Solved: No device found AHCI BIOS not installed. I can't boot to Windows

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Martin Campbell🇮🇪

No device found AHCI BIOS not installed. I can't boot to Windows

When I turn on the PC I don'd even get as far as Windows x64, It goes through the usual routine until these last 5 lines:

Controller Bus#00, Device#1F, Function#02: 00 Ports
No device found
AHCI BIOS not installed.

No boot device available-
strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

Trying F1 achieves nothing. I have no idea what to do or look for in setup utility

Needless to say because I depend on it totally to run my little business I am in a state of panic so I don't want to wait for Dell support opening at 8.00am. I am totally backed up though.

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SOLUTION

bmsjeff🇦🇫

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SysExpert🇮🇱

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Martin Campbell🇮🇪

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I can't be sure about the hard drive. I see Seagate.... T167 (I think) capacity 0
This all flashes past too quickly and I've tried to see it 5 times.
I've unplugged all USB devices but it makes no difference

In Boot Device Menu I selected Hard Drive Diagnostics I got:
Drive 0: No device
Drive 1: No device
Drive 2: No device
Drive 3: Philips DVD=/-RW DVD8801 - Diagnostices not supported
Drive 4: No device

SOLUTION

bmsjeff🇦🇫

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☠ MASQ ☠

For your Service Tag you should have a single 300GB SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) at Drive 0
It's a single drive with no RAID setup.

As a diagnostic try switching the BIOS setting to from Autodetect / AHCI to Autodetect RAID / SATA.
You can always switch back but it would be useful to see if this helps

Martin Campbell🇮🇪

ASKER

Thanks for help everybody. PC is only 10 weeks old. I think the sensible thing to do is phone Dell the minute they open in the morning. If it wasn't so late now I would try SysExpert's and Masqueraid's suggestion's.

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bmsjeff🇦🇫

Chances are the drive is toast. Calling Dell sounds like the reasonable solution.

nobus🇧🇪

try resetting the bios, with the onboard jumper, or remove the battery for a minute, while the unit is disconnected from AC

Martin Campbell🇮🇪

ASKER

I was on the phone to Dell for an hour early this morning. The conclusion was Dell are sending an engineer to be here tomorrow to replace the drive. At no point was there any clicking sound. Dell even got me to try transferring the HD cable from the HDD - 0 socket on the motherboard to the SATA - 0, then got me to try the spare cable doing the same thing in case it was a faulty cable.
When ordering this PC I almost ordered RAID. I don't fully understand this. Is the idea that a second harddrive automatically mirrors the first? I would love a clear explanation. Would it be possible to install this in my PC?

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nobus🇧🇪

it depends on the model you have - if you have a raid controller, it is certainly possible.

bmsjeff🇦🇫

Here is a brief description
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

You would want RAID1 on your system.

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