Need help bad, computer wont even start.

nate_ski · Aug 29, 2004, 12:14 AM

I just got a new video card for my laptop, Dell inspiron 8200. I had the nvidia ge force 2 go 32mb and put in a brand new nvidia geforce4 440 go.

Well, i installed it, and put in the newest nvidia drivers. they didnt work so i decided to go w/ the omega drivers.

i installed the omega drivers fine and restarted the computer a few times for various reasons. well, i had it on for about 2hrs playing games (MOHAA and BFVietnam) and the computer locked up. All i could do is turn it off. I tried to turn it back on and it shut itself off w/in about 5 seconds, nothing even comes up on the screen. I got it to start up once and the idiot i am, didnt do a system restore, and it locked up again.

Well, now it wont even start at all. it turns on, but shuts itself all the way off w/in 5-10 seconds of pushing the on button, i dont know what to do but keep trying.

Does anyone know what i should try? or had this problem w/ the omega drivers before..... i really dont want to lose anything, desperate help is needed!

No_Style · Aug 29, 2004, 12:26 AM

First off, Welcome to DH

I know this may be a hassle, but did you try your old graphic card to see if it works?

I'm not too familliar with Dell's policies. Where did you buy the GeForce 440 Go from? I thought you had to send your laptop in to get these types of upgrades.

nate_ski · Aug 29, 2004, 12:42 AM

well, the laptop is 3 yrs old now, so i have no warrenty of any kind left. I got the card brand new off ebay, from a person that has sold many w/ 100%positive feedback.. You CAN change the card yourself.. it just involves take the keyboard off, not difficult at all.

I did try to put my old card back in, doesnt make a difference.

Once out of every 50 tries or so, ill get the first loading screen, but it usually locks up there... ONLY if i could get in to do a system restore... i hate life right now... UGH!

thanks for your suggestions though

No_Style · Aug 29, 2004, 12:56 AM

I've taken apart my trusty HP. It wasn't that hard once I got past the keyboard.

Do you think something could have fried once you installed the new graphic card? Did you make sure the card was 100% compatible as well? I know AGP is AGP or whatever, but power requirements and stuff could be an issue... although it would just drain battery life..

I'm quite stumped. My only conclusion would be that something fried.. 2 hours of gaming is pretty intense as well, especially on a laptop if it's not properly ventilated.

Look on the bright side, if your laptop is fried. Maybe it's a good time to invest in a new one? If finances are adequate

nate_ski · Aug 29, 2004, 08:56 AM

well... it sat over night and it still wont start..... it wont even start w/ the windows cd in or a boot disk..

Louiemaster · Aug 29, 2004, 09:34 AM

yeah i think something overheated in your computer. when it shuts off like that it means something is producing a dangerous amount of heat and then it shuts off to prevent to much damage. i think its a setting in the BIOS maybe?

Falstaff · Aug 29, 2004, 09:41 AM

I believe that is correct, but Dells are fickle too, use the Dell knowlege base at their site, might be worth a try. I dont mess with laptops, learned the hard way on a D600n, they dont like upgrades...lol, something about the power requirements, odd, but true, there is some bios issues that might present themselves ,but i doubt it, I still kick myself for messing with the Dell...sigh. Oh, and welcome....I am sure you will find help here...los of experts and good folks...

nate_ski · Aug 29, 2004, 04:07 PM

ok, update.

after sitting over night, i tried to start it this morning, it made it past the first screen (not the xp loading screen) and brought me directly to how do i want to boot up the computer (safe mode, normal) and locked up, tired to restart it and it would shut off after 5 secs. Then i went to work, came back and started it again. It started, i was able to choose safe mode and then it locked up during loading of safe mode and gave me a blue screen, told me to restart, didnt do anything. I am going to let it sit for a while see if i can get into safe mode...

if i hit f2 to enter set up, am i able to disable the drivers through that?

thanks

No_Style · Aug 29, 2004, 05:28 PM

Safe Mode disables all drivers except bare essentials. So your video drivers aren't used in safe mode. What was the BSOD? What was the error code? Have you tried reformatting?

nate_ski · Aug 29, 2004, 06:42 PM

the problem is, i cant even get windows to load at all.. i have yet to make it all the way into safe mode before it locks up again.. i really dont want to lose whats on my HD now... but if i put the xp disc in, how far does it need to get before it starts reading off that disk? does windows start if i have it in, or does it automatically start reading off that disc?

hmmmm

so, i dont think its the drivers now.. but i truely have no idea.. i can only fix computers if they are running and i can try different things, i have no idea what to do at this point in time...

No_Style · Aug 29, 2004, 08:16 PM

Once you put a XP CD in and if the CD-ROM is set to automatically boot from it, the CD will be read, but you'll have to hit a key to get it to go into XP Installation. So put in the CD as fast as you can, then wait until it says "Press a key to boot from CD" or keep pressing a key until the blue setup screen starts up.

nate_ski · Aug 29, 2004, 09:41 PM

one more thing.. before i try to get this to reinstall.

I want to try to get some things off the HD before I *TRY* to reinstall windows. Anyways, I have the correct connector, but I do not know which pins I need to jump in order to make it be the "slave" to my desktops "master"
Its from a Dell I8200, 3yrs old, 20 gb, made by IBM. The Model Number is IC25N020ATCS04-0 (0=zero)
There is a little picture on it that looks like this

Code:

___JUMPER__
PIN1>O OO |
O OO |
(the groups above should be lined up)

is there anything i need to do to this to make it the slave?

No_Style · Aug 29, 2004, 10:12 PM

Ok. I found a picture of it

I believe it's the middle one. Use that selection. If that's not slave then use Cable Select and make sure that it uses the IDE interface furtherest from the Motherboard and then it should auto select itself as slave.

OR

Just put it on the Second IDE interface, then it auto slaves.

nate_ski · Aug 29, 2004, 10:51 PM

i found how to make it slave and jumped it w/ a staple lol, and also jumped the hd on the desktop.

i plugged the lappy hd into the only connector on the desktop that i could find. it would get to the "second screen" past all the initial checks, but wouldnt get to the xp loading screen.

another question i have is, is there an install on the xp home disc that just reinstalls xp w/out deleting any files? if there is, ill try that... otherwise, ill try to get everything off the hd that i want and send the lappy to dell to try to fix it (if an install doesnt work)

No_Style · Aug 30, 2004, 09:59 AM

What's the only connector you can find? Do you know which IDE interface (Secondary or Primary)?

Yeah, you can try to install XP into a different folder instead of the traditionaly 'Windows'. Just make sure not to format it. It works. However, I highly recommend making separate partitions for Windows just for situations like this. So you can wipe the Windows partition and still have your data on the other partition perfectly fine.

GutterPunk · Aug 30, 2004, 12:51 PM

you can also repair your windows file, which at times works, you can go in and back all your stuff, then do a fresh install, because repairs are only temporary fixes and more things go wrong.

nate_ski · Aug 30, 2004, 01:22 PM

if i can get the repair on, ill do it just so i can get into the computer, then reinstall totally