[hlaskin]

I have a Dell Laptop 8200 Inspiron
Everytime I attempt to start or reboot the computer I get the following error message

Primary Hardrive not found
Fixed Optical Drive not found

I have reseated both the hardrive and optical drive and no favorable results.

I attempted to F12 as it was booting up and that did not help to get into diagnostics.

Any other suggestions from any hardware guru?

Thanks

 

[bonk]

Howdy,

Try getting into Safemode this way

1. Restart your computer.
2. When the machine first starts again it will generally list some equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with a Windows XP Advanced Options menu.
3. Select the option for Safe Mode using the arrow keys.
4. Then press enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.

 

[Flags]

hlaskin: Try to get into the BIOS and check the IDE configuration. See if it is set to Auto on both IDE Controllers.
You get there by pressing F2 while booting.

 

[DaveBurnett]

I think you may have a serious problem there. See if you can check the hard drive in another 8200 or a Latitude C840 which is basically the same machine. Do not actually let it boot if you use a C840, just see if it detects the drive.

You get this message if the hard disk is faulty.

 

[hlaskin]

Howdy,

Try getting into Safemode this way

1. Restart your computer.
2. When the machine first starts again it will generally list some equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with a Windows XP Advanced Options menu.
3. Select the option for Safe Mode using the arrow keys.
4. Then press enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.

Thanks for your response,
I believe my hardrive has had it. Nothing works including F8 or F12, etc
I went into the BIOS and that won't even let me select the hardrive, etc
Time to make a change

HankL

 

[hlaskin]

Thanks for your response,
I believe my hardrive has had it. Nothing works including F8 or F12, etc
I went into the BIOS and that won't even let me select the hardrive, etc
Time to make a change

HankL:down:

 

[bonk]

If Bios doesn't see it then either the calbe is faulty (not that likely) or the Hard drive.