Hi All,
I have an XPS M1730 that someone brought to me to see if I could repair. The symptoms are that it starts to power up, but shuts down before the BIOS finishes. The owner stated that the video card fans never ran at full speed as they do now when attempting to boot. Before contacting me, they took the machine to Geek Squad, who suggested that either the motherboard or video card was bad. I've seen threads where comments are made about the fans not operating, but haven't found any that discuss running fast at boot.
I suspected a bad BIOS when I first looked at it. Because the BIOS is soldered in, I replaced the motherboard and got the same symptoms after reassembling the computer. Researching this model, I found a lot of complaints on issues with video cards.
One question I have is, would the video card really be bad if the display is working during the time the computer is trying to boot?
Things I have tried to resolve the issue include swapping out the memory, swapping out the hard drive, and replacing the motherboard. Since the cost of these video cards is high, I'm hesitant to go and order one if it's not the problem. The fans running full speed at boot seem to be an indicator, though, that something is possibly wrong with the card.
I'd be much obliged if anyone has suggestions or can point me to a thread that discusses this
Bob
