Computer won't go past early boot screen

WhiteZinfandel

So my alienware won't get beyond the alienware brand screen (the one with the logo and the little 'intel inside' ad in the corner). It stays at that screen and refuses to do anything beyond it. Often when I boot it up that particular screen is very artifacted, sometimes with moving artifacts. Above all, it absolutely never boots all the way up into windows. Putting in the xp system restore disk elicits no response whatsoever. It's an old computer (had it for a while) and it's never done this before. It actually did this in response to me vacuuming out some cobwebs, but not immediately.
I guess what I'm wondering is if anyone has any inkling what's going on here. I'm mystified.

fightinfilipino

this a laptop or a desktop we're talking about here?

the screen artifacting leads me to think there's something up with the video card. either it's not seated properly (in a desktop) or something else (which would apply to a laptop).

if it's a desktop, try reseating the video card?

WhiteZinfandel

It is indeed a desktop. I'd reseated the card and it didn't seem to be artifacting anymore, until it simply stopped giving me any video output at all. Tech support at alienware thinks this is a motherboard issue, which I suppose I'll try replacing.
No further help is necessary at this time, I think, unless someone is struck by a genius fix.

ASimPerson

Try reseating everything, except the CPU since you'd probably do more harm than good there.

If that doesn't work, take out all but one stick of RAM. Regardless of whether or not it works, keep swapping them out until you can form a conclusion.

If that doesn't work, then it probably is an issue with the board.

brandotheninjamaster

I've heard some horror stories concerning vacuums and the amount of static electricity that they generate (or carry with that plastic end). Its possible that when you were vacuuming that you have introduced a bolt of static electricity to your motherboard. I'm leaning toward this theory the most because generally your motherboard will beep if your RAM goes bad. If your HDD went bad then generally you get an error message just past the P.O.S.T. screen saying "Hard Disk not found" or the like.

Another possibility is that your video card could of went (even by the same means described above). The best thing you can do is start ruling things out. Ask a friend if you can use his or her video card, plug it in and see if you go past the P.O.S.T. (what you described as the early BIOS screen).

kaliyama

My computer was intermittently POSTing - it was a PS issue, i'm pretty sure. Reseating everything and cleaning out fan vents in your PS,CPU and video card may work. It easily could not work if a capacitator on the mobo is fried, but it's certainly worth a try before you spend money on the effort.

WhiteZinfandel

My dad doesn't know much more about computers than most, but he's some kind of investigative genius and we narrowed it down to the RAM. So we took all the ram out, used some cleaning solution on it, and now we're gravy. Thanks for the help, all.

"I'm leaning toward this theory the most because generally your motherboard will beep if your RAM goes bad." This is what the deal was. Thanks much.