I have a Dell 600m laptop (circa 2004) running Win XP Home, with 1GB RAM and a 250GB HD. It refuses to start. There was no warning, no virus or other problems previous to the issue at hand.
Symptoms:
• I press the power button, and it appears to start as normal, but will only get me past the “Welcome to Dell” screen.” It never makes it to the Windows screen.
• Once it passes the “Welcome to Dell” screen, the screen goes black and blank with a blinking cursor in the upper left-hand corner. No words, no letters, no error codes, no beeps.
• I cannot boot into Safe Mode (F8). I’ve also tried pressing every F-button I can, but it will not get me into a safe or normal boot.
If I push F2 or F12 during startup it will go into either the BIOS or the Diagnostic’s Mode. I don’t see anything glaring in the BIOS that I should change. But I am not an expert on BIOS settings. I can run the diagnostics, and all tests turn up as ‘passed’ except getting an error message saying: Error Code 6537:011B Msg: Expected Processor Fan on low RPM of 2000. Detected fan RPM = 2859. Sometimes the detected fan speed varies a little. But nothing else.
• I’ve googled the error code and came up empty. That fan speed error is the only error message of any kind I will get.
• I can run the Dell Drivers & Diagnostic’s CD, (I change the Boot Sequence within the BIOS so it boots off the CD first). But it will only run the diagnostics. It will not allow me into Windows. All tests come back ‘passed’ with everything but the fan speed error. I do hear the fan running. No strange noises.
• When I’m at a command prompt during diagnostics, I try various DOS commands and all I get are the directories, memory capacity, etc. I try the FIXMBR and other repair commands. I’m not fluent enough in DOS to get anywhere beyond that.
• I also cannot successfully boot off of the Windows XP Home DVD. When I put in this DVD, I can run the diagnostics, and “Repair Windows” but it still won’t get me into the hard drive or into a normal startup window. And it appears to ‘repair’ nothing.
• I have not tried reloading Windows as a “clean install.” I’ve only ‘repaired’ Windows. Or at least tried to. Until I am certain there is nothing else I can do, I do not want to toast all the data on the hard drive. And for all I know I may not even be able to properly reload Windows and have the laptop boot normally anyway.
• I have even tried loading a copy of Win2k in the hopes that a change in OS would ‘repair’ whatever is broken. The only way that’s possible is by booting off of the CD. But here again, the laptop will not allow me to do that.
• Also, the laptop battery does not hold a charge and the laptop must be run on AC (with the battery installed).
• I have never changed the mobo CMOS battery. For whatever that’s worth.
I am not sure whether this is a software or hardware issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated. At this point, if I could successfully harvest the data on my HD, I would then do a clean installation of the Windows XP DVD.
Anyone have any suggestions????
Symptoms:
• I press the power button, and it appears to start as normal, but will only get me past the “Welcome to Dell” screen.” It never makes it to the Windows screen.
• Once it passes the “Welcome to Dell” screen, the screen goes black and blank with a blinking cursor in the upper left-hand corner. No words, no letters, no error codes, no beeps.
• I cannot boot into Safe Mode (F8). I’ve also tried pressing every F-button I can, but it will not get me into a safe or normal boot.
If I push F2 or F12 during startup it will go into either the BIOS or the Diagnostic’s Mode. I don’t see anything glaring in the BIOS that I should change. But I am not an expert on BIOS settings. I can run the diagnostics, and all tests turn up as ‘passed’ except getting an error message saying: Error Code 6537:011B Msg: Expected Processor Fan on low RPM of 2000. Detected fan RPM = 2859. Sometimes the detected fan speed varies a little. But nothing else.
• I’ve googled the error code and came up empty. That fan speed error is the only error message of any kind I will get.
• I can run the Dell Drivers & Diagnostic’s CD, (I change the Boot Sequence within the BIOS so it boots off the CD first). But it will only run the diagnostics. It will not allow me into Windows. All tests come back ‘passed’ with everything but the fan speed error. I do hear the fan running. No strange noises.
• When I’m at a command prompt during diagnostics, I try various DOS commands and all I get are the directories, memory capacity, etc. I try the FIXMBR and other repair commands. I’m not fluent enough in DOS to get anywhere beyond that.
• I also cannot successfully boot off of the Windows XP Home DVD. When I put in this DVD, I can run the diagnostics, and “Repair Windows” but it still won’t get me into the hard drive or into a normal startup window. And it appears to ‘repair’ nothing.
• I have not tried reloading Windows as a “clean install.” I’ve only ‘repaired’ Windows. Or at least tried to. Until I am certain there is nothing else I can do, I do not want to toast all the data on the hard drive. And for all I know I may not even be able to properly reload Windows and have the laptop boot normally anyway.
• I have even tried loading a copy of Win2k in the hopes that a change in OS would ‘repair’ whatever is broken. The only way that’s possible is by booting off of the CD. But here again, the laptop will not allow me to do that.
• Also, the laptop battery does not hold a charge and the laptop must be run on AC (with the battery installed).
• I have never changed the mobo CMOS battery. For whatever that’s worth.
I am not sure whether this is a software or hardware issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated. At this point, if I could successfully harvest the data on my HD, I would then do a clean installation of the Windows XP DVD.
Anyone have any suggestions????
