[Astro1]

Hello, so i recently picked up on an old computer that i was attempting to fix, and i cant figure out what the heck is wrong!
It's a dell XPS 410, with a Nvidia Gforce 9500 GT video card, and 2x 256 and 2x 516 MB ram sticks, 320GB SATA hard drive. No IDE Hookups.
The computer basically turns on an IMMEDIATELY gets the blinking cursor on the top left corner of screen.
It's driving me crazy, i havent been able to fix it.
Power button- Blinking cursor.
It has a working windows XP on the hard drive, i put the hard drive in a different tower and re-installed the whole OS.
I didnt get a chance to install the graphics card driver but i figure if i can see the cursor it's not the graphics card.
I have taken the battery out, checked and rechecked all cords, tried unplugging and turning on etc, and nothing works.
Any suggestions?

Edited by Astro1, 23 February 2011 - 11:12 AM.

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Hi Astro1

The computer basically turns on an IMMEDIATELY gets the blinking cursor on the top left corner of screen.

This is most likely caused by this;

It has a working windows XP on the hard drive, i put the hard drive in a different tower and re-installed the whole OS.

Just to check a couple of things, where did the HDD come from, the dell XPS 410?

didnt get a chance to install the graphics card driver but i figure if i can see the cursor it's not the graphics card.

Have you installed the drivers for the MB on the HDD and if so did you install them in the correct order? http://support.dell....4&isLegacy=true

but i figure if i can see the cursor it's not the graphics card.

Incorrect Im afraid, on a system with a functional OS the generic Windows drivers may be used to provide a display.
Have you tried getting into the BIOS by tapping F2 upon boot up and finally do you have either the XP or Recovery disk/s that came with the XPS 410?

[phillpower2]

Hi Astro1

The computer basically turns on an IMMEDIATELY gets the blinking cursor on the top left corner of screen.

This is most likely caused by this;

It has a working windows XP on the hard drive, i put the hard drive in a different tower and re-installed the whole OS.

Just to check a couple of things, where did the HDD come from, the dell XPS 410?

didnt get a chance to install the graphics card driver but i figure if i can see the cursor it's not the graphics card.

Have you installed the drivers for the MB on the HDD and if so did you install them in the correct order? http://support.dell....4&isLegacy=true

but i figure if i can see the cursor it's not the graphics card.

Incorrect Im afraid, on a system with a functional OS the generic Windows drivers may be used to provide a display.
Have you tried getting into the BIOS by tapping F2 upon boot up and finally do you have either the XP or Recovery disk/s that came with the XPS 410?

[Astro1]

I just messed with it for the last few hours.
It was the 3rd port for RAM on the mother board. It's fried i guess, after trial and error nothin g can be put into that slot without me getting the cursor.
After a year of having this thing i finally just reinstalled windows XP service pack 2 on it, now im trying to find the drivers because it actually needed Windows media center edition 2006.
But hey, i got the thing running woot.

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the update I am happy to read that you have made progress.
Try updating to SP3 and you may get the drivers you require, keep us
posted on your progress and good luck.

[Astro1]

Stole my friends Ipod and am currently downloading the drivers from dell Im happy as [bleep] right now haha.
I've been using a dimension 3000 for the last 10 years, and its great but the onboard graphics makes it hard to play WoW.
This computer was given to me to fix, but after the owner saw it going nowhere, he had me fix his old dimension and gave me this for parts.
I've always wanted to get it working because it has PCI cards i can swap out.
Has an nvidia geforce 9500 GT in it right now, which is def. better then onboard.

[phillpower2]