Dell M6400 Won't Boot To Bios Screen? Help?

I bought a Dell Precision M6400 (#2) recently on Ebay and it arrived earlier today. Cosmetically the unit looks new, like it's seldom been used. I need some advice because it just won't Boot To the Bios screen. The unit came without a HDD.



When I power on it will not Boot To Bios and I tried for about an hour. The Dell logo splash screen appears on Power Up normally and the Bios progress bar makes it to 98% and the screen goes black and keeps trying to fully load. Again and again to almost a full progress bar. Fast at first and then gets very slow the last 80%. Makes it to 98% and keeps re-trying. And re-trying. Below the progress bar, on the splash screen reads Bios Version A13, which is the latest version.



The seller did tell me that it may be 2GB of RAM and not 4GB, that a stick may have been removed. I get nothing when I try F2 and when I try F12 I get a little message top right in yellow, "Preparing For One Time Boot Option" but that disappears when the progress bar reaches 98% and tries again and again.



I think it's something simple. When I get time tomorrow I'm going to start checking the RAM and see if it's seated properly. If that isn't the culprit what should I check next?



Dell Precision M6400 P8600 2.40 Ghz



2 or 4 GB DDR3 PC3-8500 DDR3



Nvida G94 Graphics Dedicated



WUXGA



No HDD

 

I am having a similar problem over here.

My problem occurs on an M6500.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m6500-will-no-longer-enter-bios.776924/

I just removed the CMOS battery for a minute or so and when it is replaced when you press
F2 you have access to bios.

The problem I have is that If I let the machine boot without pressing F2 the problem reoccurs.

If you get it working look into the System logs in the BIOS and see if there are any events that might have caused damage.

I just followed your advice and check the memory and it wasn't completely seated.

I seated it properly and the problem seems to have diappeared!

I hope it lasts.

 

Cool Rommul. I followed my advice too and it was the memory. Slot C had a bad stick of memory. Swapped it with a fresh stick and works fine now. Love it when it's the simple things and the first thing.