dwellingt
asked on
Dell Dimension 8100 doesn't see ANY drives
I came home one day last week to find my dell dimension 8100 had rebooted and was showing a flashing cursor with the message: strike F1 to reboot, F2 for setup utility
going into BIOS / setup, it showed "Unknown Device" for both the internal hdds and both CD drives. I reseated all connections, all memory, unplugged all peripherals, still won't see ANY drives, except floppy. Could be a bad ribbon, but two bad ribbons at the exact same time? Not very likely. Dell support couldn't figure it out. They concluded I had a bad motherboard, and that was my opinion also. I got a new motherboard and processor, installed, and on boot the result is the same, doesn't see any hard drives or cd drives. All four say Unknown Device.
About a month before this happened, the ps2 keyboard port on mboard went bad and I had to switch to a usb keyboard, which helped fuel my suspicion that this was a mboard issue.
Anyone have any ideas?
going into BIOS / setup, it showed "Unknown Device" for both the internal hdds and both CD drives. I reseated all connections, all memory, unplugged all peripherals, still won't see ANY drives, except floppy. Could be a bad ribbon, but two bad ribbons at the exact same time? Not very likely. Dell support couldn't figure it out. They concluded I had a bad motherboard, and that was my opinion also. I got a new motherboard and processor, installed, and on boot the result is the same, doesn't see any hard drives or cd drives. All four say Unknown Device.
About a month before this happened, the ps2 keyboard port on mboard went bad and I had to switch to a usb keyboard, which helped fuel my suspicion that this was a mboard issue.
Anyone have any ideas?
PUNKY
I would try other PSU see if it helps.
ASKER
Maybe. I'll give it a try.
I agree with Punky that you may have a bad 12V rail in power supply. To verify -- will the trays open on optical drives?
Also -- power supply is not a standard ATX power supply. It has a modified 20 pin ATX connector. Do not connect a standard power supply. Recommended replacement:
http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S41D1
http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S41D1
Have you tried the drives separately? It could be a bad ide device disrupting both channels.
Good point.
ASKER
I have tried the devices separately. The drive trays do open and I can boot off the floppy. For those reasons I didn't think the problem was with the power supply.I've attached the hdd with the OS on it to another computer and it spins up fine. Another bad clue: there are 4 POST code lights on the back of the computer. (A, B, C, D,) Green is good, yellow is bad. ABC are green, D is yellow. For that combination, Dell documentation says "Call Dell Support".
ASKER
Also, there is a "Power Button Light Code" . Blinking orange is "check the power supply", solid green is "Computer is in a normal operating state", and mine is solid green.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Try a basic boot. Disconnect all drives (both power and signal cables), remove any PCI cards, and disconnect all external devices except keyboard. Check diagnostic LEDs if there is no boot.
If still no luck, I recommend you call Dell support.
Did motherboard come from Dell? You may have a bad motherboard.
If still no luck, I recommend you call Dell support.
Did motherboard come from Dell? You may have a bad motherboard.
Never mind basic boot. You can get into BIOS -- forgot that fact.
try restting the bios to default settings, or remove the bios battery for 30 sec when the PC is disconnected from AC
If lightning came thru you could have lost all drives. Have you tried the drives in another system?
ASKER
I replaced the ribbon cables and it came right up. It was probably just one bad cable, but it brought everything down with it. Thanks for all the input and help.
Your welcome