Vostro 200 vos200
One possibility is a dead BIOS (CMOS) battery. If you open the case to expose the motherboard, searching you should find a flat silver battery, about the size of a quarter. On the surface will be a number, likely CR2032 (maybe CR2025). The current from this battery refreshes and maintains the volatile data in BIOS, such as date / time etc. If the battery died, the BIOS will return to factory default settings. In the event the system has been altered in some way (replaced hard drive, custom RAM with different voltage requirements...), default BIOS settings may block boot-up. How to test? Power up, enter BIOS, check time. If time/date are off, the battery has likely died. How to fix? The batteries are available many places (Radio Shack, Amazon.com, maybe Walmart.. ) for less than $1. Replacing the battery, powering up, entering & refreshing BIOS {AKA "setup"}, saving settings & exiting BIOS MAY trigger the system to boot, as BIOS is capable of self detecting settings for certain components.
{Note: replacing a dead battery first is recommended but is not technically required while testing. If plugged in, BIOS should retain settings between boots).
Depending on the BIOS and any hardware changes made "post-factory", booting MAY require determining and manually entering BIOS settings for non-factory components(e.g.: RAM voltage, timing, etc.). Custom BIOS settings and other complicated solutions are beyond the scope of this introductory "Quick Fix" solution.
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