TurnMeHandtoIt
New Member
Anything more I can do to get my Dell P4 to work?
It decided one day that it wouldn't boot up, and I realised that its Master drive would no longer perform that function (though its fine in use elsewhere as a Secondary )
Having just replaced the HD like for like (Maxtor N256 ATA, 20Gb) and established (in an alternative machine) that this new drive is ok; it won’t boot “Primary Drive 0 Not Found, Primary Drive 1 Not Found”
BIOS doesn’t recognise that it has a “SATA Primary Drive (Unknown Device)”....
....but DOES recognise that is has a “Primary Master Drive Hard Drive”
and will show me the correct drive model number and capacity
Hard Disk Drive Sequence is “Unknown Device (not installed)” x4 and one “BIOS Boot Device”
I have tried different DS and CS jumper settings as well as the alternative IDE port (this is the only drive in this PC). It does power up in this pc and can be heard to be spinning
The IDE cable is also tested ok (in an alternative machine)
Do I now have to assume that the motherboard is shot (which is presumably completely impractical to replace) or is there anything further I can try?
If this machine is now spares only (as I suspect), can someone please point me in the direction of a link so's I can identify from pictures what I'm looking at inside my PC with a view to using its parts for upgrading of other machines where they suit. I quite enjoy fixing things, enjoy a challenge and being able to sell it working for a few quid would be handy too
Advice greatly appreciated, hope everybody had a fab Christmas and continues to enjoy the festive season
It decided one day that it wouldn't boot up, and I realised that its Master drive would no longer perform that function (though its fine in use elsewhere as a Secondary )
Having just replaced the HD like for like (Maxtor N256 ATA, 20Gb) and established (in an alternative machine) that this new drive is ok; it won’t boot “Primary Drive 0 Not Found, Primary Drive 1 Not Found”
BIOS doesn’t recognise that it has a “SATA Primary Drive (Unknown Device)”....
....but DOES recognise that is has a “Primary Master Drive Hard Drive”
and will show me the correct drive model number and capacity
Hard Disk Drive Sequence is “Unknown Device (not installed)” x4 and one “BIOS Boot Device”
I have tried different DS and CS jumper settings as well as the alternative IDE port (this is the only drive in this PC). It does power up in this pc and can be heard to be spinning
The IDE cable is also tested ok (in an alternative machine)
Do I now have to assume that the motherboard is shot (which is presumably completely impractical to replace) or is there anything further I can try?
If this machine is now spares only (as I suspect), can someone please point me in the direction of a link so's I can identify from pictures what I'm looking at inside my PC with a view to using its parts for upgrading of other machines where they suit. I quite enjoy fixing things, enjoy a challenge and being able to sell it working for a few quid would be handy too
Advice greatly appreciated, hope everybody had a fab Christmas and continues to enjoy the festive season
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