computer won't boot win xp

[vic5014]

I have a dimension 8300 (spare me the laughter and snide comments, please). lately, it refuses to boot windows. it keeps giving me a message saying one of my hard drives was not detected. I have 3 hard drives: 2 160gb pata drives and 1 750gb sata drive, drives C, D, and G. it keeps saying it can't find my D drive and sometimes my C drive as well. the g drive is the boot drive, so I usually keep going with the boot procedure. Once it gets to the win xp screen before the account log-in screen, it just sits there. One time I let it run for >30 min and still nothing. this happens even when using safe mode. I've been trying to figure out what the problem is and fix it. after all, a computer that won't boot the OS is just a useless heap of metal and plastic. I recently added 2gb of ddr1 pc3200 ram, so perhaps that's the cause? in addition, for a while before the computer completely failed, I would get BSODs every time I tried to wake the computer up from hibernating. apparently this was due to a driver issue, maybe the graphics driver. I can provide the detailed BSOD error message if that helps. any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

 

[splat_ed]

Probably main causes - Bad/dying drive(s), Bad memory, cables not seated...

First, double-check the cables are all seated properly.

Next, check that all the drives are showing in the bios (doesn't mean that windows'll spot them but can help to show if there's a dead drive there)

You've added some more RAM but I don't think it could be that. If in doubt, remove the extra and check.

Something else others will also mention is memtest. Get a bootable CD/USB Flash drive with it on and try. Also you could try a live-CD with some other form of OS (e.g. Ubuntu etc) just to see if they spot the drives. If not, try your original XP media and see what drives that spots...

There's lots of possibilites here so let's start crossing things off...

Michael

 

[Lanyap]

After doing the above and it still has problems then replace the PATA cable. It's rare but they have been known to fail.

 

[mlc]

I would do the following.....

1) remove the new RAM
2) reboot and run a checkdisk to rule out any damaged driver sectors...
3) triple check all of your cable connections as suggested..

Then resinstall the graphics drivers...

If things appear stable after removing the extra ram.. then try again with only the new ram... to rule out the new sticks as an issue. If things are fine there. then it could be an issue with the board trying to handle multiple sticks.. so check with DELL to see if a newer bios is available.

Keep in mind . .you've added a few drives and sticks of ram.. so it's possible the power supply is being pushed to its limits as well.. ..

 

[bamacre]

Keep in mind . .you've added a few drives and sticks of ram.. so it's possible the power supply is being pushed to its limits as well.. ..

This shouldn't be the problem, this was a high-end Dell with a good PSU.

OP, I would also check and make sure your memory modules are installed in the correct slots, if you now have different capacity modules.

 

[mlc]

This shouldn't be the problem, this was a high-end Dell with a good PSU.

could be.. but i'm thinking if that is a 6 or 7 yr old maching.. the PSU may be weakening/on the way out. and something like this could be pushing it just over its limits now... just a thought

Good advise on the memory installation.. in terms of ensuring the sticks are balance into each channel

 

[bamacre]

could be.. but i'm thinking if that is a 6 or 7 yr old maching.. the PSU may be weakening/on the way out. and something like this could be pushing it just over its limits now... just a thought

True. This is a really old model. OP needs to consider replacing it soon.

 

[KGB]

I know I sound like a broken record here, but ... BAD CAPS!!! Look for 'em.

 

[fire400]

test ram, one stick at a time, in different slots if applicable.

boot each drive one at a time, while the others are powered off or disconnected.

if the BIOS screen cannot be accessed, reset battery.

if all else fails, strip the computer, boot each add-on, one at a time.

also, windows xp may be corrupt. also, adding extra drives, os usually runs on the boot master.

 

[bruceb]

It is old, but on the other hand I use a Dimension 8200 .. check your CMOS Battery, then look for the Bad Caps, maybe the power supply or the hard drive.

 

[Paladin3]

I had a similar issue with a win7 machine. Turned out I had too many drives plugged into the same power supply cable. Switched one HD to a cable not being used and everything is fine now.

 

[vic5014]

The problem appears to have been one of the 1gb sticks of ram I added. now I just have to figure out how to test it to see what's wrong and if I can get it replaced.

 

[Lanyap]

Remove the good memory and reinstall the bad stick and see if it will boot and run memtest.