IVIYTH0S Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 So two Opteron 745s at my job both blue screened. They're secondary machines that my manager has repurposed for use in his office and the other is for guests to use to browse the web and whatever. Now they simply go to a black screen after posting, in place of windows even attempting to boot or giving any option to go to safe mode. It seems all too strange that both machines would have this happen at around the exact same time when both have very different user environments... All the hardware passes the Dell on-board diagnostics so I'm thinking there's some software corruption but I'm still pretty suspicious that Dell has some sort of "time bomb" where the machine shuts down. Has this ever happened before?? I've tried my XP discs to repair the installs with no avail and oddly my Hirens Boot Usb won't boot properly on them (so I can run further tests and try to do some virus/malware sweeps), but it works fine on my laptop. I'm wondering if I should just back the files up and then fresh install....I just hate having to reinstall all the updates ugh. Anyone ever heard of this issue before?? TL:DR= Two Dells at my job POST and then show a black screen in place of windows loading and nothing happens. Any advice? Thanks ya'll Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 Dead HDDs? Power surge maybe? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroFight Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I second Waco's above post, but it's important to forget it could just be coincidence. Or maybe if the computers were in the same batch maybe a dodgy batch of components? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjloki Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 it's been a while but don't those proprietary machines have an option to restore to factory state with a recovery option stored in a special partition ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_bowtie Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I'm with Waco.... I got a couple dead drives that when i hook them up it will POST but go directly to a black screen... I'd unhook the drives and see if it acts normal.. and/or do a memtest run for giggles Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I'll pull them both tonight....they passed dell's harddrive tests though.(S.M.A.R.T. self scans and extended read tests) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjloki Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I'll pull them both tonight....they passed dell's harddrive tests though.(S.M.A.R.T. self scans and extended read tests) hmm, that's interesting... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gebraset Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 May not be the issue, but check to see in the BIOS if the boot option is ACI (I think?), SATA, or RAID. I'm not sure why, but the Dell laptops we had at my old assignment constantly reverted to RAID bootup, even though the computer only had one hard drive slot. This caused either a blue screen, or as you are describing, a black screen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 May not be the issue, but check to see in the BIOS if the boot option is ACI (I think?), SATA, or RAID. I'm not sure why, but the Dell laptops we had at my old assignment constantly reverted to RAID bootup, even though the computer only had one hard drive slot. This caused either a blue screen, or as you are describing, a black screen. Hmmm, this actually makes sense, alot of sense! I'll have to check when I get there tonight...I'd cry tears of rage and joy if it's something this simple Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gebraset Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I really hope it is, lol. It was such a hassle all of the time, though I'm not sure what the issue was. The BIOS batteries were changed in multiple machines, but the same models continued to switch back to RAID mode and never made it to booting Windows, since it didn't really recognize the one drive. Best of luck to you, and post back if/when you know more. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClayMeow Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I second what others have said. Two "bad eggs" is hardly a conspiracy, so to try to call Dell out seems a bit premature (and immature). Say what you will about Dell in the consumer sector, but when it comes to the corporate sector, there's no better, more reliable company for pre-builts, IMHO....and they certainly wouldn't get that way from implementing "time bombs." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I second what others have said. Two "bad eggs" is hardly a conspiracy, so to try to call Dell out seems a bit premature (and immature). Say what you will about Dell in the consumer sector, but when it comes to the corporate sector, there's no better, more reliable company for pre-builts, IMHO....and they certainly wouldn't get that way from implementing "time bombs." It was just all too coincidental, two machines we got at the same time, same generation, same models...."died" the same way. I obviously know a big company like Dell wouldn't risk something like I was describing but it would be similar to this. That being said the self diagnostics were very thorough and effective at ruling out hardware malfunction. I was pleased that I didn't even have to boot up Hirens....not that I could. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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