Boot Issue - Dell Dimension 8200

[xstaceyamayx]

Yikes - started out getting the blue screen of death. Three times over the course of a week. Rebooted fine, but began looking for hardware conflicts, etc. The only new hardware was an external HD and a keyboard. The 3rd time, my PC wouldn't reboot to XP (Home Edition) - the f1 to boot, f2 to setup stage. So I panicked for a day. Went to turn it on when I felt mentally capable of dealing with it - it booted like nothing happened, only to blue screen me the next day. Now - after multiple copying of bootable disks (it won't recognize my CD ROM) to get a good set with no corruption, I get to the setup screen. I got into the Recovery console once only to freeze up after a chkdsk. I haven't been able to get there since. I get "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer."

In F2 BIOS area - I have all my objects checked to boot, but it says my CD & Hard Drives aren't installed. My Primary 0, 1, etc. are all set to Auto but say "Unknown".

I do have my Windows XP Reinstallation CD, but it sits in the CD ROM untouched. Oh - incidentally, I had originally ran Windows XP Home SP2 boot disks & got all the way to "put in the Windows XP Home SP2 CD", but then it didn't like my SP2 CD. SO I recopied regular boot disks (not SP2) which is where I got to the Recovery Console once, but never to a request for my reinstallation cd (which says nothing about SP2).

Now what?! This PC is the only one currently capable of running my vinyl plotter & I have jobs awaiting. Any insight would be great. I've got 20 hours logged of going in circles, just trying to get a good set of floppies, and having different outcomes & I AM NOWHERE.

[xstaceyamayx]

So I figured out why I got to recovery console once - it was before I detached my external hd - it justs goes right into a c: prompt & when I run "dir" it gives me my external harddrive (which is normally e: ). At any rate, with no external attached & just a mouse, keyboard, monitor, it says I have no hard drive installed. I opened my tower and kind of looked over it to see if everything was intact. My fan was loose & fell off where it latches to the back so I replaced that (I'm never inside this thing - don't feel qualified!) it its proper position. I wasn't sure how to take the hard drive out & put back in - just to see if it was in right. Seemed to need more than a little tug so I thought I'd better ask 1st.

ALSO, Dell has diagnostic lights. With the external drive all hooked up, all lights are green - good. Without it A,B,C are green, & D is yellow. According to http://pompone.cs.ucsb.edu/admin/530_Workstation/2codes.htm#1161716, this means Possible system board resource and/or hardware failure. and says to: Perform the procedure in "System Board Problems" and see "Hardware Conflicts." It says to run Dell Diagnostics, but I can't because of the "not seeing my CD" thing. ARGH!

[WuGgaRoO]

dangnabbit it seems like a power supply problem...swap the PSU with someone u know and hook it in and see what happens...what REALLY concerns me if the whole "cannot see harddrive/cd-rom" thingy...this could mean multiple things..here is what i would do
1) if you have an extra IDE cable use that and see if anything happens
2) use the harddrive by itself and see if it detects it
3) If it doesn't make sure everything is plugge din propperly, the IDE cables and the power plug
4) If everything is plugged in properly, switch the IDE channels
4.a) if this doesnt work, see if it detects ONLY the cd-rom, and try the same thing u did with the harddrive
5) if this does not make a difference it might be a powersupply issue OR a mobo issue try to swap PSU's (its not too difficult try to find a current machine or something liek that and install it in a similiar fashion to how its installed making sure u put in the 20 pin connectr (looks like rectangle) the 4 pin connector (looks like a square) into the mobo and the rest of the power connectors to other fans and the devices... if this doesnt work it seems like u m ight have a mobo problem