DELL XPS HELP PLEASE!!!

xkpchristxkpchrist
edited February 2009 in Science & Tech
Hi I own a Dell Dimension Xps 2nd gen.
i recently reformatted not through system restore. ever since i am receiving NTLDR file missing. after reading a few forums and help sites i copied NTLDR file and the NDETECT. file to the HD but now the system is just continually restarting after the dell logo screen. it wont enter the setup or boot menu.

please i need help

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited February 2009
    Have you tried re-installing it again? Could have been something that went bad during the install. If this is a clean install and you are getting an NTLDR after the first reboot during the install process then something went wrong.

    Also your dell should have either come with a restore cd or a restore partition on the drive. That's the easiest way to reinstall your system. It could be a driver issue that's causing your NTLDR error and that drive will already be part of the restore set that came from dell.
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    well the thing is i received this computer as a gift with nothing with it. i cant re install because it has nothing installed on it
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    You have no copy of Windows to reinstall?
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    no i have windows xp pro copy. the thing is it wont run the cd.

    so basicaly i guess to recap everything that happened. i tried using the system restore methods. for example the Ctrl + F11 at the dell logo, i even tried after the dell logo. so i resorted to something else, i reformatted the dell xps hdd as a external. (i pulled it out stuck it in my external enclosure and formatted it through usb) i think this was prolly the stupid move that messed it up. after doing so it led to the first problem. Missing NTLDR file. after reading a few posts on other sites i copied and pasted the NTLDR and NDETECT or NTDETECT file to the hd. After dong this the computer doesnt say NTLDR file missing but instead after the dell logo it reboots itself.
    i cant enter the boot setup or the setup menus.
    so thats where i am at right now
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    It's rebooting because you don't have a copy of Windows installed on the machine. When you installed it as an external device and reformatted the drive, you wiped the contents of the data from the hard drive.

    You need to use the Dell boot menu (I believe it's F12 at startup) to select your CD-ROM as the boot source. You'll then need to use your Windows XP CD to reinstall Windows.
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    So that's the thing when the boot screen comes up Ican't get into the boot setup menu. Meaning even if I hit the f12 it doesn't do anything I'm thinking something happened with my motherboard bios. So basically I can't boot from CD
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    If your BIOS was screwed up, your PC wouldn't be working.

    Forget the F12 business. Enter the BIOS by spamming the delete key and set the CD-ROM as the first device in the boot sequence. Every Dell BIOS is seemingly different, so you'll have to do some poking around.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited February 2009
    It may not be the delete key to get into the bios it could also be F1, F2 or enter.
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    alright i'll try those things and get bak to you guys asap
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    i have a quick question and
    thats if i buy a new hdd will that help? because its a small hd that this xps came with and i prolly will need 3 to 4 times the amount of space.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    It won't help anything beyond giving you more space. It still won't solve your current issue.
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    hmm ic why wont the xps allow me to enter bios menu screen? and is there another way because ive been jamming at f11 f12 f8 del f1 f2 for a few minutes now with no prevail
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    you know how i copied the ntldr files into the hd. should i remove that? and use this guys method? http://www.tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    You need to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows. Copying files will not help you.
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    But that's the thing how do I format and reinstall windows if I can't even get the computer to boot through CD?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    Thrax wrote:
    If your BIOS was screwed up, your PC wouldn't be working.

    Forget the F12 business. Enter the BIOS by spamming the delete key and set the CD-ROM as the first device in the boot sequence. Every Dell BIOS is seemingly different, so you'll have to do some poking around.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited February 2009
    Turn your computer off.

    Then turn it on and watch the messages it's saying. It will say press 'xx' to enter setup it may say press 'xx' to choose startup/boot device.
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    i know ive tried that like i said. and its un responsive.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    You haven't said anything about trying to enter the BIOS. You just told us the boot menu did not work.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited February 2009
    This is ridiculous.

    What exactly is happening when you turn on your computer? What it should do is this.

    It should turn on and give a dell splash screen with some system info and a quick (may only pop up for 5 seconds) message saying press 'xx' to enter setup.

    It then may give a few more system messages

    It should then (ideally) go to the Windows XP screen with the scrolling bar.

    What is yours doing?
  • xkpchristxkpchrist
    edited February 2009
    its going from the dell screen. to a seperate screen of information. then resets
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