Intermittent booting problem on new Dell PC

Girts · 06-24-2011, 02:58 AM

This was originally posted on the Ubuntu forum, but someone suggested it might be a hardware problem, so I've re-posted (and updated) here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Girts

My shiny new Dell has developed a booting problem over the last few weeks. The Dell splash comes on for up to 10 seconds, screen turns Ubuntu purple for up to 20 secs, then 'no signal' message is displayed by monitor and screen goes black. Hard drive light goes off, mouse and keyboard don't respond.

When the Dell engineer came to replace a suspected failing hard drive, he realised the noise was coming from the fan on the graphics card (ATI Radeon HD6670). I mentioned the PC was reluctant to boot first time, so he replaced the whole graphics card. However, the PC is still intermittently reluctant to boot first time (3 tries a few days ago, but OK since).

Before I call Dell again, I want to be sure it's actually their problem and not a Ubuntu/Linux thing!

I'm not fluent in Linux, but has anyone got any thoughts on this?

Running 64bit Ubuntu 11.04 with Windows7 in Virtual Box

I apologise if I've broken the rules, and thank you for any suggestions

camorri · 06-24-2011, 07:07 AM

The symptoms sound like hardware. One thing you can try, is get a live CD, and try to boot it. Your Ubuntu install CD or DVD should do. The only thing this bypasses is the hard drive, and the installed system. If that fails, you can be sure its hardware. If not, it doesn't eliminate it all though, since the HD or controller, or even a power problem could be at the source of the problem.