Dell XPS 720 Constantly BSOD/Restarting - Worth Fixing?

[EduCat]

Hello everyone. I recently acquired an old Dell XPS 720, the core2extreme qx6800/8800gtx type. The guy who gave it to me told me it was having trouble staying on/booting. (He bought a new computer.) I am just wondering if this is even worth fixing at all.

Essentially the computer is very unstable. Crashes after being up just minutes. If I attempt to install anything, it crashes 99 times out of 100.

0x000000BE, 0x0000000A are some of the codes I remember when I got hit with the BSOD. (at work now) At this point, all I have tried is replacing the HD with a fresh OS install, updating the bios to the most recent version, and removing the ram and replacing it with a different brand.

When I got the PC it had Windows XP on it and would not make it past the windows loading screen. It would either BSOD or just restart. Windows 7 is on the machine now.

I had read that generally the power supply (1000w) in these machines pooped out pretty fast. It was usually either the power supply or motherboard itself that caused the issue. Any suggestions on what to try next? I am debating going to Microcenter to get a power supply tester. Has anyone used a different power supply with this PC? The motherboard (BTX it seems) is rather expensive at this point.

One other thing I read about is the SATA drive setting/ AHCI vs IDE - I can't find these settings in the bios at all, they are pretty limited. I don't see any option for the multiplier either, but the qx6800 is running @ 2.4ghz.

The 8800GTX is also suspect IMO, but I don't have another card to test atm. Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[inachu]

Get a flash light and look for blown caps on the motherboard.

Blown caps will have a very slight bulge at the top and may or may not be leaking white or brown stuff.


If you never checked for blown caps before then the link below is a good example from doing a google image search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=blo...21sATXyYDQCw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1280&bih=598

 

[VirtualLarry]

IMHO, it's not worth the time and effort to fix. However, you could make it turn a small profit for you, by parting components out, and selling on ebay "AS-IS". A BTX mobo for a high-end but older Dell might be valuable to someone, as might the "Extreme" Core2Quad.

Then take whatever you make from the sale, and put it into a nice Haswell G3258 or i3-4160 rig, which would be much faster CPU-wise than that hunk-o-junk BTX rig.

 

[Ketchup]

So the "Crashes after being up just minutes. If I attempt to install anything, it crashes 99 times out of 100" is on the fresh hard drive with a fresh install?

You could pull the minidump files to another computer and see what you are dealing with. Looking for bulging caps was a good idea.

Does it BSOD every time? It is unusual for a failing power supply to exhibit that behavior. A failing video card usually crashes citing the video driver IIRC.

Does the BIOS give you temps? Might let it just sit in the BIOS for a while and see if it is overheating.

Have you replaced anything? Might just be a bad SATA cable.

 

[EduCat]

@inachu

I will take a look. I may break it down tomorrow to see any caps that may not be visible while the PC is assembled.

@VirtualLarry

I'm not actually in need of a main rig but I love to tinker. I have a q8400 rig that I'd love to benchmark it against at some point. I would hoard parts/computers if I could. lol

@ketchup

It's a HD I pulled from a different machine, fresh install of win7. It doesn't BSOD everytime, but will just restart itself. I just now turned it on, it got to the 'welcome to windows' screen and then just restarted. It did this about 4 times in a row until I finally chose to start it in safe mode. Oddly enough it's very stable in safe mode. I will look at the dump files. The CPU temps were actually very low, 22c. All I have replaced is the ram with a different brand. (ocz reaper)

It's a pretty cool rig I'd love to keep it intact if possible. What's the significance of it being able to start in safe mode but now in reg mode?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Oddly enough it's very stable in safe mode.
What's the significance of it being able to start in safe mode but now in reg mode?

That can be due to two factors.
1) Safe Mode loads a minimal set of basic / failsafe hardware drivers. Some vendor hardware drivers may not be loading. They may conflict or be unstable.
2) Safe mode loads the "VGASAVE" driver, and doesn't load the GPU vendor driver. This generally doesn't draw as much power, because it only uses the VGA hardware emulation core, and not the whole GPU.

2 can indicate PSU or video card problems.

 

[Gunbuster]

Case is pretty sweet. Does it fit a standard motherboard? Would use it for a new build...

 

[Burpo]

One other thing I read about is the SATA drive setting/ AHCI vs IDE - I can't find these settings in the bios at all..


It's a pretty cool rig I'd love to keep it intact if possible.

AHCI should be in the RAID section..

Case is pretty sweet. Does it fit a standard motherboard? Would use it for a new build...

No it's BTX

But it is a pretty cool old Tower with a 1000 watt PS. Even as BTX it'd be hard to put it down (long as it works)..

Hope it works out for you..

 

[Ketchup]

I still have a couple Gigabyte BTX's with dead boards (I really need to throw them out). I thought BTX was a good idea, but oh well. Reversing ATX seems to accomplish about the same, and of course isn't so proprietary. BTX gets harder to find as the years go by, so if it turns out to be a motherboard issue, might as well throw it away.

 

[inachu]

If that was my pc I'd keep the case for sure.

 

[EduCat]

So it ended up crashing while in safe mode last night after some light web browsing, but it's definitely more stable while in safe mode vs a regular boot. I did get a 0x0000001e BSOD - points to RAM?

Some of the previous dump files highlighted cdrom.sys and ntoskrnl.exe as being issues. (IIR correctly) I have a feeling it may be bad ram/slots.

I am going to break it all down and give it a good cleaning/re-seating tonight or tomorrow. We'll see what happens. TBH, I could never throw it away. lol

:edit:

One thing I did notice while browsing the device manager, was that the multimedia audio controller had the ! next to it. I tried to install the audio driver but couldn't get it to make it all the way through the process.

 

[Ketchup]

That error sounds like what one would run into with a bad driver, or bad hardware that the driver is trying to load.

One thing I might try is uninstalling all audio drivers (and even disabling onboard audio from the BIOS) and see if that improves anything.

 

[inachu]

Microsoft says:

Collapse imageCAUSE
This behavior can occur if you restart your computer during or after the Windows Setup process, and if any of the following conditions are true:
There is insufficient disk space on the drive on which you installed Windows.
There is an outdated or incompatible third-party driver (or drivers) installed on your computer -- for example a faulty video driver.
There are system BIOS incompatibilities.

Yeah remove third party drivers and even remove mouse software and just run your USB mouse with generic drivers.

Also empty any and all your temp folders.

c \windows\temp
USER\PROFILENAME\appdata\local\temp
c \temp

 

[EduCat]

So I am going to:

Breakdown PC
Check motherboard caps
clean parts
Reassemble
Fresh OS install.

Thanks for the help guys! The ole' beast may live to see another day!

:edit: Also, I think the 8800gtx just runs hot normally, but idling it was at 69.5 degrees C.

 

[inachu]

So I am going to:

Breakdown PC
Check motherboard caps
clean parts
Reassemble
Fresh OS install.

Thanks for the help guys! The ole' beast may live to see another day!

:edit: Also, I think the 8800gtx just runs hot normally, but idling it was at 69.5 degrees C.

I'll give you $70 if you decide to toss it.
I just want the case.

 

[Ketchup]

:edit: Also, I think the 8800gtx just runs hot normally, but idling it was at 69.5 degrees C.

Those were pretty hot IIRC. But removing the heatsink and putting some arctic silver on the GPU will probably cool it down a bit.

 

[EduCat]

Well I didn't do a full breakdown of the PC last night but I did remove the RAM, sound card (SB x-fi Music edition), video card, etc and air dusted everything out again real good. It actually is running a tad bit better, however I am still getting BSOD's. I managed to install fresh copy of windows without it restarting though, so that's a plus.

There are 3 pci-e plugs on the PSU, two 6a plugs, and one 10a plug. I am pretty sure the video card requires one 10a and one 6a plug. I ended up moving the 8800 to the '2nd gfx card slot' to see if it had any effect, still crashed.

As far as the caps, there are two caps that seem to have somewhat puffed up tops. (I only say this due to how the light reflects.) Everything else looks real good. I may try to get a picture of the caps to see what you guys think.

Changing the RAM configuration around seems to affect the machine differently.

So all in all, still investigating.

 

[Ketchup]

So are you running with the sound card out not?

 

[EduCat]

I removed the sound card, yes. Although I did do a reinstall of windows after I took it out.

After the last time I booted it up, it got into windows and I just left it. It bsod'd after some time and I believe there were the 0x0000000A and 0x0000001E codes again. May have even been a 0x000000BE code in there as well. lol

 

[Ketchup]

And is device manager still showing an error?

If I were in your shoes, I would grab a trial copy of 8.1 and see what the machine does with it.

 

[inachu]

If you were a co worker of mine I would bring your motherboard to our server farm of outsourced solder workers from vietnam to put new caps on your motherboard just for fun then free flow the board so any solder would be solid again and not cracking at the joints.

 

[EduCat]

@ Ketchup

I will check to see what the device manager says, it was late and I was pretty much just flinging crap to see if anything would stick. I turned the machine off after I saw the blue screen. Is there a legitimate place to download windows 8.1 trial?

@inachu

Well I am currently in the market for a new job so maybe we could make that happen? lol. I have experience being around farms of outsourced workers.

 

[denis280]

for the bsod get this.http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed