Dell Dimension 4600

HI All,
I had a Dell Dimension 4600 purchased in 2004 that I gave to my
son. He had a local blackout about 2 weeks ago.When he tried to restart the
computer he could only get as far as the welcome screen. The OS is Win. XP
Media center.He went into safe mode and tried to restore, same result. I
then went to the Dell support page. We did all of the tests for hard drive
and bios. All passed.We then tried to go into safe mode again but it went
into the start up. Still no luck. I am trying to help him over the phone.
He has the os disk, but before we go that way I was wondering if any one
might have any other suggestion??
Thanks in advance,
Mike..........................

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..
HI All,
I had a Dell Dimension 4600 purchased in 2004 that I gave to my
son. He had a local blackout about 2 weeks ago.When he tried to restart
the computer he could only get as far as the welcome screen. The OS is
Win. XP Media center.He went into safe mode and tried to restore, same
result. I then went to the Dell support page. We did all of the tests for
hard drive and bios. All passed.We then tried to go into safe mode again
but it went into the start up. Still no luck. I am trying to help him over
the phone.
He has the os disk, but before we go that way I was wondering if any one
might have any other suggestion??
Thanks in advance,
Mike..........................


Mike -

Just some general suggestions.

1) disconnect all externals other than mouse/kb/monitor (speakers are fine)

2) if you can make it back to desktop in safe mode go to
start/run/"msconfig" (no quotes)/ "startup" tab and disable ALL programs
loading in the background at each boot. Click "apply" and "okay". Then
attempt a normal boot again.

Post back.....

Stew

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
. ..

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..
HI All,
I had a Dell Dimension 4600 purchased in 2004 that I gave to my
son. He had a local blackout about 2 weeks ago.When he tried to restart
the computer he could only get as far as the welcome screen. The OS is
Win. XP Media center.He went into safe mode and tried to restore, same
result. I then went to the Dell support page. We did all of the tests for
hard drive and bios. All passed.We then tried to go into safe mode again
but it went into the start up. Still no luck. I am trying to help him
over the phone.
He has the os disk, but before we go that way I was wondering if any one
might have any other suggestion??
Thanks in advance,
Mike..........................


Mike -

Just some general suggestions.

1) disconnect all externals other than mouse/kb/monitor (speakers are
fine)

2) if you can make it back to desktop in safe mode go to
start/run/"msconfig" (no quotes)/ "startup" tab and disable ALL programs
loading in the background at each boot. Click "apply" and "okay". Then
attempt a normal boot again.

Post back.....

Stew
Thanks for the reply Stew, we can't get back to safe mode anymore. It starts
to go there but winds up going to os start up. All externals have been
diconnected. He told me when he tries to go into safe mode now, he gets the
safe word in all four corners but then it goes into Win. star up and hangs.I
hope that helps a little.........

Mike....................

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..


snip

Mike -

Please read this link and see if you might be able to help him pull off a
repair install of MCE:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Ideally he'll have all of his files backed up. A repair install should leave
them mostly intact, but I never count on that.

Or.....that machine may very well have the Dell restore image intact (hidden
on the hard drive). Going in that direction WILL erase all data/applications
added to the machine since it was purchased by returning the system to its
factory "out of the box" software state.

CTL+F11 at the Dell splash screen to begin that process.


Stew

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
.. .

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..


snip

Mike -

Please read this link and see if you might be able to help him pull off a
repair install of MCE:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Ideally he'll have all of his files backed up. A repair install should
leave them mostly intact, but I never count on that.

Or.....that machine may very well have the Dell restore image intact
(hidden on the hard drive). Going in that direction WILL erase all
data/applications added to the machine since it was purchased by returning
the system to its factory "out of the box" software state.

CTL+F11 at the Dell splash screen to begin that process.


Stew

Hi Stew,
We will try what you have posted. I'll let you know what the out
come is. Once again thanks for your help.
Mike........

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
.. .

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..


snip

Mike -

Please read this link and see if you might be able to help him pull off a
repair install of MCE:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Ideally he'll have all of his files backed up. A repair install should
leave them mostly intact, but I never count on that.

Or.....that machine may very well have the Dell restore image intact
(hidden on the hard drive). Going in that direction WILL erase all
data/applications added to the machine since it was purchased by
returning the system to its factory "out of the box" software state.

CTL+F11 at the Dell splash screen to begin that process.


Stew

Hi Stew,
We will try what you have posted. I'll let you know what the
out come is. Once again thanks for your help.
Mike........


You're welcome Mike.

*As a minor aside, your mention of the power bump that began all of this
also reminds me that the power supply in that particular model has a spotty
track record. It doesn't appear that it would be in any way involved in
this, but it's something you may wish to make note of.

Stew

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
.. .

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..


snip

Mike -

Please read this link and see if you might be able to help him pull off
a repair install of MCE:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Ideally he'll have all of his files backed up. A repair install should
leave them mostly intact, but I never count on that.

Or.....that machine may very well have the Dell restore image intact
(hidden on the hard drive). Going in that direction WILL erase all
data/applications added to the machine since it was purchased by
returning the system to its factory "out of the box" software state.

CTL+F11 at the Dell splash screen to begin that process.


Stew

Hi Stew,
We will try what you have posted. I'll let you know what the
out come is. Once again thanks for your help.
Mike........


You're welcome Mike.

*As a minor aside, your mention of the power bump that began all of this
also reminds me that the power supply in that particular model has a
spotty track record. It doesn't appear that it would be in any way
involved in this, but it's something you may wish to make note of.

Stew
Hi Stew,
Well we tried your suggestion about the
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm I am happy to say that
all went very well. Well not really, it is very hard to try this over the
phone. However after a lot of, will you just do what I tell you LOLOL. We
managed to get it up and working At first look my son said, " I think I have
almost all of it back. He will call me in the morning and tell me how much
was saved. Once again Stew, thank you very much. All of you guy's on here do
one hell of a job. I can't say enough about that web site. Well enough
blather.

Thanks,
Mike..........................................

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
.. .

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..


snip

Mike -

Please read this link and see if you might be able to help him pull off
a repair install of MCE:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Ideally he'll have all of his files backed up. A repair install should
leave them mostly intact, but I never count on that.

Or.....that machine may very well have the Dell restore image intact
(hidden on the hard drive). Going in that direction WILL erase all
data/applications added to the machine since it was purchased by
returning the system to its factory "out of the box" software state.

CTL+F11 at the Dell splash screen to begin that process.


Stew

Hi Stew,
We will try what you have posted. I'll let you know what the
out come is. Once again thanks for your help.
Mike........


You're welcome Mike.

*As a minor aside, your mention of the power bump that began all of this
also reminds me that the power supply in that particular model has a
spotty track record. It doesn't appear that it would be in any way
involved in this, but it's something you may wish to make note of.

Stew
Hi Stew,
Well we tried your suggestion about the
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm I am happy to say
that all went very well. Well not really, it is very hard to try this over
the phone. However after a lot of, will you just do what I tell you LOLOL.
We managed to get it up and working At first look my son said, " I think I
have almost all of it back. He will call me in the morning and tell me how
much was saved. Once again Stew, thank you very much. All of you guy's on
here do one hell of a job. I can't say enough about that web site. Well
enough blather.

Thanks,
Mike..........................................



Mike -

Yes I understand. Those phone calls can be extremely.........challenging.

If he does manage to regain the machine with the repair, then it's time for
him to somehow throw off/burn/save any files he might care about. (It'll be
hard to know exactly how stable the machine is over the phone.)

It's possible that a fresh re-install of Windows may be in his near future.

Better safe than sorry.

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
news

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
.. .

"tip1" wrote in message
. ..


snip

Mike -

Please read this link and see if you might be able to help him pull
off a repair install of MCE:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Ideally he'll have all of his files backed up. A repair install should
leave them mostly intact, but I never count on that.

Or.....that machine may very well have the Dell restore image intact
(hidden on the hard drive). Going in that direction WILL erase all
data/applications added to the machine since it was purchased by
returning the system to its factory "out of the box" software state.

CTL+F11 at the Dell splash screen to begin that process.


Stew

Hi Stew,
We will try what you have posted. I'll let you know what the
out come is. Once again thanks for your help.
Mike........


You're welcome Mike.

*As a minor aside, your mention of the power bump that began all of this
also reminds me that the power supply in that particular model has a
spotty track record. It doesn't appear that it would be in any way
involved in this, but it's something you may wish to make note of.

Stew
Hi Stew,
Well we tried your suggestion about the
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm I am happy to say
that all went very well. Well not really, it is very hard to try this
over the phone. However after a lot of, will you just do what I tell you
LOLOL. We managed to get it up and working At first look my son said, " I
think I have almost all of it back. He will call me in the morning and
tell me how much was saved. Once again Stew, thank you very much. All of
you guy's on here do one hell of a job. I can't say enough about that web
site. Well enough blather.

Thanks,
Mike..........................................



Mike -

Yes I understand. Those phone calls can be extremely.........challenging.

If he does manage to regain the machine with the repair, then it's time
for him to somehow throw off/burn/save any files he might care about.
(It'll be hard to know exactly how stable the machine is over the phone.)

It's possible that a fresh re-install of Windows may be in his near
future.

Better safe than sorry.


Stew,
I will talk to him about putting everything he considers important
on to disks. Like you said," better safe then sorry."

Best regards,
Mike............