lcd screen is just "white" blank when booting up

[edong]

My friend's Dell Dimension 4550 desktop does not beep when booting up. The lcd screen has nothing but "white" blank. I wonder if this model does not beep at all. What is the most probable problem - the monitor or the PC? He does not have another PC or monitor to try each. Thanks.

[Bjs]

Try and replace the systems power cord ... sometimes they just bite the dust

Then its dig inside, with the power cable removed.

Remove all addon cards
Remove memory chips and re-seat them back into position
Remove all other connected external devices
Id also include disconnecting cd / dvd devices (if there's a fault here, they can hang the system)

Just the box, nothing attached, except the power cord, and fire it up

If no go, it comes down to either a problem with the psu, or the motherboard.

For the motherboard, remove the power lead, and the onboard battery, and set cmos to clear, leave it in this state for a few hours.

After, reinstall the onboard battery, reset cmos jumper back to pre-state, connect mains, and hope it fires up once more

Having failed this, and not having another psu, atleast a spare 450watt psu available, you wont get much further.

As for the screen, you really do need another system to test if all is fine with the unit.

[drjtech]

FYI, here are the beep codes and diagnostic light codes for the Dell 4550:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4550/advanced.htm

-drjtech

[edong]

Thanks, guys. I finally had a chance to test the problem monitor in another PC and the Dell PC to another working monitor. It is the monitor which has the problem. I was only confused that the monitor is bright blank. I thought when the monitor is dead, the screen is usually dark. In addition, the PC did not have any beep/s when powered on. My friend bought a new LCD monitor and everyone is happy now. Thanks again.