Dell Dimension 8400 desktop does not boot, stops at BIOS logo?

Question

The system stopped on its own after downloading automatic windows update and rebooting itself. I found it stuck at BIOS flash screen with large DELL logo in blue text in the background. The BIOS progress bar shows stuck.

Goes no further than this even after several reboot attempts. I have reseated hard drive, cables video cards, cleared CMOS. No luck. Any one with a different idea?

Answer 1

If you are able to enter CMOS, hit the "optimized defaults" and save

Have you open the case and remove the CMOS battery?

Disconnect all peripherals and try again.If you still have problem disconnect hard drive connector too.If you have 2 memory sticks try booting with one at the time.

Answer 2

Go into the BIOS setup and disable the dell logo. This will give you a bit more info during boot.

This is not a solution, but we need more info about why the boot halts.

Answer 3

get in to bios and reset defaults

Answer 4

Can you enter the bios? If so you could try booting from a windows disk or something else. Other then that you might need to bring it in to a repair shop.