Dell Dimension E521 - Bootup Stalls

[webpop]

Everytime I restart my computer, it stalls on bootup and I have to hold down the reset button until it powers off and then repowers on again.

It always stalls "half-way" on the bootup screen.

It just says Dell Dimension and it has this status bar that only goes halfway....

it has bios ver 1.1.4

But if i reboot again it will work...

any ideas?

 

[Bodybag]

Could be a memory error or something faulty with your PSU.

Try uninstalling your memory and reinstalling it then try again.

 

[webpop]

Ok, thanks for the suggestion,

not sure if it could be my memory, i've run memtestx86 on it for 10 hrs and it came back with no errors, and psu is a new one that i put in a couple of months ago.

I'm not sure, why it works on the SECOND TIME i boot up, (everytime) but it won't work on the first.

 

[Bodybag]

My buddy has that problem. When he turns on his computer, it won't boot up when he presses his power button. He has to switch his PSU off, wait 10 seconds, turn it back on, wait 30 more seconds, then he can turn on his computer.

It never used to do that untill recently (1 month ago), and it's a 2 year old computer.

 

[webpop]

was he able to fix it?

 

[raybay]

Memory, OS, or hard drive problems... We find that we can reinstall Windows or Linux and the problem goes away... the problem is most common in VISTA installs of our clients.

 

[webpop]

doh!

r u saying i'm gonna have to re-install windows to make it go away?

i guess i can try to live with the inconvenience

 

[Bodybag]

was he able to fix it?

No, he just lives with it.

 

[mabutterworth]

Dimension C521 Stalls During boot up

I have the exact same problem with my Dell. Every time I turn the machine on (or at least 99.9% of the time), it stalls mid way through booting, with "Dimension C521" and "BIOS revision 1.1.5" on the blue screen. EVERY time (100%) after that I am able to boot up just fine by powering the machine off, waiting a few seconds and turning it on again.

Has anyone found a solution aside from reinstalling Windows? I've got Vista Home Premium. Thanks.

 

[raybay]

Test hard drive by switching drives. Test memory by switching memory. We work on a great number of Dell machines, and some of our staff do home warranty work. We find these are the two most common causes... But you might also want to update the drives... which you can do by downloads, or by an on-line scan...
The other cause is a defective Windows install. Call Dell. You have a right to one set of install discs to mach your service tag. If the disks have already been use of shipped for that Service Tag, that is not an option.
Another fix that seems to work is to uninstall and reinstall Service Pack 3 and or Service Pack 2, then re-run all the Windows updates... three times to be sure you get them all..