I [was] running a Dell Inspiron 8200, no warranty.
Last week I got the infamous "no bootable" message. That is, I tried to start my notebook out of standby mode and was greeted by a frozen black screen with a thick red line across the top. I manually powered off and powered on, received the normal blue Dell intro screen, but then the screen turned black and I received the "no bootable" message:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No fixed hard drive found
No optical drive found
No bootable drives -- Hit F1 to reboot, Hit F2 for setup
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After scouring this board and others for info/suggestions, I tried the following:
1) Reseated the Hard-Drive and the CD-RW/DVD drive multiple times. No luck.
2) Changed the boot order to CD-drive first and tried booting from the Windows XP Pro CD that came with my notebook (I have neither a floppy drive or floppy boot disks). Again no luck.
3) Tried the ziploc freezer trick with my hard-drive. No dice.
4) Removed the keyboard in order to see whether there physically was a loose connection between my hard-drive and board due to warping. I'm not an expert so I couldn't tell for sure, but there did not appear to be anything wrong with the connection. Nonetheless, I did what I could to create a tight connection. I still got the "no bootable" message.
Several times upon booting up the notebook after employing the above suggestions, the hard-drive made abnormal whirring and grinding noises (there were also a few times when it made very-little or no sound at all). Obviously, it would appear as if my hard-drive has died. However, I'm worried that there may be more serious problems as well, whether or not the hard-drive is in fact dead. After getting the "no bootable" message and hitting F2 to enter CMOS/BIOS, I see, among other things, the following information indicating that the BIOS is not recognizing any of my drives:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Hard Drive: None
Diskette Drive A: Not Installed
Diskette Drive B: Not Installed
Modular Bay: Not Installed
Fixed Optical Drive: Not Installed
*****
Service Tag: (My service tag is accurately noted)
Asset Tag: Not Installed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thus my concern that I may have more to do than to simply purchase and install a new hard-drive. Is my hard-drive dead, my motherboard/systemboard dead, or both?? If anyone can provide any advice as to a diagnosis or any further possible solutions, I would greatly appreciate it.
Sigh. Thank-you in advance for any advice or suggestions that anyone may have to offer.
Last week I got the infamous "no bootable" message. That is, I tried to start my notebook out of standby mode and was greeted by a frozen black screen with a thick red line across the top. I manually powered off and powered on, received the normal blue Dell intro screen, but then the screen turned black and I received the "no bootable" message:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No fixed hard drive found
No optical drive found
No bootable drives -- Hit F1 to reboot, Hit F2 for setup
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After scouring this board and others for info/suggestions, I tried the following:
1) Reseated the Hard-Drive and the CD-RW/DVD drive multiple times. No luck.
2) Changed the boot order to CD-drive first and tried booting from the Windows XP Pro CD that came with my notebook (I have neither a floppy drive or floppy boot disks). Again no luck.
3) Tried the ziploc freezer trick with my hard-drive. No dice.
4) Removed the keyboard in order to see whether there physically was a loose connection between my hard-drive and board due to warping. I'm not an expert so I couldn't tell for sure, but there did not appear to be anything wrong with the connection. Nonetheless, I did what I could to create a tight connection. I still got the "no bootable" message.
Several times upon booting up the notebook after employing the above suggestions, the hard-drive made abnormal whirring and grinding noises (there were also a few times when it made very-little or no sound at all). Obviously, it would appear as if my hard-drive has died. However, I'm worried that there may be more serious problems as well, whether or not the hard-drive is in fact dead. After getting the "no bootable" message and hitting F2 to enter CMOS/BIOS, I see, among other things, the following information indicating that the BIOS is not recognizing any of my drives:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Hard Drive: None
Diskette Drive A: Not Installed
Diskette Drive B: Not Installed
Modular Bay: Not Installed
Fixed Optical Drive: Not Installed
*****
Service Tag: (My service tag is accurately noted)
Asset Tag: Not Installed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thus my concern that I may have more to do than to simply purchase and install a new hard-drive. Is my hard-drive dead, my motherboard/systemboard dead, or both?? If anyone can provide any advice as to a diagnosis or any further possible solutions, I would greatly appreciate it.
Sigh. Thank-you in advance for any advice or suggestions that anyone may have to offer.
