Dell computer tech support

Top Tip: Dell tech support is stumped!

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Question from baloudog "I hope someone can help. I have a Dell Dimension 4400. It worked great for a year, and suddenly 2 weeks ago it failed. It was in the screen saver mode after burning a CD without difficulty, and the screen went black. I attempted to reboot, and failed. It would just go to the Dell splash screen, then windows XP pro splash, and freeze. I couldn't get into safemode at all. To make a long story short, Dell determined after several hours on the phone, that the computer would boot just fine if my DVD and CD-roms were disconnected.

They assumed it was a problem with the IDE cable. To clarify, it would not boot if either of the drives were connected. Neither worked alone. Dell replaced the cable, and no go. Then they figured it was a bad motherboard, and replaced that. No go. Then they figured it was the power supply. Replacing that didn't work wither. I'm now waiting for the replacement Cd rom and dvd. I am fearful that won't work either, since the chance of both drives failing instantaneously is pretty slim. Does any one have any other ideas? Dell techs are pretty frustrated, as am I. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks."

Answer from venusgold "Anyone every try reinstalling windows?"

Answer from Slikkster "It absolutely does not appear to me to be a hardware issue at this point. I mean, let's face it, everything was replaced (virtually everything). But, there's a few other things to try hardware-wise. How about scanners? Got one attached? I found a had a bootup problem like you refer when the power to the scanner was unplugged at bootup. Try disconnecting it, if you have one. Remove your printer and all external peripherals (not the monitor, of course) while you are at it. Try booting.

If no good, can you boot from the CD? Have you tried the recovery console? (booting from CD).

You can install another copy of XP Pro on the machine (in a separate partition, if available) and then get to all your old files that way. This assumes you can boot from the cd, of course."

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