I have a friend with a dell! When he starts it it whirrs and then dies doesn’t even get to see the Bios screen. Does this mean the end? Any ideas as to what could cause this. Failed Bios?

Well, it all depends on the definition of “Whirr” ... but if it is a high pitch sound, it may well be that the inverter reponsible for generating the screen backlight is dead and killing the power supply.  If so, it should not be too expensive to fix.  Just a wild guess… it could actualy be several things :(

Regards,
Marcelo

Has this only happened in last couple of days because it could be due to that Worm thats doing the rounds at the moment making the news. A few of our company machines would not get past the dos type prompt until the patch was installed.

I t has happened in the last few days, but as i said he ain’t even getting the bios screen. No chance therefore of installing any patch.

if “he ain’t even getting the bios screen”, maybe his monitor is shot?  did you hook the machine up to a different monitor?

I am getting really worried here… It’d be the first known case of a software virus infecting firmware and killing hardware :wink:

Jokes aside… If the person did not attempt to flash the BIOS and the machine is now not able to even pass the POST (power on self test), it is definitely a hardware problem.  Nothing to do with viruses, infections, vulnerabilities and any other software animals

Regards,
Marcelo

[quote author=“mfabre”]I am getting really worried here… It’d be the first known case of a software virus infecting firmware and killing hardware :wink:

Regards,
Marcelo

Didn’t the chernobyl (CIH) virus also render hardware unusable on the 26th of a month (or did it just format ur harddrive) ?

The machine should POST even without a hard drive. Learn to trust the Fraggle.  :wink:

Correct.

It’s hard to diagnose a notebook over the net.

I know he doesn’t get to the bios screen…but does anything show up at all on the screen?

Erik

He the guy eith the dead Dell says that he got nothing on the screen at all just a whirr then no power. I told him to send it to Dell, and I will keep you all posted.