[soundofrockets]

Novice here - please bear.  Trying to start an older Dell XPS desktop computer - it’s not starting - has been off for sometime now.
Ideas?

[FullRangeMan]

Novice here - please bear.  Trying to start an older Dell XPS desktop computer - it’s not starting - has been off for sometime now.
Ideas?

What do you mean say by Not starting?
The HD? the Windows? monitor not show image? etc
Power supply have output?

[soundofrockets]

Nothing on the screen. 
Windows not starting.
Says - no boot device available.  Strike F1 to try reboot or F2 to run setup utility.

[FullRangeMan]

Nothing on the screen. 
Windows not starting.
Says - no boot device available.  Strike F1 to try reboot or F2 to run setup utility.

Seems it not seen the HD or the BIOS, Windows files.
Check the HD cable just in case.

[soundofrockets]

HD= hard drive?

How or why would the cable be loose?  We never opened the box.

Is there a way to access the bios?

[FullRangeMan]

HD= hard drive?
Yes
How or why would the cable be loose?  We never opened the box.
Some PCs loose when move, just piece of mind.
Is there a way to access the bios?
Yes, press the suited Fxx key to your PC and the W are loading and it will enter in safe mode. In my PC its F8, from here your can download a new Bios version from Dell site, Iam using Bios A24 W10.

Your system are Windows XP?

[soundofrockets]

Will that be F2 for utility?

[FullRangeMan]

Will that be F2 for utility?

Dont know.
If I remember well, when I had W-7 it was around F7-8.
F1 are for skip keyboard issues W10.

[soundofrockets]

Hmmm

[FullRangeMan]

This is the short cuts for W-XP>
F7 – Used to spell check and grammar check a document in Microsoft Apps (e.g. Word).
F8 – Used to access the boot menu in Windows when turning on the computer.
F9 – Refreshes a document in Microsoft Word and sends and receives emails in Outlook.
F10 – Activates the menu bar of an open application.

[FullRangeMan]

F2 to run setup utility.
This option will be useful to you, type F2 and run an diagnostic.

[Doublej]

You might need to replace the CMOS coin cell battery inside.

[JakeJ]

Looks like you are getting some good advice so just take it one step at a time.

Nothing on the screen. 
Windows not starting.
Says - no boot device available.  Strike F1 to try reboot or F2 to run setup utility.

Press "F2 to run setup utility" is likely the way into the BIOS (BIOS = Basic Input Output System, all computers have this basic layer to start their systems).  To enter most computer's BIOS you need to mash the F2 button right after power up.  Hold it down continuously or tap repeatedly.   If you know or can find the motherboard make and model you can find out which button is for that MB on the WWW.  Once you get into the BIOS you should see the disk in the boot device list.  Something I've recently learned with the newer wireless keyboards is that they do not start working until after the boot is past the BIOS and starting the OS.  Found a wired keyboard is neccessary to get BIOS access.

The message "no boot device" is the bios saying it cannot see the HDD (HDD = hard disk drive) so it cannot boot to the OS.  This may signify a dead hard drive but you may get a new drive and install your OS of choice and start over.  If you have sensitive data on that drive you may need to take it a recovery expert but if not just install the new drive, your OS, and good to go!

If any of this is confusing or you need clarification just ask.  I can do some screenshots if that helps.

Jake

[WGH]

Whenever this has happened to me it turned out the drive had a catastrophic failure and was dead, every spinning thing eventually stops spinning, usually without warning. Since this is an old Dell XPS I will assume it uses a old IDE hard drive and not a new SATA SSD (solid state drive). I have had a SSD fail, then it goes directly from the computer into the trash can.

But you might as well check it out just in case. The BIOS will let you know if it sees the HD, if no drives are listed then you are SOL.

If the drive shows up then maybe the Master Boot Record is scrambled, being a newbie you can't fix that. A re-install of the OS keeping all the data is the easiest solution but Dell has custom drivers which you need to download first. The hard drive probably has a hidden recovery partition, that option will wipe out everything and make it factory fresh.

Pull the hard drive and plug it into another desktop computer, it may still be readable and the data can be recovered. A problem these days is the old drive could be IDE and new motherboards don't have an IDE port so you would need an adapter.

I have used Ubuntu to pull data off misbehaving hard drives. Download the .iso and install it on a thumb drive or burn it to a CD. Set the BIOS to boot from the Ubunto thumb drive or CD. Copy the data to a second thumb drive.
If Ubuntu doesn't see the drive then it is truly dead.
https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

One last trick that sometimes works long enough to pull off data. Remove the drive from the computer, put it into a zip lock bag and place in the freezer for 24 hours. Reinstall the drive while still frozen, it may work for about 20 minutes for data recovery or kill the drive humanely, ending it's misery.

[soundofrockets]

Trying to attach pix of screenshot with F2

[soundofrockets]

F2 screen shot

[JakeJ]

OK, almost there.

Note the tab or page in your screenshot says "Main".  You need to select the "Boot" tab two tabs/pages to the right.

Please give us a screenshot of that tab/page.

I fear WGH is correct and you'll have to decide whether to invest in a new drive or dump it on Craigslist.

Jake

[soundofrockets]

Here is the boot shot.

[JakeJ]

Awesome.  Now with the internal hdd highlighted hit the enter key and you'll enter the next layer which should identify the make and model of the drive.

If the BIOS comes back with an identity then I would change the boot order so the hard drive is first then save and exit the BIOS.  It should boot to Windows.

Now if you enter that next layer and it shows no disk then power the PC down and go over the cable connections as FullRangeMan suggested.  Power up and see what happens but don't be too disappointed, stuff gets old and dies.  Judging from the CPU and RAM specs I saw I'd say that box is worth getting a new drive for.  Just be aware of the drive to motherboard connectors as you may need an IDE to SATA adapter.  You can get a nice drive for >$50

Like this

Or this  Recently bought the 2Tb version for my NAS.

[WGH]

F2 screen shot

Need to see the bottom of the screen, notice the scroll bar on the right is at the top, slide it down. Looking for HDD numbers. Different BIOS lists the HDD ID info in different places, I never owned a Dell.
Just guessing but the bottom of the window should look something like this:




If you don't have any important data on this computer, I wouldn't put too much effort into solving this problem. At 10 years old it has reached the logical end of it's life, from now on the computer will have one problem after another. A year ago I replaced two computers, each was 10 years old. Connections get corroded, capacitors dry out, errors and reboots happen unexpectedly. Hard drives die.

What is the operating system? Windows 7? All Microsoft security updates have ended. The current browsers may no longer render web pages and updated browsers may not install because of security holes. I ran into this with Windows Vista, the laptop worked fine but I couldn't do anything with it. I installed Windows 7 (before support expired) and got the Windows 10 Free Update.
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=167226.msg1775174#msg1775174