Dell Dimension 1100. O.S. Windows XP Home edition. Problem: When I switch on the computer it whirs for about five seconds, then there is a click and it freezes. Nothing shows on the screen – no logo etc. Completely dead The green light on front of computer tower remains fixed on. I have tried following: Disconnected memory card and reseated it, disconnected sound card and reseated (no more cards). Disconnected all cables to Motherboard and devices and reseated them. Disconnect mouse, keyboard, monitor. BUT IT NEVER GETS BEYOND THE FIRST FIVE SECONDS OF BOOTING UP. A few days before the problem came I saw the following warning message: "Power Surge on Hub Port. A USB device has exceeded power limits of its hub port”. I have pursued this and downloaded a patch from Dell to remedy this problem: but I cannot install the patch as I cannot get my computer going. Any ideas on how to solve this? Second could the problem be related to this ‘power surge on hub port’.
Do you have any USB devices connected to the system right now? If not, unplug them and see if you're able to boot the system then.
I have disconnected all, but makes no difference. Computer also has new motherboard and processor. Installing these did not correct the problem.
it sound like you could have a knackered USB root hub, go into the BIOS and disable USB, then see if you can boot
Remove all non-essential components and disconnect non-essential cables (including IDE, floppy, etc.). All you should need to reach the initial boot screen (memory count, etc.) are: the motherboard, CPU, RAM, power supply, and graphics card. If it boots, start adding components one at a time, and boot up each time. When the system won't boot, you've found your faulty (or incorrectly installed or incompatible) component.
what i said may have sounded untechnical but disabling USB will actually test the USB and the USB drivers.
