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Windows 10 Pc dell xps 8700 circa July 2014 win 10 freezes after a few mins orange light stays on

The "F12 show boot options" is an option in your BIOS. If it is not enabled, your PC won't show it at bootup. Press F2 at bootup to enter BIOS and check the options. Have you re-applied the thermal paste just in case its dried and not transferring heat from the CPU?
 
I'm taking a break until tomorrow, rain, and will try a few more attempts. I did a google and I was lucky Ihad no trouble for so long. Buying a new PC is a nightmare the whole scenario has changed, no optical drives, no soundcard, hdmi out and still they charge a fortune.
 
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Ok here is the update, I did the paste, no joy. Just now I swopped the mothboard and all good for the last 10 mins but... orange light still on. How do I check ram as thats the last thing left.

I dont know how long it will last but I might get lucky
 
bmitie said:
Ok here is the update, I did the paste, no joy. Just now I swopped the mothboard and all good for the last 10 mins but... orange light still on. How do I check ram as thats the last thing left.

I dont know how long it will last but I might get lucky
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Have you checked the power supply unit ?.
 
Yes, changing the MB was the last link or so I thought. The PSU has a self test button and I used another PSU as well. But if it works I can live with the orange bit as its win 10 and support may end in October 2026 and by then I should have saved all the bits I may need. So basically I have checked everything. I am going to do a dell online diagnostics now as PC should stay on.
 
Everything has passed with the dell disgnostics. I did plug in a 600 watt corsair PSU and orange stayed on. And the PSU has self diagnostics.

Still working away so may be lucky.
 
Just an update changing the MB did the trick. Not sure about orange light now, may just mean power to the board, anyway well happy and refreshed my bit of know how. Thanks for all the tips they were extremely useful.
 
Well another update. Yes... it froze again yesterday morning so tried a system restore, worked for a few minutes but same again. I then went to plan B I had already bought an mSATA256MB ssd, these tiny ones. Using rufus I installed win 11 home and by passed all the checks and hey presto I'm back with a win 11 pc BUT it is not activated so I have a watermark. MS direct me to a page where I can buy win 11 home for £119.00 but as I have win 11 on a non win 11 pc will it detect that and block me ? Or is there a cheaper method? Hope that makes sense.

If this freezes again it will be in the bin.
 
bmitie said:
Well another update. Yes... it froze again yesterday morning so tried a system restore, worked for a few minutes but same again. I then went to plan B I had already bought an mSATA256MB ssd, these tiny ones. Using rufus I installed win 11 home and by passed all the checks and hey presto I'm back with a win 11 pc BUT it is not activated so I have a watermark. MS direct me to a page where I can buy win 11 home for £119.00 but as I have win 11 on a non win 11 pc will it detect that and block me ? Or is there a cheaper method? Hope that makes sense.

If this freezes again it will be in the bin.
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Was the pc a windows 11 pc and was it activated after you changed the motherboard?
If it was a genuine windows 11 then I think there was a way of contacting Microsoft and they should activate it over phone or online.

More digging is needed I think.

Windows 11 Forum

Try this link for some really good advice.
 
No its 2014 PC and does not satisfy the Win 11 requirements as per microsoft guidelines but RUFUS has a method to by pass all the checks. So when you install WIN 11 it checks for a signature and in my case I have gone from win 7 to 8.1 to 10 and changed the MB. I'll check link.
 
bmitie said:
No its 2014 PC and does not satisfy the Win 11 requirements as per microsoft guidelines but RUFUS has a method to by pass all the checks. So when you install WIN 11 it checks for a signature and in my case I have gone from win 7 to 8.1 to 10 and changed the MB. I'll check link.
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I'm curious if you got to the bottom of the issue mate
 
I did and you have to read carefully. I disabled secure boot in the bios and never looked back. But I had changed the m2 sata ssd as well so got a lot more free space. Apparently that secure boot has been updated for win 11 and throws a wobbly with win 10. I got the answer from chat gpt. I also went back to onboard graphIcs. I was intending to report back, it was fixed early july and been away etc. Im chuffed and MS have extended to oct 2027. And I can get win 11 when the time comes. It was so simple but I would have never got that. I loaded linux cinnamon as well and that was great.
 
Awesome, yeah, I did have a similar issue with one of our old machines at work running Windows 10 for legacy software, and it was related to Secure Boot as well. We have had other issues since, and it looks like the Win 10 machines are limping away, so it's just a matter of time for them or yea if you move to a different OS, it'll probably be fine for a while, glad its sorted mate!
 
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