1st CPU overheats - now boots into black screen???

[mikeballs15]

Hi I recently had a problem with the cpu overheating to around 65C and as its Pentium 4 the system rebooted everytime it overheated......Now after applying another layer of thermal paste (after cleaning the CPU etc) it now boots up but only as far as the BIOS options - I tried loading setup defaults but it still only boots to a black screen - Cant boot from CD (black screen) and bizarrely when I try SAFE MODE (F8) it gives me the different boot options?

Help !!!!

[mikeballs15]

Anyone???? - Im using Windows XP Home Edition?

[mikeballs15]

Hi -I am using Windows XP Home Edition and as previously reported - the PC boots and I can get into the bios but not into Safe Mode it just remains blank - I cant even boot from a CD - it says press any key to boot then shoots straight into Black screen again.Here are the list of things I have already tried: -

Tried another Hard Drive -
Tried another Graphics Card
Tried another Monitor
Installed new CPU (as old one was overheating and this was the start of the problem?)
Unseated and reseated all cards,memory etc.......

Getting desperate as havent got enough cash to buy another PC !!!

Please if anyone has an idea - I would be most gratefull !!!

Thanks

Mike

[mikeballs15]

Well at least its nice to know that no one else has a clue - Im obviously not the only one !!! Thanks anyway

[fritzi93]

What's the socket type, and are you certain you put it in correctly? I.E. lined up the index marks?

[Junka]

Ok then, you haven't tried installing a new board, then it's 100% a board problem

[MrDinga]

Hey all - 1st post here but I'm glad to say that the OP is not alone. I'm the Help Desk Administrator for a large company that deals exclusively with Dell. I've worked with many of their C- and D-Series laptops and never came across one that I could not do anything with - until getting my hands on this Inspiron E1705 that is experiencing a similar issue to the OP.

I can run the F2 diagnostics with no issues at all and can attempt to boot into a CD (have NOT tried a diagnostic CD) but no matter what I do the CD will not boot. After I F12 into the boot menu and choose the CD drive, I get the typical message to wait while setup inspects my PC's configuration. After the message disappears, all I get is a black screen (with no blinking cursor). I have tried this unsuccessfully with an original XP Reinstallation CD, a copy of an XP Reinstallation CD, and two different Bart's disks. NONE of these disks will load.

I have no reason to suspect the hard drive has issues at this point since the CDs are also experiencing issues. However, the hard drive bay that I brought home from work is for an IDE drive and this one happens to be a SATA drive, so I have not been able to test it out on its own.

Also, I am NOT able to F8 to choose Safe Mode, Last Good Known Config, etc. I'm not sure if it's related to the issue or if this specific PC has never been able to do that, but I haven't heard of one PC that doesn't have this option.

So - what are my thoughts? I'm not sure at this point. I've only been playing with this for about an hour and am pretty baffled. It's unlike anything I've seen before and the only conclusion that I can come to is that the motherboard has issues, though I don't know why the diagnostics would pass with flying colors if that were the case.

mikeballs15 - did you ever get this resolved?

Thanks for any input and I hope that we can get somewhere with this! I hate to let down my people at work - they're pretty confident that I can do anything PC related.

[mikeballs15]

I actually bought an old IDE hard drive and guess what? - The PC did eventaully boot although shut down after 10 seconds - saying the CPU is overheating -(a replacement one?) I also tried the SATA hard drive in another PC although I had to use a Sata/IDE converter/controller and this didnt work - which leads me to think there was an issue with my hard drive - bit confused here though as the CD and floppy also booted into black screen? - HELP !!!!!

[MrDinga]

I ultimately gave the PC back to the user that asked me to look at it. I don't have the tools to specialize in hardware unfortunately. I have not heard an update from him since I've given it back but will post one if it comes about.