Dell XPS 600 won't Boot

If that XPS 600 is like the ones we have worked on, it is using a Fujitsu hard drive that has a lot of earlier failures. My guess is that all will be ok, when you replace the hard drive... and you can probably install it in a desktop on an adapter, as a slave, and drag and drop or rescue the files with recovery software.
The problem is usually bubbling up magnetic media on the first 11 megabytes of the plates... but the rest of the drive can still be used to rescue data.

 

nope. It isnt using a Fujitsu hard drive...its using a maxtor hard drive.

 

Hard drives are no longer expensive. You might want to remove the old one, and install a new one with your recovery disk set. My best guess is that Maxtor is bad. A western digital 80 GB hard drive is 41.99 plus shipping at Directron, Zipzoomfly, New Egg, and Tiger Direct.
You have all the symptoms of a failed drive. A replacement is easy to install with the disc set that came with your computer.
That loud lawnmower sound is either the hard drive or a fan.
It takes two screws to remove the drive and caddy with a #0 philips screw driver, then four screws to remove it from the caddy and replace it with another.
You will be back in business soon.
You have an 70% chance that the data can be retrieved using an adapter in a desktop computer, or have someone rescue it for you.

 

Your positive its the drive? The fans are what is making the noise tho...Ill take your word for it tho I have an extra hard drive in my closet I gotta search for.

 

He's not positive, no. He said, "That loud lawnmower sound is either the hard drive or a fan".

What fan is it coming from?

What do you mean your PC won't boot up? I assume it gets power if the fans are spinning etc, and then what do you see on the screen?

If a fan has died it shouldn't effect the boot process unless it's the heatsink's fan, which would cause the CPU to overheat and hang upon booting probably.

If it's not a fan, it's almost guaranteed to be your HDD as Raybay suggested.

You can find out pretty easily if it's the HDD or not (if you hear it every time you boot) by disconnecting it from the PSU. No power = activity = no lawnmower. Same goes for the fans except I would only try it on chassis fans. Do not disconnect your heatsink fan and then power on the machine.

Raybay, how did you come to the statistical conclusion that he has a 70% chance of retrieving the data off of his HDD?

 

when i boot it up the light on it is orange and the led light is lighting up the number 4. The screen led is orange too likes its in hibernation or something and the fans inside the pc get really loud. No boot screen at all it just sits there and freaks out like its going to explode.


I cant hear the Hardrive at all due to the fans blowing so loudly.

 

Sounds like something might be overheating. Make sure your heatsink is fully seated and the fan is working.

Have you looked inside your case at all? It might just need to be cleaned.

 

Yea Pc is cleaned from everything no gunk in the fans at all and no signs of fried parts at all. Heat sink and Fans seem to be in the right place and secured...I boot it up over and over to see if I can get lucky but nothing happens..

 

With the side panel of your case off and everything connected start your PC and see if you can see/hear where it is coming from. Make sure the room is well lit, and you might want to put the PC on a desk or table so it's easier to see inside.

As I said:

If all of your fans are going wild (just spinning at a high RPM but not grinding or anything), again, I would suspect that something is overheating, or your motherboard believes something is overheating anyway.

 

Yes there is activity with the harddrive


Anyway I can make it so my mother board doesn't think its over heating

 

Is the HDD abnormally loud?

You haven't answered whether or not anything sounds like it's grinding or if it's just that the fans are spinning at a higher RPM.

The odds of your motherboard spontaneously being defective and believing that something is overheating when there isn't is pretty slim. If this is the case, your motherboard might have experienced failure being that you have no display.

Check the temperature on your VPU (as well as your chipset), because if your HDD is active (and not abnormal sounding), but you can't see anything on the monitor, this might suggest that your PC is booting fine, there just isn't display. If you can't check your VPU's temperature with a physical instrument, take it out if it's in an expansion slot and try another one in your PC.

 

it grinds while starting up but then it sounds like it picks up speed and it remains at a constant high speed.

Sounds normal to me tho, oh and Ive taken out the graphics cards I have two 7800 gtx's in SLI and replaced it with a crummy 64mb ati card to see if anything happened and nothing changes still high fan speeds and no display

 

What grinds?

You can try stripping the PC down to just your motherboard, CPU, RAM and PSU, then power on your PC. If the fans are still going crazy the best I can suggest is to replace the motherboard if you are absolutely 100% sure nothing is overheating.

Perhaps others will stroll through with a suggestion for you.

 

The hard drive, ill check back in the morning I need sleep hopefully by the afternoon Ill know whats wrong, thank you for your time.

 

No problem, hopefully you figure it out or someone else has an idea for you apart from stripping the PC.

 

If you are certain the noise comes from the fans, I will retract my comment on the hard drive.
However, that drive in that model, when failing, makes a clicking noise that is exactly like a fan out of balance.
Don't you have a long enough warranty to get this replaced by Dell?

 

Hello there..

I am having the exact same problem with my XPS600. Orange light on the power button, on power up the two chassis fans go nuts, no POST, nothing else happens. At first I had the diagnostic light 3 on, which suggests cpu problem. After re-installing the cpu, I got light #4 on, and then after a few power-ups and downs, I got nothing. I read through this whole thread and I believe it could be a cpu/fan/heatsink issue as the first problem light indicated. I will open it up again tomorrow and post any findings. Will also try and get a spare cpu to test.

Thanks

 

The motherboard might be bad

 

That was my initial thought, but other people pointed out the power supply giving wrong voltage to the board (known for dell systems they say??). Let me just explain how this happened. I had this machine connected to a kvm switch and one day the screen was blank so I turned the computer off via the power button. Next thing, it would not come on. So I definitely killed something by doing that. Now just gotta figure out what.

 

I have the same problem with my XPS 600. I had 2 nvidia 7800s in on SLI and my screen would go black every once and a while for 2 seconds on games or demanding video applications. When I restarted my computer it wouldn't boot back up. The screen had a signal it was just black. And the fans went crazy. So my initial reaction I thought one of my video cards was dead. So I switched them around and it still didn't boot up, black screen. Then I took one out. and Now it boots up fine. It must be the power supply. Not getting enough power or like you said the board is giving the wrong voltage or something. I don't know but I'm looking to replace my SPU.

 

I tried a brand new PSU and that didn't do anything for me. I have purchased a refurbished motherboard and will replace it as soon as I receive it. I will let you know what happens. This thing is really strange, I can't figure out what happened in the first place.

 

I am having the EXACT same issue and Dell is telling me that my motherboard is no good. Has anyone resolved this issue yet?

Do we know that it is not the PSU?

Any help is appreciated

 

Resolved

I have some good news. I resolved my problem after all this time. I had ordered a new motherboard like I mentioned before, same type, for DELL XPS600 from Ebay and it works!! Booted up just fine for the first time. I just have to go through the repair windows process so that the machine reloads the drivers for the motherboard. (you have to do this even if it's the same type of mb), and it should be just fine.

Hope this helps you.

 

And yes, a brand new PSU didn't do anything for me, so that can be ruled out.