Re CD rom not found

[Jud]

Jud writes


Not all BIOS identify a CD Rom, Open the case and look at the IDE cables ,
find the one marked primary and use that cable
on the CD Rom making sure the jumper is set to master, set the Jumpers on
the Hard Drive as slave.

Next in the BIOS find where your devices are identified, its usually the
first page and set IDE 1 2 3 4 to AUTO

Now go into the page where you can choose the boot order, usually you get a
choice of " A, or A then C or CD the C", each
BIOS is slightly different set CD to boot first.

Now power up the Machine with a Bootable CD rom and watch the screen, mine
asks you to press a Key to boot from CD.

Let us know.

Jud

Lastly to answer your last post

Snip>

Query ... if its not found in BIOS how would changing the BOOT ORDER help?

Even if the CD isn't found there will still be an option in BIOS

Jud

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jud. Oddly, after switching the IDE cables, the CD Rom showed in BIOS
but the hard drive did not (i.e. it said "''not installed). I don't suspect
a hardware problem since both the hard drive and CD Rom were working fine
prior to my adventure. Any further suggestions?
BTW, it looks like my friend had a sound card which was installed by Dell
when new which he removed. I can't imagine that would matter, but I thought
I'd pass it on. I'm getting ready to recycle this puppy.
Thanks again.
-Michael

 

[John Thomas Smith]

Thanks Jud. Oddly, after switching the IDE cables, the CD Rom showed in BIOS
but the hard drive did not (i.e. it said "''not installed). I don't suspect
a hardware problem since both the hard drive and CD Rom were working fine
prior to my adventure. Any further suggestions?

Try a different IDE cable, it may be one of the internal connectors
worked loose, or a wire is broken

If a known good cable doesn't work, I'd say a motherboard problem


John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith

 

[Guest]

Thanks John. Changing cables didn't change anything, so I then swithed the
cables' positions in the IDE ports on the motherboard. Oddly, with the
change, the HD was still not found, but the CD Rom was found. The issue
seems tied to the jumpers' locations (i.e. master/slave), since that change
resulted in the CD Rom showing in the BIOS and the loss of the hard drive
there. Any suggestions? Thanks.
-Michael

 

[Guest]

Apparently the issue was related to the jumper settings. I've got it all
working. Thanks for everyone's help.
-Michael