comp trouble

[New_Era]

hey i recently moved my comp to a diff room in the house, i got it in there and set up last night, i plugged it all and the screen goes to stand-by and i can here the comp come on but nothing the printer comes on for like 5 secs and goes off whats up?

[traxxasrpm]

maybe your outlet is bad or your plugs are barrely plug in

[penguinrusty]

From the looks of it, it's either an outlet error, or your motherboard. Both the monitor and the printer need a signal from the computer to stay on. Both are connected to the motherboard. Check ALL connections, especially monitor and your printer's USB or Serial connection. Try the computer with a different monitor.

[New_Era]

well ill move the computer where i had it before to see if its the outlet OR the computer, abouts how much will this cost to get fixed?

[penguinrusty]

Also make sure you try a different monitor. If it's not the monitor or the outlet, it could be the video card, which could be an easy fix. However, if your video card is integrated into the motherboard, then you'll have to replace themotherboard. It also could be the hard drive, but since it's not even booting at all, m y bet is on power or motherboard. I would say at least $100 depending on the computer.

[New_Era]

it is booting up and sounds like it is working fine. but i never said, when i turn it on it beeps for like 5-10 seconds.
also my mom said its hard to get people to work on dell's? is that true or no?

[penguinrusty]

Oh, ok, that beeping makes a HUGE difference. Sounds like it's just a BIOS problem. Tell us what the beeping sounde like, and also the specific model number of your Dell, and we'll walk you through the steps. Might just need a CMOS clear, but the beeping will tell us specifically what's wrong. It's called a POST beep code.

[New_Era]

ok its a dell dimension 8400 i think this is the model number- 2H0HX61

[Rc_Racer_01501]

Can you tell us the beep pattern? Is it like beep once then twice then once again? I think its 1-1-4 for a bios error on the 8400.

Heres the documentation for the 8400, Look through this and tell us which pattern of beeps it is. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/sm/adtshoot.htm#wp1052933

Chances are a card or something got loose when you were moving the pc and thats why its giving you beep errors.

[penguinrusty]

^^ word.^^ The 8400 is one of the only dells that doesn't have integrated graphics, so if the card got loose then of course it would be giving him POST codes. However, sometimes, you just need to clear the CMOS to get things working again. I've fixed three or four computers taht were giving weird POST beep codes, and I just cleared the CMOS and it worked fine.

[New_Era]

so its definately a internal problem? how could this happen within the few minutes of moving it to a different room?

[guitardrumr123]

Also make sure you try a different monitor. If it's not the monitor or the outlet, it could be the video card, which could be an easy fix. However, if your video card is integrated into the motherboard, then you'll have to replace themotherboard. It also could be the hard drive, but since it's not even booting at all, m y bet is on power or motherboard. I would say at least $100 depending on the computer.

Thats not true. It is possible to put a PCI or AGP vid card into a computer that shiped with a integrated card, provided it has the slots. You may need to tell the bios to ignore the integrated card, and look at the new card, but thats it.

[penguinrusty]

Did you read my other post? It's an 8400. It comes with a 6600 or a 6800, I forget. It's not integrated. Even so, there's no reason it would be not ignoring the card now when it wasn't before. Just try clearing the CMOS, oftentimes it's a simple fix. Trust me. I speak from experience.

[guitardrumr123]

Did you read my other post? It's an 8400. It comes with a 6600 or a 6800, I forget. It's not integrated. Even so, there's no reason it would be not ignoring the card now when it wasn't before. Just try clearing the CMOS, oftentimes it's a simple fix. Trust me. I speak from experience.

Yep, I read that, but I still wanted to correct your earlier post.