Dell Dimension 4600 won’t boot 3

[mscallisto]

Pentium 4 266 GHz BIOS a06 service tag 2BLJQ31

BIOS Sees:
IDE Master st340014a 40 GB
IDE Slave wd1600AAJB 160 GB
CD Rom Master HL-DT-STDVD-ROM
CD Rom Slave HL-DT-STDVD-RAM
3 ½ “ Floppy

Boot Sequence 1st diskette > 2nd cd rom > 3rd hd drive

1280 MB ddr sdram 333 mem speed dual channel
CPU speed (normal) bus speed 533 mhz

There seems to be no way to reset bios to default settings but to me they all seem to be at proper settings.

Tried to boot off HD then Dell reinstallation CD then with Floppy created for XP Home service pack 1. My friend doesn’t remember doing any updates for service pack.

With each boot it shows the Dell splash screen with progress bar along with F2 Setup and F12 Boot menu and with each it tries to read the HD or Floppy or CD then goes to a black screen.

F2 Setup brings me to BIOS and F12 brings me to the boot menu where I tried the IDE Drive Diagnostics (both drives passed) I also tried to boot to utility partition but was stopped with the black screen.

Not sure how to rule out Mother Board or Power supply.

Any thoughts welcome

Ps I have another PC (older HP with XP Pro) and wondered if I can test the Dells primary HD in it?

 

[mscallisto]

I should have added that I disconnected and reconnected all drive cables (at drives and bus) and power connections plus reseated memory sticks and also removed one modem card that wasn't being used. the one remaining card is video.

Nothing else is connected to the PC.

 

[tf1]

Unplug the CD-ROM, Floppy and Slave HD drives. Try booting now and report what happens.


Regards: Terry

 

[BadBigBen]

1. drive can be tested on the other PC... Use SeaTools for the Seagate and WD LifeGuard for the Western Digital...

2. the black screen you mention, does it have a flashing underscore in the upper left corner?

3. usually when the BIOS is done with it's POST, it turns over the boot process to the drive, in that it invokes the MBR of the ACTIVE drive... unplug the DATA drive (seeing that you have two) and attempt to boot to the HDD, any change?

4. unplug just the ODD (optical drive ergo DVD/CD ROM), and attempt to boot the HDD... Any change? if so replace the ODD with a known working one, and toss the old...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[mscallisto]

tf1

Unplugged the CD-ROM, Floppy and Slave HD drives
(disconnected power left ribbon cables connected)

Diskette drive 0 seek error
Primary Drive 0 not found
Primary Drive 1 not found
Secondary Drive 0 not found
Secondary Drive 1 not found

F1 to continue
F2 Setup Utility

when hit F1 msg says strike F1 to retry boot
when hit F2 goes to Bios screen

To me this predictable, what does it tell you?

sam

 

[goombawaho]

4. unplug just the ODD (optical drive ergo DVD/CD ROM), and attempt to boot the HDD... Any change? if so replace the ODD with a known working one, and toss the old..."

I would add to this, if the it doesn't boot with the hard drive & no optical drive, try a known good optical drive with everything else disconnected and try to get booted to the DELL cd or other bootable CD. Have another bootable CD to test just in case it's the CD. Like the Ultimate Boot CD or whatever.

You have to find SOMETHING that works or else you have to start thinking bad motherboard.

 

[mscallisto]

Ben

1. drive can be tested on the other PC... Use SeaTools for the Seagate and WD LifeGuard for the Western Digital...

can you tell me more about seatools and lifeguard, where to get and what they do?

2. the black screen you mention, does it have a flashing underscore in the upper left corner?

yes

3 & 4 I get the same results

I even unplugged the data drive and both cd's leaving only the primary hd and got the same results.

It does act like the mbr is corrupt but that doesn't explain why trying to boot from Dell re-installation CD doesn't work either.

sam

 

[mscallisto]

goombawaho

I shall try your suggestion too

sam

 

[mscallisto]

goombawaho

I did also try my XP Pro setup cd (just for kicks) and got the same results so yes I will try another known good cd drive.

sam

 

[goombawaho]

You have to rule out the optical drive (by trying multiple optical drives and multiple CDs) in order to get to the point where you can maybe conclude "motherboard".

For SEATOOLS and Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, I would download the following and burn it to CD as a bootable CD. They test the hard drive using the manufacturer-specific diagnostic tool, which should conclusively tell you "bad or not". Put in your Seagate drive and run Seatools, put in the Western Digital drive and run the D.L.D. Run the short test first and see what it says. You can always run the long test later or if advised.

This CD has all the tools to diagnose the hard drives of various manufacturers.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

The download is NOT at the top where it says "Download Now", it's further down the page.

 

[tf1]

It does sound as though the boot drive has a corrupt MBR or the drive is knacked. But it also sounds like the CD drive may be bad too. When did you last successfully use the CD drive?

The MBR should be repairable, but you need the CD drive to work so that you can get to the Windows Repair console.


Regards: Terry

 

[mscallisto]

OK some progress to report.

replaced primary cd with a known good one and was able to use the Dell re-installation CD.

I tried the repair as opposed to install OS and was able to get to a C:\windows directory where I'm doing a chkdsk c: /p

after that I'll try fixmbr

if no luck I'll wait to contact my friend and as his permission to reinstall xp home from cd.

sam

 

[mscallisto]

chkdsk says HD ok so should I try fixmbr or fixboot next?

 

[goombawaho]

You could do that, but why not test the hard drive. That way you know there's no physical problem with it before you start to struggle with a windows issue.

If there's an underlying physical problem, you are wasting your time trying to do a chkdsk or a windows reinstall or repair install.

First things first - verify that the boot drive is 100% ok using it's diagnostic tool.

 

[tf1]

Sounds promising. I would try to repair the MBR at this stage, but it's a good idea to run a disk test utility first.


Regards: Terry

 

[mscallisto]

I will download and try

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

Thanks everyone, it looks like the problem may be manageable from here.

sam

 

[mscallisto]

Final

fixmbr did what it's supposed to and I can boot from original c: drive

Seagate tools (long tests) said both seagate and western digital drives passed.

re-installed the "bad cd" and re-booted and all is well, even the "bad cd"

Again thanks to all

sam

 

[BadBigBen]

Glad to hear that all is well with the HDD's... though I still would change the ODD...

sry, I couldn't get to the thread sooner, had to work in between the postings (different corner of the world)... but I see you where in good hands...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[mscallisto]

Thanks Ben

I first started working with computers in 1962 well before PC's and Laptops but this one did give me some unexplainable problems.

Directing me to SeaTools was great; I didn't know it would also work on the Western Digital drive and was pleasantly surprised.

ODD's work fine (for now) and if the problem persists I'll have my friend (brother in law) make a purchase.

Thanks Again

Sam