restart freeze requies F1-F2 to start

[Guest]

when i start or restart my computer it freezes and i either have to push F1or
F2 . also , above those choices it says SATA drive 3 not found . I have two
250 gb hard drives on raid stripe . listed as SATA 0 SATA 1 . SATA 2 is the
internal cd-dvd writer player , my light-scribe cd-dvd writer player is a usb
external drive. the reason for that is it's an IDE unit and an adapter would
not work . this is a brand new dell xps410 . I also have a digital tv tuner
and media center freezes sometimes 5-10 sec. after clicking to view picture
and video library . as soon as I mouse over the options in library a window
appears that says "a problem caused wmc to close " HELP ME ,thanx ,
Brucelinds

 

[Malke]

when i start or restart my computer it freezes and i either have to push F1or
F2 . also , above those choices it says SATA drive 3 not found . I have two
250 gb hard drives on raid stripe . listed as SATA 0 SATA 1 . SATA 2 is the
internal cd-dvd writer player , my light-scribe cd-dvd writer player is a usb
external drive. the reason for that is it's an IDE unit and an adapter would
not work . this is a brand new dell xps410 . I also have a digital tv tuner
and media center freezes sometimes 5-10 sec. after clicking to view picture
and video library . as soon as I mouse over the options in library a window
appears that says "a problem caused wmc to close " HELP ME ,thanx ,
Brucelinds

This is a hardware problem. Brand new Dell = call Dell tech support for
repair/replacement. Do not let them tell you to reinstall Windows; this
is hardware and not software.


Malke

 

[Guest]

Malke, By new I mean July 07. This unit did work until last week. I don't
know what I did but I am still in the process of customizing . I did see a
startup repair tutorial and printed it out . Are there any onboard diagnostic
checks or programs I can run to see if the problem is software or hardware?

 

[Malke]

Malke, By new I mean July 07. This unit did work until last week. I don't
know what I did but I am still in the process of customizing . I did see a
startup repair tutorial and printed it out . Are there any onboard diagnostic
checks or programs I can run to see if the problem is software or hardware?

This is why I tend to think the problem is hardware and not software:

At that point the operating system (Vista) isn't even involved. Of
course, if you changed something in the BIOS or SATA controller settings
during your customizing... but you would know that and not I. If you did
mess about in the BIOS, then reset it to Defaults.

Most Dells have an extensive diagnostic program, usually on a special
partition on the hard drive. When you start up the machine, press F12
(usually) to get the Boot Menu. One of the entries will be to boot to
the diagnostic partition if your Dell has this. Otherwise, if you
received the Dell Resource CD with your machine you can boot with it and
the diagnostics are on it. Or I believe you can download the diagnostic
program from Dell's tech support website.

Do the full diagnostics - this can take around an hour or more. I have
had machines with hardware problems pass the Dell diagnostics but you
should still run them before you call tech support because 1) they're
going to tell you to do this anyway and it will save time; 2) if you do
get a failure you'll get a failure code which you can give to the tech.

July of this year is still new and the machine is still under warranty,
even if you only bought the usual 1-year coverage.


Malke

 

[Guest]

:I will do the diagnostic checks and get back to you, thanx,

 

[Guest]

: By turning off SATA Drive 3 in BIOS and installing BIOS
Update , the problem was solved , FWIW , Brucelinds