Black Screen with Blinking Cursor on the top-left in DEll Dimension 9200

[Memphis M]

Suddenly, the computer will not boot. When you turn on a blinking cursor at the top left of the black and white screen appears. This is what we've done so far: I disconnected the hard drives, CD / DVD, nothing else connected........which is same cursor on the screen in black. Removes the entire RAM and everything else, on, emits a RAM. Replaced a new stick of RAM, on........ Power supply to the test, video card test........ Replaced video card with a PCI video card, when turned on, the video shows the new video adapter followed by the same cursor........ The same happens on the screen in black. Therefore, it beeps when the entire RAM removed, mean MB is good? So is the processor or something else? Your help will be appreciate…

[Vicky Woodley]

• Try to clear the BIOS
• Turn off and unplug
• Press and hold the power switch for 20 seconds
• Open the box and remove the motherboard battery
• Press and hold the power switch for 40 seconds
• put back the battery (right-side-up!) and observe if you boot with the mouse only, keyboard and monitor connected
• And if the battery is greater than 3-4 years old, this could be a good time for a new one.

[Irja!]

I made the steps to restore more than 5 times. If the battery is dead, say, what they fail to show something on the screen than the blinking cursor? I followed your suggestions, one by one, but nothing changed. Any other ideas for that? Thanks for your help!

[Spiel@berg]

A dead battery can do that. CR2032 is a lithium ion cell, ~ $ 2 - $ 3 off stores. Are testing with "a new stick of RAM" or the original RAM? Dell computers are very picky about RAM. So the new material may not be compatible even if it has exactly the same specifications. I suggest you go back to the original RAM, at least until you can get it to boot again. And put the original video card new color too. What is the power button when it starts? Y is constant or intermittent? What color are the 4 diagnostic LEDs on the front of the tower? If a flash on / off, but then stay, find the error codes and press F2 to restart here. Can open the BIOS setup?

[Gameli]

If you denote one side of the battery with in order on the right side, then it's right up and down. Using the new RAM sticks, an original battery and video card, nothing changed. The power switch on the front is constant and steady green LED diagnostics in the front of the tower 1 2 3 are green. But The CPU fan running. The hard disk seems to be working. The STDBY led on motherboard is amber. When I click any mouse buttons, the indicator LED optical. Nothing can be seen on the keyboard when you press the Num Lock key or caps to see an LED light, but not. USB keyboard and mouse is based. I've looked the error code with the LEDs 1, 2 and 3 green saying that "another problem", which obviously means nothing to me.

[Dannai7]

Yes, GGGY is not fully informative. Check that every cable are correctly connected, for example, on the front panel and the units, all cards and RAM modules correctly and firmly seated in their slots, etc. Did you try an original battery? Is the modem /network cable disconnected? Did you take away the entire PCI cards, except for video? Improbable to make dissimilarity, but try booting without mouse and keyboard linked. Carefully examine all USB slots to make sure none are damaged or shorted. Try one RAM module at all slots. I 4 do not tend to think it's the CPU. GGGY is so late in the position which I think is somewhat that later than testing the CPU. I guess you can forever try watchfully reseating the CPU in its socket. You would have to take away the heat sink (HOT!) to put back the CPU. Then clean the previous thermal paste from both surfaces and apply a thin layer of new thermal paste (e.g., Arctic Silver). End of suggestions here.

[JErastus]

So it's probably the motherboard or CPU, but nothing seems obvious that damaged. Is time to do a PC store that can change in a new CPU to see if that solves the problem? Only you can decide if it's worth putting money into fixing this system or if it's time for a new one. There’s a 9200 motherboard for 80$ to 149$ .