so far nothing has fixed my problem. It began with a freezing of the computer. After restarting, I got the error message (B&W screen)that says Performing Automatic IDE Configuration. After hitting to continue the computer loaded Windows up and within a minute the screen went black. My monitor power button went from Green to Amber. The fan in the tower continued to run, but that was all. I restarted and would get the same thing happening over and over. I did some reading (not a computer expert at all) and found out about the indicator lights on the back. I checked those out and A, B, and C were green with D being yellow. Restarted again, this time going into setup menu and saw the date as Oct 8, 2003. Didn't change date, but recorded all other settings. Comp died again. I went out to Radio Shack and purchased a new battery for the motherboard. Followed Dell directions and changed the battery to a new one. Restarted computer went through setup and all settings were the same. Hit continue and Windows loaded. Checked the indicator lights on back and all were green. Thought all was well and less than 1 minute later the screen went black again. Waited 5 minutes and tried to restart and couldn't get very far before black screen of death.
If anyone can recommend my next steps towards fixing this I would greatly appreciate it. I am really hoping at the least I will be able to get back on long enough to transfer to another computer all of our pictures saved on the comp (if it is dying). Thanks in advance for any tips / suggestions for fixing this. Mentioned previously I am not very knowledgeable in computers so a step by step on how to fix would be very much appreciated.
Mitch
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