Spinning Dots at Boot Up

is there any reason to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver? I had that installed and have it on my other XPS. Dell Tech said it is not needed and I can uninstall from other machine too. I just want to verify.

Here is an odd one which makes me think it is a hardware issue.

First, I installed win 8.1 and all boots fine. I then upgraded to win 10. It booted fine. Then I let it run updates and installed the two dell chipset drivers. I then booted the machine and got the spinning dots. It would not boot.

I have an identical XPS8700 (I bought 2 at the same time). Name the problem machine XPS1 and the working machine XPS2. I took the drive out of XPS1 and put it in XPS2 and it booted fine. I put the drive back into XPS1 and same issue. Just spinning dots.

This now makes be think it is a hardware issues. However, working with dell I ran two different hardware diags and it reports fine

Could there be a hardware issue even though all the dell diagnostics say no issue.

Now if a hardware issue, how do you figure which component and if I upgrade the MB or get a new system (dell may just send me a new one since we do not know which component), can I just restore my latest image or will I have licensing issues?

Issue is resolved.

I pulled the CMOS battery. I can now boot into windows 10. I restored by Acronis image of 10 without an issue and it now boots into win 10.

My guess is something was corrupt in the NVRAM that would not allow win 10 to boot but had no effect on windows 8.1.

thanks to all for the help.

Mike

Anyone have any idea as to what could have caused something with the cmos or nvram to not allow win 10 to boot but had not effect on win 8.1? My concern is there is an underlying issue with the MB and an issue with happen again.

thanks. but no settings were changed. Windows 10 was working fine for 6 weeks before so I do not think it is a setting issue.