No BIOS Post and Blank Screen

engine987 · 14 Nov 2017

I've got a Dell Inspiron One 2205 All-in-One computer that shows no signs of life except that it is receiving power. It was working fine one moment then, later on in the day when I started it again, nothing happened. When the power switch is pressed, it turns orange but that's all that happens and the monitor is completely blank. The CD tray is operable but no other signs of life appear. I removed the hard drive and connected it to a USB adapter - I couldn't see the drive in File Explorer on my other computer so I'm assuming it is dead. Would that alone cause the computer not to show anything on the monitor when started? I've ordered a replacement hard drive but I'm wondering if there could be other problems as well. It's about 10 years old and was running perfectly fine; I wondered whether the CMOS battery could be dead (but would that cause a blank screen?).

sygnus21 · 14 Nov 2017

engine987 said:

I wondered whether the CMOS battery could be dead (but would that cause a blank screen?).

Short answer yes. With a dead CMOS battery the BIOS loses its settings so it would be very possible to get a blank screen. If it is a CMOS battery, change it and Load Optimized defaults in BIOS and see how that goes.

It's also possible its a hard drive issue though you should at least get something on the screen telling you the system can't find a boot drive.

There's also the possibility of a dead GPU. Here, as you noted, you wouldn't get anything at all. Simply a blank screen.

That said, are you absolutely sure there's nothing on the screen? No warnings, notices, or written text? If you have any text on the screen that's BIOS related, there's a good chance it's not a video card problem.

Unfortunately there are a few things that can cause your issue so you'll have to isolate first to see what's what. Checking the hard drive the way you did is a good start. You could also try installing another hard drive (if you've got one handy) to see what the system does.

Let us know.

kingtez1984 · 14 Nov 2017

Could try a ATX reset. unplug ALL devices including external hdd's, printers and any other USB devices and such as.

hold the power button down for 20 seconds and then connect ONLY the Power, Monitor cable KB and Mouse and nothing else and give it a try matey

Steve C · 15 Nov 2017

For a normal desktop PC I would suspect a faulty PSU. When you press the PC on button there are handshaking signals between the PSU and motherboard which need to operate for the PC to power on. These signals rely on the proper operation of the +5V standby signal output by the PSU. I've had the exact symptoms you have which were caused by a PSU having a faulty +5V standby circuit. I had to replace the PSU to fix the problem. You can test normal PSUs using the 'paperclip test' but I don't know if this is possible with your all-in-one PC.

alphanumeric · 15 Nov 2017

I've seen a CMOC/BIOS battery that has died to a dead short cause a situation like that. Removing it fixes the issue. You can boot a PC with no CMOS battery, and use it like that. All is fine until you reboot or shutdown. With no battery to save the settings the BIOS will just revert to defaults. Date and time will be off too. PC is still usable while you go get a new battery though. If you remove the battery and nothing changes you have other issues you need to sort out.

alphanumeric · 15 Nov 2017

With that other drive in your second computer, open disk management and see what it shows. Might only be a corrupt file system.

engine987 · 16 Nov 2017

Thank you all for your responses. I haven't gotten very far as I'm still waiting for the replacement hard drive to arrive. However, I can answer some of your questions and comments. Firstly, absolutely nothing appears on the screen - no cursor, no print, nothing - very odd to begin with! I tried the ATX reset but that resulted in no change. The All-in-One has a power connector similar to a laptop with no proper PSU. The computer is receiving power so I can't see the PSU as an issue. I haven't tried removing the CMOS battery yet as I thought it should still work with a dead or weak battery however, I will try the above suggestion if replacing the hard drive does not work. I'll also look at disk management with the old disk in my other computer. I'll keep you all posted.

zbook · 16 Nov 2017

Please update the system specs in the "My Computer" section:

How To Fill Out Your System Specs
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums:
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums General Tips Tutorials
In the left corner below in your post you find 'My System Specs'.
After clicking it you can find a link a little below that says 'Update your System Spec', click on this link to get to the page where you can fill in your system specs.
System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

Include PSU. cooler, case, peripherals and anything attached to the computer by wired or wireless (mouse, keyboard, headset, printer, xbox, etc.)

alphanumeric · 16 Nov 2017

A fully functional PC will boot to BIOS even with no hard drive installed. You'll get a no bootable device found (or similar) message with an option to enter setup.
A PC will normally Boot to BIOS even with a dead battery. It just loads the defaults on every boot. On rare occasions though, like if the battery has shorted out. The PC won't POST. It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen.

zbook · 16 Nov 2017

What sounds do you hear when the computer is turned on?
1) beep code?
2) fan?
3) drive spinning?
Run though these links especially the posting check list and report into the thread the findings:
No power or computer does not turn on
POST troubleshooting steps
Computer POST and beep codes