Fan running High Speed/nothing..?

[pcnewbe]

Greetings all,
I am having issues that i'm not sure where to turn. I have a DELL, 8400, that the large cooling fan just started running super fast and there is nothing on the screen (can't navigate anywhere). this only happens when I start up. Any clues? Just the fan? Something worse...? Thanks,

~pcnewbe~

[Caperjack]

open and check for dust buildup inside .sounds like its overheating

[pcnewbe]

I will take a look. I appreciate the reply...

[pcnewbe]

Another issue, along with the extremely high speed, is that the screen never showed the desktop. Always a kind of a blue/black and right when I powered up.

[Caperjack]

all sounds like the same issue to me ,open the tower and check for swollen /leaky capacitors.
http://www.thegeekpub.com/49/how-to-...aky-capacitor/

[pcnewbe]

That is a great tip and thanks for the visual... There must be 60-80 of these things that I can see on the motherboard. Not really sure which ones specifically to look at, but I didn't see any obviously leaking.

I do have a 2400 that I can put the drives and memory into, but would hate to scrap this over something simple... it kills me.

[Caperjack]

Not really sure which ones specifically to look at


the link i posted has a small picture with 3 green colored caps in it,they do come in different colors but usually all look the same like a small round shaped cylinder ,you board may have quite a few of them actually ,especially look at the ones around the processor[cpu ] ,heat-sink
like in this picture almost all of there are leaking ,see small brown spot on the top silver part of the cap .
http://www.capacitorlab.com/visible-failures/

dell are know for this problem .
http://news.cnet.com/Bulging-capacit...3-5924742.html

[pcnewbe]

That makes a little more sense. I was looking at the base for leaking. If I do find the source, and remove the board, is it a part that Comp USA, or Radio Shack carries? How about the replacement process--just melt the two connectors..?

[Murf]

Are you saying that it eventually will boot up to desktop and it is OK? This only happens while booting?