Re: Failed Hard Drive

JS
I went thru your instructions, and lo and behold, removing the battery
waiting 4 mins and re-installing the battery, start the thing up and
there is the dang CD Drive. Hip Hip Hooray!!
I so appreciate all that you have taught me
Thank you very much
Joanne
JS wrote:

I would check the Pins on the motherboard where the drive cable connects.
Also check the power cable to the cd drive, use another power cable if one
is available.

Next check the system code displayed on the back of the PC.
See: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4300/codes.htm

If still no luck then as a last resort I would perform a hard reset of the
BIOS.
You can do this by powering down the PC, removing the AC power cord and then
waiting 60 seconds.
With the power cord still removed press the power-on button (you may see a
brief flicker of the power on led)
this will totally discharge the motherboard.

Now remove the CMOS battery from the motherboard and wait
about 4 minutes for the BIOS to reset and then reinsert the battery.

Reconnect the AC power cord and then turn on power, see if the BIOS then
recognizes the CD drive.
Report back your results.

JS

"Joanne" <robjo65@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OpexhiOnIHA.3572@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sorry for the bad communication JS
What I did was put the good cd drive cable back into the good machine. I
then took the CD Drive from the 'bad' machine and installed that into
the good machine. Then all works well - in other words, the cable and
the cd drive are okay when ran on a different Dell machine. That is what
is leading me to suspect that the controller on the 'bad' machine's
mother board is bad.
Again, if it is the controller, is there a remedy or is it trash pretty
much?
I hope I did a better job explaining this this time ;-)
Again, thanks for your consideration of my troubles.
Joanne
JS wrote:

Sorry for the delay in getting back but I was doing an:
Image backup of my hard drive,
then some Windows Updates and
finally a defrag of the hard drive.
All this took a while.

Now a question as I'm a bit confused to this part of your latest reply.
"I took the cable and re-installed it in the other computer, took the
errant CD drive and installed it in the other cd, and voila, all is
well."
Do you mean you installed a different CD drive?

JS


"Joanne" <robjo65@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23TIIcGMnIHA.1204@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
No, the CD is directly connected to the mother board, no piggy-backs.
The jumper on the CD is in the 'cable select' mode
I went to MS site and generated the WinXP setup floppy disks (6 in set)
and ran those. After their install, I hit the enter key to go to
Windows
setup, and I again get a message that there is no CD drive on this
computer.
I tried a new flat cable, using the one in a computer that has a
properly working cd player in it. No Go.
I took the cable and re-installed it in the other computer, took the
errant CD drive and installed it in the other cd, and voila, all is
well.
Am I looking at a CD controller failure on the problem computer? If
that
is the case, is there any remedy.
Thank you so much for your time and efforts regarding my problem. Your
expertise is helping make this a little easier to get through
Joanne
JS wrote:

Is your new hard drive connected to the same cable as the CD drive?
If so you need to set the jumper on the hard drive so as not to
conflict
with the CD drive.

Usually they have there own cables, one cable for the hard drive and
one
for
the CD drive.
If this is the case then it still does not hurt to check that the
cables
(Data and Power) on the CD drive
are fully inserted and not loose.

As a last resort you can reset the BIOS (see owners manual) and then
see
if
during the next time
you boot that the CD drive is recognized.

JS

"Joanne" <robjo65@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23SYMpNDnIHA.1168@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I tried to change BIOS boot order before posting this question.
Problem
is, there is no check mark next to CD in the boot sequence - it in
fact
states that there is no CD Drive on the system. Hence my problem.
I know without a doubt that the CD drive is properly plugged into
the
system and also that is is a properly functioning CD Drive.
My problem remains - no driver on this new hard drive, so I think I
need
to get the CD driver from floppy Drive A, but how to get it loaded
onto
the system and be able to re-boot so that I can goto the CD drive
and
the XP operating system cd. I did download smartdrv.sys and put it
on a
floppy, but I still don't know how to use it to get the CD drive to
run.
Thanks for your efforts on this problem - I do appreciate your time.
Joanne

JS wrote:

Check you BIOS, set it so the first boot device is the CD drive.
Also make sure you have the latest versions of the drivers you need
for
your
motherboard,
video card, sound card, Etc. from the manufacture's web site.

How to do a Clean Install of Windows XP: (Read this as it will show
you
how
and when to install drivers)
From Michael Steven's:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
more info: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm
and:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_installation_of_windows_xp.htm
also: http://www.bootdisk.com/

JS


"Joanne" <robjo65@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ewq6AOAnIHA.5660@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dell Dimension 4300
WinXP Pro

I had a hard drive failure on the above computer.
I have purchased and physically installed a new hard drive.
My dilemma is that there are no drivers on the new hard drive of
course
so when I try to boot to the CD Drive so that I can install my
operating
system, the computer doesn't recognize a cd drive as being part
of
the
system.
There is a 3.5 floppy drive. I was thinking I need to download
the
installation of the cd driver on the floppy and then use it to
install
the cd drive.
But I am confused how to do it. I am thinking I can only install
the
driver into memory at this point until I get the hard drive
partitioned
and ready for data. But I need to boot to the WinXP CD (I think I
am
correct here?) and without the cd river I cannot do that, and if
I
put
the CD driver in memory as soon as I try to re-boot to the winxp
cd,
I
lose the cd driver. Wow, it is confusing just trying to explain
my
problem.
Could someone please give me a hand with this. What do I need to
do
and
in what sequence please, or perhaps you can suggest some on-line
instruction that I can read and learn from.
Your help is, as always, much appreciated by me.
Thank you
Joanne












.