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Solve : Please help, computer repair illiterate? |
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Answer» I am on my work PC trying to help my home PC. I too am computer repair illiterate! Yesterday, I got a blue screen when I booted, said that there was a problem w/Hdw or Sfw that I recently installed?? I installed nothing? Told me to shut down and reboot. Since then it stops before loading Win XP- get 2 beeps if that is significant? Read on a Dell forum to clear the BIOS, which I did- then if getting a diskette error,and no floppy installed, go back to menu and turn off. Did that, very proud of myself but still NOTHING!! This is a Dell Dimension B110, just past warranty of course! What do I do now? HELP!! If you are now familiar with getting into the BIOS, see if it shows all your drives, such as hard drive, CD / DVD drive / floppy drive. Quote from: SLK on March 08, 2008, 09:59:52 AM Read on a Dell forum to clear the BIOS, which I did-Quote from: Aegis on March 08, 2008, 10:28:26 AM If you are now familiar with getting into the BIOS, see if it shows all your drives, such as hard drive, CD / DVD drive / floppy drive.I'm not sure he actually accessed the BIOS. Clearing it may have meant something different. SLK, exactly how did you clear the BIOS? Do you have Dell Recovery disks? Do you have important data on that computer that is not backed up on external media? I am probably not using the correct terminology- I reset all of the settings back on the BIOS So, I changed a few settings on the SetUp Menu (F2)as was outlined Now, I am back to getting Primary Drive 0 not found. And Primary Drive 1 not found, and secondary drive 1 not found- Whatever settings I have changed has actually MADE things worse!! Everything was OK 24 hrs ago - I basically use this computer for email and INTERNET only Everything crucial is backed up - looking for the recovery disks. We moved recently, and I just can't remember where I put them. Is that my next step? Thanks in advance for help!The BIOS should detect your physical hardware, as far as drives are CONCERNED. There are different versions of BIOS out there (BIOS = Basic Input / Output instruction Set, I think). You may see entries for Primary and maybe Secondary IDE channels, and the drives will be listed in Master / Slave relationships. Generally, the "first" hard drive in the computer, and which it will try to boot first -- if it's first in the boot order -- is HDD 0. Your BIOS reporting that Primary Drive 0 is not found is worrisome to me. The BIOS should report all physical hard drives, CD drives, DVD drives, and floppy drives installed in the computer. Quote I am probably not using the correct terminology- I reset all of the settings back on the BIOS To access bios turn your computer on and hold down the DEL key as it is booting up. When you are in bios go to the first menu(it will probably say standard cmos setup). Scroll down to primary master hit the enter key to go into the next menu and set it to auto. Do this with the other primary/secondary drives. When finished save the changes using the F10 key. This will then fix the not found drive problem. Also, be very careful about playing around with your computers bios if you don't know what you are doing. greg OK, I have done all of that and still I get- Primary Drive 1 not found Secondary Drive 1 not found It does not list all of my drives, just primary slave drive and secondary slave drive Have set both to Auto (it's either that or off) This is really upsetting, I don't have the $$ to take this anywhere to be looked at. Any other ideas?I wonder if the IDE controller(s) built into the motherboard went goofy... A long time ago, I had an IDE port quit on me, so I had to install an IDE controller to run my drives. Why would it show the slave drives, but not the primaries? Remove the CMOS battery from the MBoard with the power unplugged. Wait 10 minutes and hit the power switch a few times to displace any stored energy. Replace the CMOS battery plug in and power up...Yeah, CMOS! Do you think, Patio, that he may need to replace the battery?? It happens, every so often...What kind of battery is in a desktop? Also, where is the Mother Board- again, I am computer tech illiterate. Thanks! it is the largest one in the back of the case that everything is plugged into, usually you would find the battery near the southbridge... You may want to ask someone who is familiar with the inner workings of a computer to assist you the first time...serious damage can RESULT if you just go mucking around inside the case.haha, take it to patio's house I'm buried in snow or I would!! I don't think I'm capable of doing most of these things! I may do more harm than good. |
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