Post by bauerctu on Feb 11, 2011 4:17:34 GMT -5
I have a DELL XPS Gen4 Pentium 4 3.6 GHz desktop. When I start the computer, the CPU fans go into overdrive and the system will not boot no matter what. The monitor doesn’t even act as though a computer is plugged in. I’m a CompTIA A+ certified technician and thought I had this issue figured out, but unfortunately I was wrong. I thought it had to be the motherboard. I believe this system has a thermal sensor which kicks the fans into overdrive when the cpu heats up past a certain temperature. Here’s what I did to try and resolve the issue. First, to eliminate the possibility of the cpu being the problem, I removed it and placed it into a friends PC. He has the same exact DELL machine. His PC booted and operated perfectly with my processor. The heat sink itself has no moving parts so I don’t see how anything can be wrong there. Initially I thought maybe the power supply needed to be replaced but it powers up fine and it hasn’t given me any reason to think it’s the culprit. So I decided to purchase a replacement motherboard which I was convinced had to be the problem. I just installed the new motherboard which is identical to the original board and the exact same thing is happening. Nothing has changed! Why dman it, why?!? 
When you push the power button, the system starts up and everything seems fine for about 2 seconds but then the fans begin to spin abnormally fast and are very loud. The monitor does not respond so I can’t even try to mess around with temperature settings in the bios. Something must be engaging in those 2 seconds when you turn the machine on, that is making the system think the cpu is overheating but I have no idea what to try at this point. I almost think the replacement motherboard I purchased is DOA but that’s not very likely. This is not something that can be caused by the hard drive. I removed all add in cards and anything that doesn’t need to be in the system to try and eliminate anything else that can be causing the issue. I cannot stress enough how grateful I would be to the person who can help me solve this problem. Thank you so much in advance.
LJ
When you push the power button, the system starts up and everything seems fine for about 2 seconds but then the fans begin to spin abnormally fast and are very loud. The monitor does not respond so I can’t even try to mess around with temperature settings in the bios. Something must be engaging in those 2 seconds when you turn the machine on, that is making the system think the cpu is overheating but I have no idea what to try at this point. I almost think the replacement motherboard I purchased is DOA but that’s not very likely. This is not something that can be caused by the hard drive. I removed all add in cards and anything that doesn’t need to be in the system to try and eliminate anything else that can be causing the issue. I cannot stress enough how grateful I would be to the person who can help me solve this problem. Thank you so much in advance.LJ