Picked up a dell gaming pc from skip and after buying a dvi cable to plug into a monitor the screen remains black.

My challenge is to see if i can get it to work so looking for advice.

A couple of things.
1. When mains cable is plugged in, the fans spin up to max for a couple of seconds then go off. This seems strange as the pc is not switched on, psu problem?
2. When switched on, there are a number of beeps that then stop, guessing this is some diagnostic thing but what does it mean?

No smoke or burning smell and fans on graphics card and accelerator, hard disks and dvd all seem to be working.

Beeps at startup are a diagnostic indicator

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

Thx for that.
Assuming im intrepting beeps correctly....

I get 5 beeps, there is a slightly longer pause after the first 3 so is that 5 or 3 and 2 beeps?

5 is bad battery but 3 and 2 are bad motherboard and no ram detected.

Is it worth removing bios battery, removing ram and cards to see effect?

Am i right in thinking that because the POST fails, the computa isnt bothering to get graphics card going so it is not certain that graphics card is bad?

[Edited on 3/8/15 by 02GF74]

Does the motherboard have its own video output? if it does, remove the graphics card and use the onboard video instead

Dunno but will try that.

Managed to find dell service manual but beeps are a sequence of 3, fan is so bloody loud i cannot hear the first set of beeps ...

What symptoms result from an expired button cell battery? Would a pc boot up or fail diagnostics?

It does sound like the memory or graphics card wants reseating, remember to ground yourself before handling any components.

A blast of compressed air to clear out the connectors and general dust is a good idea, make sure your compressor has a water trap and is drained down, and IPA/contact cleaner to remove any stubborn dirt in the connectors.

If it has dual channel memory, try with only 1 dimm at a time to isolate any faulty modules present.

The fans spinning up on first connection is a dell thing, and not a fault.

A bad battery fault shouldnt stop the boot sequence, it should drop you directly to the bios settings screen, so it looks like 2 and 3 beeps.

there may be a reset bios microswitch or 2 pin jumper on the motherboard, pressing or jumpering for a few seconds with power disconnected should reset to factory specs, as will popping out the battery for 30 secs.

Dave

Woo hoo...

Replaced the battery, removed and reseated ram (needed a very firm push to click into place) and now getting no beeps and am seeing bios screen!!!

Just need to plug in a keyboard to fight the next stage, may need to install os, dunno but its looking much better.

awesome!

Thx for the help !!

Will run disk diagnostics but looks like theyve been wiped.... which is preferable to finding kiddie porn but would have been nice to have had some interesting games.


Its xps 720, 2007 vintage, the size of a medium suitcase, my fairly old laptop is higher spec processor and memory wise!!!

Sounds like a good garage PC