UNSOLVED
Dimension 8100 stops at Dell logo
Jello,
I'm trying to get some life in an old Dimension 8100.
When booting I get so far as to the Dell logo and the progress bar stops at about 5%.
The Diagnostic code lights on the back shows ABC Green and D Amber. (Other failure.)
The PowerLed is Green.
After lots of reboots (switching memory, removing hard drives etc...) I suddenly got a screen saying: "Alert! Previous attempts at booting this system have failed at checkpoint [Ithr]. For help..."
Then I removed the battery and held the PowerButton for some seconds and then replaced the battery, and now I'm back at the normal Dell logo, and the progress bar still stops at about 5%.
So, could this be a Memory problem? I have no other RIMMs to try, and it would be nice not to buy a couple of RIMMs (expensive) just to find out that the error was something else.
Thanks.
/Fredrik
I'm trying to get some life in an old Dimension 8100.
When booting I get so far as to the Dell logo and the progress bar stops at about 5%.
The Diagnostic code lights on the back shows ABC Green and D Amber. (Other failure.)
The PowerLed is Green.
After lots of reboots (switching memory, removing hard drives etc...) I suddenly got a screen saying: "Alert! Previous attempts at booting this system have failed at checkpoint [Ithr]. For help..."
Then I removed the battery and held the PowerButton for some seconds and then replaced the battery, and now I'm back at the normal Dell logo, and the progress bar still stops at about 5%.
So, could this be a Memory problem? I have no other RIMMs to try, and it would be nice not to buy a couple of RIMMs (expensive) just to find out that the error was something else.
Thanks.
/Fredrik
- Disconnect the primary hard drive (power and data). Will the system boot?
The single amber LED (ABC green, D amber) means the RAM tests OK but that they system cannot pass control to the bootstrap on the hard drive -- remove the hard drive from the loop and see if you can get into setup.
If you can, you've almost certainly found the culprit. A failing hard drive can produce the symptoms you're seeing. - On http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dsleest/codemess.htm#diagnostic_codes ABC Green and D Amber (Yellow) is said to be "Other failure."
But that does not say that much, and if this is a hard drive problem that is really great.
Sadly running without hard drive, CD-Rom and Floppy I still have the same problem, I will only see the Dell logo with about 5% of the progress bar completed.
If I have no hard drive and/or valid partition how will the system react? I should still be able to reach the BIOS settings, right?
/Fredrik - Thanks for the fast reply, but I think that maybe I was not clear enough.
I have the same problem with all peripherals disconnected, i.e. without floppy, hard disk, USB devices, sound card, modem, graphics card, mouse, keyboard ... ;).
If I remove any of the memory I will get another error, but that must be about RIMMs having to be in pairs and without any memory the slots have to be filled with CRIMMs if I understand correctly.
If I could check the Setup or run test from CD or from the Dell diagnostics everything would be fine, but on Power-Up it will only reach the Dell logo (the first thing that turns up on boot).
I guess that the keyboard is not even initialized since pressing Num Lock or Caps Lock will not turn on the respective light.
/Fredrik - I doubt it is his hard drive, because when mine failed I was able to get past that dell start up screen, and all the way to the windows start up where the green (now blue) bar would scroll for enternity. It still could be your hard drive though because our systems are different.
ejn63
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Posted November 3rd, 2005 15:00
Check the setup (F2) to see if the hard drive is detected. If it's not, reseat the data and power cables and try again.
If it is detected, boot the Dell Drivers and Utilities CD that shipped with the system and run a full test - I suspect you're going to find the drive is history.