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Help! GX110 bootup failed at checkpoint [CRT] and [PNPC]
I bought a GX110 (SFF), and recently it freezes up and fails to bootup. I tried many things, but problem persists. I get the message when it fails to bootup as follows:
"Attempts at bootup have failed at check point [CRT?] and check point [PNPC]."
I have no idea what that means or what to do about it. Both the unit and the monitor lights are steady green, but the screen is black, no Windows. It just dies before it gets to the Windows page.
All you gurus outside there, please help. Help will be much appreciated.
- Thanks for your insights and reminiscence.I don't have a Samsung monitor (NEC), but I do have a Samsung CD Rom. It does seem to freeze often when I use the CD Rom for music. I thought it was too much multi-tasking overload. When it freezes it just won't start again unless it rests for a day or two, and then it goes off anytime it pleases. I did try the Dell chat, but they don't seem to know their stuff. That's why I have to turn to all you gurus out there, hopefully someone will know.The monitor cannot center the Dell logo on the opening page. It is off to the side and partially out of the screen. I don't know how to get the monitor or the computer to know the edges of the screen.Furthermore, I don't know what's a Bios, where to find it or how to deal with it.Any insight, help, advice, will be most appreciated.
- By saying the opening page, do you mean the first thing you see when you start your PC? The blue Dell logo on a black background?
Cos that is the bios load process. To enter the bios you can press F2 whilst you see that blue Dell logo that appears just when you start your PC.
But the thing is. If your PC hangs and you need to let it bee for a day or two for you to get it started again, there are some major issues that most likely cannot be solved without some hardware replacements. I would guess that the motherboard needs to be swapped. However, buying a motherboard from Dell will cost you a lot of monney, if you even can get hold of one.
Ive mailed Dell and asked for what the checkpoints mean, i dont remember what they mean, and i dont have the time to look for them now, but ill let you know when they reply.
bye for now.
PS: whilst we wait, you could try some things if your up to it. When your PC wont start, you can open it up and remove IDE cables to the CD and Floppy, + remove any PCI cards that might be in the machine and try to start it again. Another thing you can do when you do this is to just pick out the RAM for a few seconds and then reinsert it/them again.
DS. You can get the entire machine for $50 to $120 or so depending on specs from EBAY or AMAZON and other vendors like http://WWW.PCRETRO.COM
Most support in my area costs $75 to $150 dollars an hour with minimum of 2 hours plus travel time to diagnose and repair.
Time to get another system.
Keep in mind you can get a GX240 with AGP and 200 watt psu for $200 or so.
Sometimes fixing and upgrades are not as economical as trading up to a newer machine.
- Hey.
Ok, so i looked this up now, since dell havent botherd to reply yet.
bootup failed at checkpoint [CRT?] means - Searching for video ROMs.
bootup failed at checkpoint [PNPc] i could not find, but PNP is plug and play and since the CRT means searching for video roms, well. If it cannot find a video rom, or there is something wrong with it, well...
Another thing, PNPv means Video All Done, and since PNP"c" comes before PNP"v" one can only speculate that it hasent completed its video initialization.
Ok, so, a possibility is that there is something wrong with the video rom. If you are really lucky it might be a temporary fault that you can sort out by removing all power that might keep the rom settings alive.
Remove the powercord from the PC, push and hold the Power button for 3 secs, open it up, remove the CMOS battery (looks like a wrist watch battery and is located on the motherboard) and leave it be for some time. Then reinsert the battery and plug in the power. If it still is in bad shape, well... i think you shuld take a closer look on SpeedSteps post and follow his advice.
bye bye. Thank you very much for taking the trouble to look up those checkpoints.
We might be on the right track. However, I don't know what 'searching for video ROM" means or what a "video Rom" is, and I don't dare to temper with the little batteries inside. I have unpluged, repluged, waited, and still a mystery.
But there might be something along this line, as I use a new NEC monitor, and never installed any NEC driver since the plug-N-play just started working for 6 weeks without a NEC driver. Maybe the WindowsXP driver is not too good for this monitor and it's 'searching' for the right one. I tried it on another monitor IBM, and it still gives me the same checkpoint. [PNP1], so it's not entirely the monitor's problem. Is the "video ROM" in the computer or in the monitor?
There are important files I left in the computer, so I have to gain access to them somehow, if there is a way.
- If the machine boots which it apparently wont due due to POST failure aka it never gets past the checkpoints you could boot from a live Linux CD and access the data and even save the data to USB flash drives. However this is all moot because you have a broken system with damaged motherboard. Video is part of the motherboard.
Video rom is part of the bios. These are not removable parts. Your system is toast. - Hey.
I agree with "Mr Buzz Lightyear I dont like Toshiba" overhead, your system is probably not ever going to be a system again, but if you want to retreive your data, get another PC and just hook the drive up to that as a slave and get what you want.
The GX110 is an old bloke and has probably done it fair share of computing during its days, time to RIP.
my condolences - I was going to throw this Dell baby into the Atlantic ocean, but before I do that I got an idea. Please let me know what you think.It the problem is with the video onboard, and it got stuck at checkpoints PNP1, can I install a video card in the PCI slot, and bypass the damaged video onboard, and somehow get the system to recognize it instead of the onboard toasted "card"? Everything else seems to be OK as there is green light, but yellow light on the monitor, which means no signals going out. A new video card should give it some choice to boot from?Also, at the Dell download driver site, there is a Bios A09 that can boot from diskette, it says. Can I install a new Bio and boot from diskette with new Bio driver?I do appreciate your kind condolences!!! But I try not to let poor old Dell sit in the bottom of the ocean.
- I see where you are geting at, and ive thought about that to, but here are the obsticles along that bumpy road.
1: When you install a videocard in a Dell GX150 and later, the PC will instantly recognize the expansion videocard and shut off the internal one.
However, earlier in the PC days this was not a standard feature, or possibly not even possible with a PC that only has PCI ports. So, if you install a videocard, your BIOS will still try to load and execute the onboard videocard that you have in your system, so you will still get the checkpoint error... and thus it will stop the BIOS loading procedure and never even try to start loading windows.
Second problem (that in this case wont matter is that) when installing a PCI card, the system (since it wont turn off the internal one) will load windows and use the internal one as standard card, so you need to see that monitor to log in to windows etc. THEN if that wasent enough, you need to install the drivers and set all setting so that windows uses that secondary card to give you a video output as you want it to.
2:Regarding the bios, If you are to upgrade the BIOS with a new one, you accually need to be able to boot from a diskette, and to make that happen the BIOS need to complete its load process to do its handoff to that boot disk.
(Booting can only happen after the bios has loaded 100%, and yours stops somewhere along the way)
Loads of problems... sorry mate, but i think a burrial at see is a good way to go.
R.I.P
1998 - 2006Message Edited by Fox3n on 05-27-200603:14 PM
Fox3n
51 Posts
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Posted May 22nd, 2006 22:00
Hey, has it worked before?
Give Dell a call, and just ask them what the checkpont codes stand for.
U get a checkpoint code if the bios has "stopped" at the same place three times i think.
When i see Checkpoint [CRT] i remember a thing from the past that is allmost to corny to write about, is that the GX100 and 110 has some small issues with some monitors.
If you for example plug in a Samsung 1200NF ( 22" ) the bios load process will hang at one place or another.
My mom had a GX100, which i plugged in a 1200NF to, and it would not work, no matter what i did. (didnt know this then) but when i brought the PC home to me it worked like a charm, then when i took it back to her and plugged it in to the Samsung monitor, i stopped working. After some long troubleshooting i found that it was the monitor that caused this. So, did you change monitors lately? ;)
good luck.
Message Edited by Fox3n on 05-22-200606:58 PM