dell inspiron 3847 desktop wont boot up

[bearcatjer]

I have a 2 year old dell inspiron 3847 Haswell deskopc which has worked perfectly since i bought it new. It has  an Intel i5 processor, 1tb had drive and 12 gb of ram.  Recently i had it on playing either Pandora or Spotify...i left it on for several hours and when i returned it was shut down. I tried to restart it and while it would appear to go through a normal boot up it would not get past the Dell icon on the screen.There was no BSOD, no blinkiig or solid orange lights or any other indicator of what might be wrong...just wouldnt complete the boot process.

Initially i was abe to access both the F2 and F12 keys. i could get into the bios but i didnt change any. Through F12 i ran the diagnostics they provide and it passed 100% on every element tested. I ran them 3 times to be sure. The device mgr showed no problems with the hardware.

I systematically replaced the batteries in the mouse, keyboard and remote(i use a samsung 32 n tv as a monitor), checked and tested both the cable modem and wireless router..no problems. I tried every source on the monitor ...no connection.  I replaced the VGA cable connecting the pc to ther monitor...nothing. i connected the monitor and pc with an HDMI cable...didnt work.  I tested the Monitor by hooking it to one of my cable tvs and it worked fine. I connected the monitor to a laptop i have and it worked fine...

By now i NO LONGER CAN ACCESS EITHER THE BIOS OR DIAGNOSTICS VIA F2 or F12. Since then when i start up the PC it still acts like it is going to start normally but doesnt get past the Dell  icon on the desktop. What it does do is give a message on the monitor....."no signal...check device's power, cable connection and source selection"....all of which i have checked at least 25 times. ..no luck. I also tried turning the PC off and holding down the p;ower button for abou a minute then trying to reboot...didnt work.

I am now sitting here with the PC open...reseated the memory sticks...no luck...thinking about replacing the CMOS battery....COULD THAT HELP?Maybe get me into the Bios? I have a the OS disc fromn Dell which came with the system but unless i can change the boot sequence i cant get it to run. When  i was originally able to get into the BIOS and the diagnostics i was able to run SYSTEM RESTORE...ran it twice...it completed but then gave me message that 'NO CHNAGES WERE MADE"

iIMNOT A COMPUTER TECHNICIAN so im sort of out of ideas. Hard to believe it could be a hardware problem but if it is would it more likely be a bad HD, Motherboard or maybe Power Supply?

I guess i may have to resort to having it repaired somewhere...which would be a first for me. I am retired and not crazy about paying a PC reparir person for something i can do...if i can do it.

Can anyone tell me if a REMOTE ONLINE PC REPAIR COMPANY will be able to get my PC to boot up if i havent been able to? If not why would i call one of them?

Anyway i have my 32 in monitor hooked up to my laptop and wireless keyboard and mouse so there is no emergency.Any help you could give me on how to boot up or what you suspect the problem is would really be appreciated.
Thanks very much.   

[thomasC1989]

It seems your PC cannot even POST, as it cannot reach past the Dell icon, and such problem is most likely hardware issue. To POST, a computer needs it's power supply, RAM and CPU, along with a cooler for the CPU. If your PC cannot POST, it's most likely these component's issues.
 
Dell has a support page for troubleshooting no POST issues:
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln292599/resolve-no-power--no-post--no-boot-or-no-video-issues-with-your-dell-computer?lang=en
At this point, it might be better seeking Dell support.

[BC_Programmer]

Based on your account of events my first suspect would be CPU overheating. Perhaps the CPU Fan has failed, or perhaps the Heatsink is clogged with dust. You may have noticed if the latter was the case when you opened up the system- a good blast of compressed air would fix it. For the former you'd have to see if the Fan spins when the system is turned on (Sometimes during boot the fan stops- if it spins at all, that is usually a good sign).

-I wouldn't expect a battery replacement to provide any positive results, but I also wouldn't expect it to make anything worse.

-The message on the monitor is from the Monitor itself. It has stopped receiving any output from the system.

Can anyone tell me if a REMOTE ONLINE PC REPAIR COMPANY will be able to get my PC to boot up if i havent been able to? If not why would i call one of them?

They would not be in any way helpful. The primary reason somebody might utilize a "remote online PC Repair" service would be if they want to give somebody money for nothing. Basically, they are scams (except, of course, possibly through manufacturer support That you prompted).

As the system is only two years old, you should see if it is still under warranty. You can check here; the "Service Tag" should be indicated somewhere on the computer via a sticker, usually it is on the back of the system. If it is still under warranty then you should contact dell- it is effectively "their problem" to resolve in that case. Otherwise you can still contact Dell but you would be on teh hook for repair costs, same as you would with a Repair Shop.

[bearcatjer]

Thanks for the two very helpful replies i have received to my post. I have opened the pc and used canned air to make sure everything is clean...it was already clean but i tried it anyway. The Cpu fan is working fine so i dont think that it is. I was thinking i  could use a peripheral hard drive to get the install disc to activate, but then realized the boot sequence wont let
 that work. My pc is no longer under warranty. Dell wants $99 to help me...I could replace the PS or hard drive if they are bad and probably the MOBO ,but if it is bad i wouldnt waste the money fixing this pc. Looks like a call to Dell is the next move.  Thanks for your help.