Used DBAN and now I get no post screen!

PillowFight

PillowFight

New Member
Hi,

I have a Dell Optiplex, GX60, 1.7 Celeron, with a 120GB drive. Got frustrated with a Linux install that went bad so I decided to start over. I used DBAN for the first time to do this, and did the auto thing. It was successful, however, no I get no post screen on startup whatsoever :(

Have no idea where to go from here, help!
 
There is nothing that DBAN can do to affect the BIOS of your computer, so it can't affect the Power-On Self-Test. What DBAN will do is completely overwrite the hard drive, so it will need to be partitioned again, then formatted. It could be that the drive itself has gone bad, which can make the computer stick during the powerup phase. I have heard of other users frustrated with the Dell Optiplex and various programs like DBAN or forensics programs, because Dell apparently has some non-standard things they do with the hardware and BIOS. Sorry I can't be more help.
 
I know the drive is good...someone told me the CMOS got wiped. I have been told there are two ways out of that: undo the jumpers and see if it will magically flash when I put them back, or look up the motherboard on Dell's site and try to flash it with a floppy. Sound possible?
 
Update

Yeah, that was the problem..the CMOS. All I had to do with remove the battery for a bit, stick it back in and lo and behold, a post screen. Yay! :)
 
Re: Update

PillowFight said:
Yeah, that was the problem..the CMOS. All I had to do with remove the battery for a bit, stick it back in and lo and behold, a post screen. Yay! :)
Click to expand...
I was just about to suggest this! My motherboard has jumpers that can be used to reset the CMOS, removing the battery has the same effect.

I had to do this last year when curiosity got the better of me and I turned off the shared graphics in the BIOS to see what would happen - the result was one blank screen!... I used the jumpers and this reset the CMOS / BIOS to the defaults. My computer was fine after that, and now I've learned to leave the BIOS settings alone :P
 
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