XPS M1730 problems booting

Hi,
On my XPS M1730 I have deleted the MediaDirect partition from my hard disk and installed Windows 7.

I can boot to Windows by pressing the MediaDirect button and then a key on the keyboard.

However, the machine will not boot to Windows when I press the power button.
Instead, the power LED lights as does the bluetooth LED. The hard drive LED lights for a few seconds and the DVD drive makes a couple of noises (as the "head" moves to and fro'). The hard drive LED then goes off and the machine just sits there doing nowt.
The screen remains blank (no backlighting either). The power and bluetooth LED's remain lit.

I have searched the internet far and wide but cannot find anybody else who has experience of this.

Please can I have any suggestions as to what may be causing this?

The only difference I can see between the two different boot "processes" is that the MediDirect "route" doesn't appear to cycle through the BIOS "screens" in the same way that the machine does (should) when you press the power button.
I had the issue with the original BIOS, flashed it to the latest revision and still have the issue.

Thank you for reading.

 

The main difference between booting by pressing media button and power button is that in the first instance only one GPU is powered on. From what you've described it could be that one of your GPUs is fried. Try reinstalling Windows and use it with SLI off for a few days. If problem is gone, try turning SLI on. If problem is back, then it is a definite GPU failure. If you still have warranty, you try contacting Dell customer support.

 

Hi DDT5 and thank you for your reply.
You could be the saviour of all my problems!
How do you know about only 1 card being powered on booting through MediaDirect?
This could well be linked to my problems as outlined below....

The machine has 2 x 8800GTX in it.
Device Manager only detects 1.
I have no option in Windows to select SLI or not. I think this is because only 1 card is detected.
For this reason I cannot turn off SLI and attempt to boot using the power button.

A few weeks ago the machine WAS running SLI (both cards detected in Device Manager) but I still had the same problem with it not booting using the power button. It would always boot going through the MediaDirect button!

I don't know what happened between then and now. It didn't smoke, crash, BSOD or anything else. It just doesn't detect the second card anymore.

The machine has A10 BIOS and is running Windows 7 32 bit.

I have disassembled the graphics card(s) and renewed all of the thermal paste which was starting to get crusty. I have also ensured that all heatpads are making good contact with their respective IC's.

Still only one card is detected.

What would you recommend trying next?

 

If you still have warranty, just call up dell.