[Evan Shaw]

Gonna be as through as possible here, so you can best understand my problem, and hopefully help me fix it! (Sorry in advance for the length) okay let's start here, yesterday I turned it on, booted up fine. As always. No problem, but later that day, my brother took a graphics card out, (have two, and they didn't share the work, one was not hooked up) but then it wouldn't want to boot. Stayed on the windows icon. I reset. Then it blue screened. Tried again in repair mode, nothing.. so I selected an option, (booted the pc with minimal drivers) finally got to the homescreen. Stuck in my graphics card disk, to load drivers. Started, but at somepoint froze. And that brings me to where I am now. Turn on, Dell loading screen, "xps630i (motherboard) bios revision 1.0.12. And has F2! And F12 option. If you choose nothing. Goes to" boot windows normally/repair" either ya choose, instant blue screen, was trying to boot floppy drive but I got it to quit. (It goes back to trying to boot if I reset everything in my setup menu F9) also I tested my memory, and did a diagnostic. Everything is fine. Which makes me believe im doing something wrong in the bios. Atm my advanced options, go to my I.P they look like this, "halt, all but keyboard" fast boot, on. Drive A, none. Boot 2 first, diskette drive, second, hdd, third, optical, other disabled. (I tried putting first boot as the hdd , nothing) so anyway that's where im at.. im baffled. Graphics card, Nividia geforce, gt520. Bios ta3602 version 75.19.1b.00.01. If it helps. Again sorry for the length. But tried to explain best I can. Thank you all in advance for the help, or advice.

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Hello Evan,

So you had 2 graphic cards in your dell before one was removed by your brother? Or did your brother remove one card and replace it?

If there was 2 in it, it was indeed using that video card. Just because it may not have been bridged, the card would technically still be active.

Are you able to boot the computer at all?

I will try to help you the best I can with this.

Also, is it possible to get the other card that WAS in the system back for at least diagnostic purpouses?

Edited by Richard Olmsted, 02 September 2011 - 05:57 PM.

[Richard Olmsted]

Hello Evan,

So you had 2 graphic cards in your dell before one was removed by your brother? Or did your brother remove one card and replace it?

If there was 2 in it, it was indeed using that video card. Just because it may not have been bridged, the card would technically still be active.

Are you able to boot the computer at all?

I will try to help you the best I can with this.

Also, is it possible to get the other card that WAS in the system back for at least diagnostic purpouses?

Edited by Richard Olmsted, 02 September 2011 - 05:57 PM.

[phillpower2]

Do you have the add on video card in the correct slot?
SLOT 1 is the primary GFX slot and SLOT 4 is the secondary GFX slot. if not the answer see below;
One other thing you can do to see if it helps is to remove the MBs CMOS battery for a few moments and then replace it, this will restore the MB back to the factory default settings so upon first boot you must enter the BIOS and reset the time and date, save the new settings and exit, let us know the results please.

Battery .jpeg courtesy of rshaffer61

[Evan Shaw]

Yes, had two cards in at the same time, tried booting with both,(one in at time) and nothing came up. Also.. anyway I can upload a pic via moble?

[phillpower2]

Sorry I am not familiar with mobile phone software, did you try clearing the CMOS as I suggested?

[Evan Shaw]

Yes, left it out for about a minute. Now its not even booting to where it was, its on the dell bios revision screen. Not loading anything. Can't access anything.

[Evan Shaw]

(Wasn't booting as far before I took it out also) it seems it getting progressively worse.. lol

[phillpower2]

Can you check that the power and data cables from the HDD have not become loose or disconnected, is the HDD listed in the BIOS and do you have the operating system or recovery disk that may have been supplied with the computer, this needs to be in the CD/DVD drive to be able to do the repair installation, you will also need to change the Boot sequence in the BIOS to CD/DVD drive first and the HDD second, save the settings and exit, what you are describing may suggest a HDD or OS issue and possibly a bad connection or damaged/corrupt Windows.

[Evan Shaw]

Yeah, I've tried all of that, before I posted this. But now I can't even get to the setup. I turn on the comp, and just goes to the dell screen, wont load anything. Can't even get to the screen to press F12. I think myself it may be a failing hdd. :/

[phillpower2]

A failing or failed HDD will not prevent you from getting into the BIOS, what happens if you tap the F2 key on boot up?
I asked earlier if you have the installation disk, what is the answer please.
You have tested the memory how did you test it and how many sticks of Ram do you have?
Try removing the BIOS battery again but this time disconnect all power first, keep the battery out longer and press the power on button to discharge any power that may remain in the system also what type of keyboard are you using the wired type or USB type?

[Evan Shaw]

Sorry, my other post didn't seem to post. But nothing happens, wont give me an option to press F2 or 12. Tried spamming it anyway. Nothing. And yes I have the disk its in my drive. I have 5gigs of ram, three one gig sticks. One two gig. I tested the ram by running a test from the boot up screen. (Forgot exatly what I did, sorry. Kinda stumbled upon it) and u have a usb. Have the battery out. (And thanks for all of your help)

[Evan Shaw]

And I have a usb* but the screen im stuck on is "dell" shows mb model and has intel icon as well. Have no options. Can't get into bios untill that screen loads. But its not even trying to load.

[phillpower2]

Ok it is possible that the computer is failing the P.O.S.T (power on self test) this can be caused by various components, PSU, MB, CPU, Ram, video card, HDD or even the keyboard and all may need to be tested to resolve the issue.
Is it possible for you to try a wired type keyboard as the USB ports may be disabled in the BIOS hence the lack of response from the keyboard.
The next thing I suggest is trying only one stick of Ram at a time in slot one of the MB, slot one may be the nearest one to your CPU, as this is a Dell computer does it not have any diagnostic LEDs that may offer clues to the cause.
See http://support.dell....ced.htm#1165062
Post back with any results with the keyboard and Ram.

[Evan Shaw]

A step forward. took all ram out but one stick, now says "floppy disk fail 40" comos checksum error defaults loaded. Warning! Cpu has been changed. Please reenter cpu settings in the cmos setup and remember to save before quit, setting has failed to post system is using default settings for this post attempt press F1 to continue. F2 to enter setup to adjust oc/ov settings

[Evan Shaw]

Usb keyboard is working.