I was given a Dell inspiron 8100...not working. It can't find the Hd or the CD to boot and they both are not in BIOS. I'm assuming a motherboard but I'm open to suggestions. It seems too coincidental for both drives to fail. It will see and boot from floppy. Other than the fact that it doesn't work, it's a nice free laptop.
Probably the IDE interface is bad BUT it could be one of the drives causing the error OR the bios could have had the IDE interface disabled. Kind of a long shot on that one. Probably not the cable. Good Luck! Respectfully, Ron Moore
Yes, I would at least reseat the connectors. If you have another cable, try switching them.
To enter the BIOS, CMOS, Setup, or the System Setup on Dimension systems, perform the following steps:
Restart your system. 2.
As the system reboots, press the key.
Restoring Setup Defaults on the Inspiron 500m, 600m, 3700, 3800, 4000,
4100, 4150, 8000, 8100, 8200, or 8500Follow the appropriate steps below for your system:
Restart your computer. 2.
At the first text on the screen or immediately after the Dell logo appears, press the key every three seconds until the message Entering Setup appears. 3.
When the System Setup screen appears, press + keys at the same time. 4.
Press the key. 5.
Press the key to save changes and exit. Your computer restarts. "Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
My son had a Dell that wouldn't boot up - acted like a power supply problem - lights would flash like one time, then just sit there.... It was a memory board that was bad. Works like new, now. Ken.
In a laptop/notebook, cables are not prone to come loose or loose connection. More often, cables can be torn or damaged in the process of trying to just get to them in the laptop case. It's not just 2 screws and pop the cover. Can happen, yes, but not at all likely. Respectfully, Ron Moore Servicing PC's since CPM (but that doesn't necessarily mean anything)
No cable! header on the mb. Won't boot with either drive removed. No way to enable or disable the interface in bios, it either sees drives or it don't. I see that laptops are way different than desktops.
Then you remember "pip"? I still have a Xerox 820/BigBoard that I soldered together from surplus parts. Kids today that have "built" computers don't even OWN a soldering station.
No cable! header on the mb. Won't boot with either drive removed. No way to enable or disable the interface in bios, it either sees drives or it don't. I see that laptops are way different than desktops.
No cables except for the keyboard. I did take an eraser to the contacts.
Ahhaa! A good idea!
This one will boot on floppy. I did remove the mem boards one at a time with no change in symptoms.
I still have a 820 that is almost done ;) Think I found an add for them in Micro Cornucopia wayback.
Wes
Anybody want to buy a fully functional Zerox 820 II? It is in the original shipping box and includes all the manuals including the CP/M manual and several programs such as wordstar dB2 and supercalc. has (2) 5_1/4 drives only also have Kaypro [Darth Vader lunchbox] for sales also in original packing includes most manuals and programs and I will throw in a cobol compiler. Has a built-in 300 baud modem!!! Has the DOS motherboard installed [with 640K!!!!] and you can run some non-graphic DOS programs. True dual processor machine.
GmcD
I just noticed on reviewing this post that I still have my old email listed.
new email if anyone is interested is snipped-for-privacy@mcduffee-associates.us
It's another "Dell from Hell" Save yourself a lot of agravation and just hit it with a hammer and put it out of it's misery.
I have every issue, I just can't throw them away.
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