M6600 Owners Thread

After a few weeks, my machine stopped working TOTALLY.
I can not boot!!!

I can not boot to none of the hard drives, and try to boot using a rescue DVD Is also pointless. The m6600 does not even try!!!
After the dell splash screen, it does not even show the boot list.

Does anyone has experience something like this?
I am really angry right now!!! First, the Chi Mei screen, now this!!!
I for my situation to be just for my m6600.

God! And I have so much work to do!!!

 

Can you give us some more information about the machine? You have never posted anything about the configuration.

Also, have you changed or added any parts to the machine?

What you are describing could have a few easy to fix causes.

If you bought the machine with a dual core processor, and put ram in the slots under the keyboard, it would cause your machine to not post.

You could also try reseating the ram in the back of the machine.

You said you had a chi mai panel - did someone come out and replace it yet?

Also a drop or shock could have done something.

 

Hi Bokeh!
Thanks for your reply! I loved your review about this machine and I really respect you and what you do.

Now, to clarify mi situation,

1. I added a HDD to the seconday bay to install Windows Vista, but after that, it did not gave me any trouble, It worked just fine, flawlessly. The only thing wrong with my machine was the Chi Mei display (and still is).

2. I bought my machine with a Quad Core i7 processor (i7-2720QM) and I have not putted any more ram on my machine or switched from bottom to under the keyboard.

3. I reseated the ram in the back of the machine to no avail.

4. The Chi Mei panel have not been replaced yet, but after this, I will ask for an equipment replacement.

5. I have not dropped my machine and it certainly has not received any shock.

After installing the software PowerISO 4.8 (trial version), it asked me to reboot, so I did and since then, the machine can not boot.

It lets me enter to the bios, it lets me enter to the One time boot options, but it does not run the diagnostics as it used to do, and the machine does not boot from andy DVD either. It does noe even try!

I have just worked on the machine, editing videos, nothing unusual.

The only thing out of the ordinary is that I rebooted with an External USB HDD connected to the eSata - USB port located ont the back of the workstation and it seemed to me that the machine tried to boot from the HDD connected to the eSata port.

In the other USB ports I had a Kensington Expert Mouse connected and another External USB HDD. Both USB 3 pors had nothing connected.

Right now, I don't know what else to do.

Thank you, Bokeh for your concern

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Dell Precision Workstation M6600 - Core i7-2720QM - 4GB RAM 1600 Mhz - nVidia Quadro 3000m - Intel 82579LM Gigabit Lan - WIFI Intel 6300 AGN

 

Well, maybe these ideas might help.

First, pull your hard drive and DVD both out and re-install them, just to rule out a possible iffy connection to the mother board sockets.

You said it won't boot from a DVD. Is your bios set to boot specifically DVD, then hard drive? If so, if it won't recognize the DVD at POST, pull it out and try booting from just the hard drive. Maybe pull out any other hard drives except your primary boot drive also.

If that doesn't work, if you have access to another computer or a friend who uses Linux, set up a USB thumb drive with a Live Linux install on it.

Then change your bios to boot from the USB thumb drive. If it will boot from the thumb drive, you should be able to at least run some diagnostics from Linux, or have someone who knows Linux help you with it.

It almost sounds like that PowerIso install did something to your Master Boot Record or Partition Table on the hard drive and now your bios won't recognize it. But it is odd that it won't boot from the DVD.

Does the DVD even try to spin up on POST? If not, and if your bios is set to boot DVD, then HDD1, if you have a bad DVD drive that can't post, it may be hanging up there and not going any farther. I had a tower several years ago do the same thing.

Hope this helps.

 

@ RockoDesvan
For me it also sounds like that your last installed program infiltrated your MBR and/or partition table.
So my question to you is if you already have a backup that can be run in case of emergency?
That would be the right moment to make use of it.
Something like:
Acronis True Image, EaseUS, F-Secure, Norton Ghost, Paragon...

 

Hi jmthomas!

Thanks for your reply

I have removed both HDD and putted them back, and also checked that they were properly connected, but it did not resolved my problem.
About booting from a DVD, the optical drive does work, it "reads" the DVD, you can hear it spinnig loading it. But when I select in the one time boot options to boot from the DVD, it does the same thing that it does when I select to boot from any of the HDD: Nothing, it goes directly to a black screen and automatically reboots.

It does not show any error message, nothing at all.

About booting from a USB thumb drive, what I did try was to remove both HDD and put the primary HDD in a External USB Case - Enclosure I have, to try to boot from the HDD as a USB device, but got no luck, the machine did the same thing: it went to a black screen and the rebooted.


Thanks you againg for your efforts. I'll keep testing things.

 

Hi Robotti80!

You may be right about the Master Boor Record; it may be possible that something in the PowerIso installation messed it up.

About the backup, I do have onem but since the machine wont start and wont read the Norton Rescue Disc I have (I use Ghost), or any other disc, It the backup image is pretty useless at the moment.

Perhaps the issue is related to security configuration? PowerIso asked me if I wanted to install some virtual discs (like Virtual Clone Drive stuff) and I did selected that option.

Could it be possible that the TPM would "react" and blocked the equipment?

I'll try Load Defaults in the Bios to see what happens.

Thank, Robotti80 for your help!

 

Offically, I have more than the 5 post I needed to contact Dell Mano G

I'll PM ASAP about my Chi Mei Display

 

I guess you don't need exactly 5 post to be able to send PM... I still can not do it!


Well, about my problem, I found that loading defaults in BIOS, did let me "boot" to Windows. I putted between quote marls 'cause after the "starting windows" splash screen, it reboots automatically!

I have selected to do not boot automatically after crashing to what is the issue, but the information is not clear.

It just says "XSTOP" and a lot of numbers.

I think i'll need to reinstall windows now. Good thing I have a backup .

 

I do not have my M6600 with me.
Is it right, that you can enter the BIOS setup?
Is there a setting something like: "Set back to factory setting"?
If it is then try it.

After that try to use your Ghost image.