Trying to Resurrect a laptop - Need advice

[wei]

I have a Inspiron 8200 laptop that I thought to make work. It was
missing its hard drive (and caddy), as well as Ram and Ethernet card.
I thought it might be easy because I already had in my parts bins all
except a hard drive caddy and connector, which I quickly ordered
cheaply on Ebay. I have determined that all is fine EXCEPT the hard
drive is not recognized. I have tried two hard drives that I already
have. Both IDE. Neither is recognized (so says the BIOS).

Since the battery takes a charge, and I have the adapter to do it, I
still would like make this Inspiron go. But maybe I am kidding
myself. Maybe both of my hard drives are no good, as they were
recovered from other laptops, but right now I have no way to determine
that.

Suggestions?

XieXie
WeiLienShih

 

[Jan Alter]

I have a Inspiron 8200 laptop that I thought to make work. It was
missing its hard drive (and caddy), as well as Ram and Ethernet card.
I thought it might be easy because I already had in my parts bins all
except a hard drive caddy and connector, which I quickly ordered
cheaply on Ebay. I have determined that all is fine EXCEPT the hard
drive is not recognized. I have tried two hard drives that I already
have. Both IDE. Neither is recognized (so says the BIOS).

Since the battery takes a charge, and I have the adapter to do it, I
still would like make this Inspiron go. But maybe I am kidding
myself. Maybe both of my hard drives are no good, as they were
recovered from other laptops, but right now I have no way to determine
that.

Suggestions?

XieXie
WeiLienShih

So before you go any further try putting in a boot disk into the CD drive
and set the bios to boot from it to see if you get any satisfaction. Or if
the machine doesn't have a boot drive attach a USB CD-ROM and also allow the
bios to have it set as the first boot device.
Do check out the specs on the machine to be sure the IDE drives you're
using fall in to what can be used on the Inspiron. Possibly also substitute
a different cable.

 

[Ken]

I have a Inspiron 8200 laptop that I thought to make work. It was
missing its hard drive (and caddy), as well as Ram and Ethernet card.
I thought it might be easy because I already had in my parts bins all
except a hard drive caddy and connector, which I quickly ordered
cheaply on Ebay. I have determined that all is fine EXCEPT the hard
drive is not recognized. I have tried two hard drives that I already
have. Both IDE. Neither is recognized (so says the BIOS).

Since the battery takes a charge, and I have the adapter to do it, I
still would like make this Inspiron go. But maybe I am kidding
myself. Maybe both of my hard drives are no good, as they were
recovered from other laptops, but right now I have no way to determine
that.

Suggestions?

XieXie
WeiLienShih

All this is assuming on two things: One that your CMOS battery is up to
snuff. This can be established by seeing if the settings such as the
time is accurate and retained. Some computers will not fucntion if they
detect a bad CMOS battery. Secondly, I assume that the HD is spinning
up when connected?? If not, it will not be detected by BIOS.


If the above are OK, see if the laptop will boot from a bootable CD.
That should tell you if the IDE controller is functioning, since I have
to believe that both the HD and CD drive are using the same controller.
If that CD works, look carefully at the cable used to connect to the HD.

 

[wei]

So before you go any further try putting in a boot disk into the CD drive
and set the bios to boot from it to see if you get any satisfaction. Or if
the machine doesn't have a boot drive attach a USB CD-ROM and also allow the
bios to have it set as the first boot device.

I just did that. I tried three bootable CDs in the drive. Got same
BIOS error - i.e. no bootable drive found.

Do check out the specs on the machine to be sure the IDE drives you're
using fall in to what can be used on the Inspiron.

What am I looking for in the specs in that regard?

Possibly also substitute
a different cable.

This would require me to take apart the case, something I am not
experienced with, and something that I would want to be last resort.
Which this case me I guess. Oh well........


XieXie (Chinese thank you)
WeiLienShi (My Chinese Name)

 

[wei]

All this is assuming on two things: One that your CMOS battery is up to
snuff. This can be established by seeing if the settings such as the
time is accurate and retained. It is.
Some computers will not fucntion if they
detect a bad CMOS battery. Secondly, I assume that the HD is spinning
up when connected?? If not, it will not be detected by BIOS.

Since a bootable CD is not detected in the drive, I assume the IDE
controller is not working for some reason - as you suggested.

If the above are OK, see if the laptop will boot from a bootable CD.
That should tell you if the IDE controller is functioning, since I have
to believe that both the HD and CD drive are using the same controller.
If that CD works, look carefully at the cable used to connect to the HD.

Me thinks the laptop belongs in the dump.

XieXie
WeiLienShi

 

[Ken]

Since a bootable CD is not detected in the drive, I assume the IDE
controller is not working for some reason - as you suggested.
Me thinks the laptop belongs in the dump.

XieXie
WeiLienShi

Unfortunately, it sounds like it is. Otherwise, it could become a
"Career choice." That is a term that we use to describe a project that
is far more work than it is worth.

 

[Ken]

Unfortunately, it sounds like it is. Otherwise, it could become a
"Career choice." That is a term that we use to describe a project that
is far more work than it is worth.

There is one afterthought I would like to suggest. Not knowing just
what settings exist in the BIOS settings, you might reset the CMOS to
default values. If that does not improve anything, then the comment
above stands.

 

[Darklight]

I just did that. I tried three bootable CDs in the drive. Got same
BIOS error - i.e. no bootable drive found.


What am I looking for in the specs in that regard?



This would require me to take apart the case, something I am not
experienced with, and something that I would want to be last resort.
Which this case me I guess. Oh well........


XieXie (Chinese thank you)
WeiLienShi (My Chinese Name)

can you get into the bios?

 

[wei]

can you get into the bios?

NO

Wei