Dell Dimension 8400 Boot-Up Problems

[konradjohn]

One of my customers has a Dell Dimension 8400 that had a corrupted hard drive. I was able to save the data but had to format the hard drive. When I reloaded Windows XP on it, it kept rebooting itself. There is no recovery disc or partition. Can anyone help me with this?

 

[robisbell]

did you wipe the partitions, and zero the drive? did you physically inspect the motherboard for bad capacitors? I have dealt with a few 8400's that got some bad cap's on the motherboard, replaced the cp's and the system was rock solid.

 

[RebateMonger]

Start with the basics. Do an extended memory test and run the hard drive maker's disk diagnostics program.

If those work, consider running a Linux Live CD (like Ubuntu) and see how the PC and its components respond.

As robisbell notes, it's possible you have a power supply or capacitor problem. Bad caps were mostly of the previous generation (the near-identical Dell 8300 and Dell 400SC motherboards), but bad power capacitors have been an ongoing problem in the IT world.

 

[konradjohn]

Everying was completely wiped. I did check the motherboard for any defects. I did a memory test and nothing was out of the oridnary. I used the Seagate Seatools diagnostics software and I kept getting error saying it was unable to test. I'm doing a disk check right now. I remember when I first tried to load Windows on the disk it gave me a boot error saying I need some sort of a file for it to boot. So I was owndering do you need any drivers or system files on the hard drive in order for it to work?

 

[robisbell]

is the HDD SATA or PATA? if it's SATA, you may need to make a boot floopy with the motherboard SATA drivers installed. if it's PATA then you may have a defective or dying HDD.

 

[konradjohn]

On the Dell website they have two drivers but how do you installed them on the hard drive? I cant get past the very first boot screen.

 

[bruceb]

If you are using a SATA drive, you need to hit F6 during the install of XP
to load the SATA drivers ... an alternative is to set the drive controller in
the BIOS to IDE compatible to load the OS, then install the SATA drivers
and reset the BIOS to SATA again. And check the CMOS battery for the mobo

Note: The Sata drivers will need to be on a cd or floppy or usb memory stick.

 

[konradjohn]

So I can downoad the SATA drivers off the dell website. Put them on a thumb driver or cd-rom and hit f6 durning boot-up and it should work?

 

[robisbell]

XP only will see a floppy drive when you use the F6 option.

 

[konradjohn]

When I try this I get this error:

No systmedisk. Booting from harddisk

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: konradjohn
So I can downoad the SATA drivers off the dell website. Put them on a thumb driver or cd-rom and hit f6 durning boot-up and it should work?

No, has to be from a floppy. Alternatively you can slipstream them in the OS install disk

 

[konradjohn]

I have the disk with the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition in which created the image on the disk to be bootable and run without an f6 command. However when the program pops up it gives me a No systemdisk. booting from hard disk error. What I did to create the overall problem was I need to swap hard drives in the Dell Dimension 8400. The previous hard drive became to corrupt to save any files or do anything with. There?s got to be away to get this hard drive to work out of this system. I'm use to mobo's having the drivers to support the minimum requirements for operation.

 

[robisbell]

you are running raid?? that's a whole other can of worms on top of installing xp on SATA.

 

[konradjohn]

No but it's the only other driver available on the dell support site. The other is an executable file and not just the driver.

 

[robisbell]

then the executable should extract or allow you to extract to a folder and then copy the necessary drivers to floppy.

 

[konradjohn]

In whick I did but the system would not take them. It kept on saying remove disc to reboot. I tried putting the hard drive in another system to maybe copy the files over. But that systems telling me that I need a I/O bridge in order to work. I never though this could be so complicated.

 

[konradjohn]

Ok I was a little confused...I thought you were instructing me to press f6 while the computer was booting up. I did not know it had anything to do with windows booting up. So after figuring that out I pressed f6 when windows asks you to installed 3rd party raid or scsi drivers. Then I used the disk creating software to create the disk with the sata drivers on it. I then inserted the disk and the windows accepted the driver. Then I tried to install windows and I was successful in doing so. I really never had to do that before and so this is a learning experience for me.

I do have another problem, though, dealing with the same system. The operating system (Windows XP Home Edition) was installed on the replaced hard drive. The computer, itself, never came with a operating disc nor any recovery disc. There is a windows sticker on the side of the machine that has the product key on it. I have another operating disc that I tried to use with the product key on the machine in question. It would not take the product key. I tried to see who I would contact to get a different product key but have unsuccessful. Any suggestions?

 

[robisbell]

then the cd key on the case may be blocked, XP home discs will use pretty much any cd key. only time I've seen it not accept with XP Home is when the key has been blacklisted. they may have to buy a copy or full retail of XP Home.

 

[robisbell]

I'd try calling MS, but they'll probably not be able to do anything.

 

[konradjohn]

I installed XP Pro instead; had an extra disc lying around. About XP Home, though, you can?t even install it to get to the activation process where you can call to activate.

 

[robisbell]

what do you mean you said it would not take the product key, that happens late in the install process and now you're saying it will not install. do you mean you install home but are unable to activate via the internet? you have to install the rest of the drivers for all the hardware in the machine so that you can go online with it.