[theunnamed]

Hello guys, the problem I'm having is that my mini won't boot up. After the Dell Logo appears, it stucks with a blinking cursor on the left. A couple days ago it was working well, I put it into sleep and never woke up again. I tried the following

* BIOS reset: F2 then Load Setup Defaults
* Boot sequence: 1st boot device HDD
* USB stick install: It never passes through to the setup, F12 then USB removable device ends up blinking cursor.
* Diagnostics: F12 then Diagnostics never starts, still blinking cursor.


Any idea whats happening, and solutions ?

[rrfranczak3]

when you tried the USB install you did enable 'Legacy USB' in the BIOS right?

[theunnamed]

Yes thats right. When I select the option USB Removable Device and hit Enter, then the cursor shows up and no more progress. Is it stuck up at the POST ?

[rrfranczak3]

thats not what I meant, in the BIOS there is an option to enable 'Legacy USB' (or something like that, maybe its 'USB Legacy'), that must be done prior to even selecting a boot device.....if 'Legacy USB' is not enabled in the BIOS you can keep selecting USB as a boot device as the system tries to boot until the cows come home, but it never will, if you get to the point where you get the option for F2 or F12 then I think the system has completed POST and seems to be having a problem booting into Windows

[theunnamed]

Yeah I got it I meant by "Yes thats right" that I enabled USB Legacy.. I was just trying to clarify the situation It is enabled.

[rrfranczak3]

are you sure that the USB stick IS bootable?, maybe try it in a different system and see if it is, you might have to go to an external CD/DVD drive then, you also might try to create a Linux Install USB stick and see if the system will boot to that, Linux seems to be easier to work with than windows sometimes

[theunnamed]

That's a good point, I just checked the USB and it is not bootable , I will quickly make a bootable ubuntu and come back

---------- Post added at 11:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 PM ----------

Nothing changed I created an ubuntu stick but still blinking cursor :S

[rrfranczak3]

any chance of swapping out the hard drives, they take a standard 2.5 in (9.5mm) SATA drive, the same as most laptops

[theunnamed]

You suggest me to change the HDD ? Well, If I can do it myself i'll give it a shot. But I didn't get what we aim. To try a different HDD or to try the HDD on a different PC ?

[rrfranczak3]

well, if the HDD works in another system then maybe its your mobo, or if another HD works in the Mini then its probably your HD