dell b110-will not boot past post

Was working good last time I turned it off. Now it will not boot past post. Once in a while I can get an error screen saying press F1 to continue, but it only says no HDD found. I replaced HDD and tried to put OS, but still get same message. Bios is showing the HDD, but cannot get it to do anything. Thought about flashing BIOS, if only I could get into it.As I said ,it will not F12 either

 

Change the cable connecting the hd to the motherboard.

 

plodr, I changed the cable, put in a new HDD. I put a new OS ( XP) on it and when it rebooted I get the same message. It's also saying something about OS mode enabled( not the exact words). I've reset the cmos also, flashed the bios replaced the ram; oh yea , it has 1.5GB of ram but when I get that error message it also says I only have 256MB of ram even though bios shows 1.5GB

 

still need help. Just figured out that if i tap f12, i can choose the option to ( boot from utility partition) and the os will come up. so you know what the question is, How do i fix this?

 

Got it!!! I kept digging in the bios until I noticed that the cd was disabled in the boot config. Thanks for the help.

 

Nope didn't fix it; started the same thing a few minutes ago. Heeelp!:confused

 

plodr, had it going again yesterday. could shutdown and reboot with no problem. left it off for two hours and now it will not bootup.I can pull the cmos battery and reinsert it then it boots up. so I tried again a minute ago and got a blue screen with this errror code (oxooooooF4).any ideas.

 

How old is your CMOS battery? A bad CMOS battery might explain why it works after disconnecting the battery for a minute. Old Dells don't seem to POST well with a bad CMOS battery.

If you unplug and then remove the battery for a minute. Put the battery back in and boot does it still go to the F4 error?

If it does can you try F8 during the Dell screen and use Last Know Good Configuration option to see if that still gets the F4 blue screen.

 

sach2, it's a new cmos battery, and yes I've tried to F8 and go to last known good config. For some reason it will not recognize the HDD. I've even put another one in(HDD). I'm beginning to think that maybe the MOBO is going out in it. I had a similar problem with it about a year ago, but I put a new OS and it straightened up. I've put different ram a new IDE cable, new cmos battery, reseated the power connector, used different ones also. I have replaced everything but the power supply and mobo.

 

Do you have the jumpers on the HD set to either Master or Cable Select so it knows the HD is the boot device? There should be a diagram on the top of the HD to show the proper jumper setting. Also double check that the IDE cable going from your HD is attached to the Primary or HD or 0 connection on the motherboard and not the CDROM connector (sometimes that makes a difference).

So what exactly do you see when you start the computer. The Dell screen and then what?

 

yes I've tried the jumpers at master and cable select. After the dell screen all I get is strike F1 to continueF2 to enter setup. Sometimes after that I'll get a screen saying no HDD found. That's why I installed a new HDD.And yes the cable is in the primary on the mobo.

 

Everything in the bios is set correctly, everything connected correctly. Except for mobo and processor I've replaced everything in it .

 

You have covered all the basic changing hardware tips. That it doesn't recognize the HD points to a problem with the new HD. You've changed the cable which is the only other connection from the HD to motherboard.

It is still bugging me that sometimes removing and replacing the CMOS battery allows it to start up. Do you have a CMOS battery you can swap out to see if that makes a difference?

 

sach2, yea I've already changed that to. That was about my second thing I changed. I put a brand new one in, same problem.

 

Just out of curiosity, is there more then one device connected to each of the two IDE ribbons? For example, one HDD on the primary ribbon and one CDROM on the secondary Ribbon?

 

only the HD on one and the cd on the other

 

Try swapping the CDROM and HD cables at the motherboard. So connect the HD cable to the CDROM connector on the motherboard and vice versa. (I can't figure out how to say it clearly but basically go to the motherboard and disconnect the HD IDE cable. Then disconnect the CDROM cable from the motherboard and put the HD cable in the slot where the CDROM cable was. Then connect the HD cable to where the CDROM cable was.)

See if it still won't find the HD.

If no change you can put them back the way they were for simplicity.

 

Do you have anything plugged in to any of the USB ports on the computer?

Also is there a multi-card reader in the computer?

I have seen printers with card readers and internal card readers cause boot failures.

 

shnerdly, I only have the keyboard and mouse in the usb ports.

 

sach2, I've swapped the cables at the mobo site. Nothing happened,just got the press F1 to continue. So I changed the boot order to cd first,still nothing.

 

Came across this: Dell BIOS setting OS Install mode. Make sure it is off in BIOS.

 

well, we'll have to wait until tomorrow to do anything else. now the aggravating thing refuses to read the keyboard. My ps2 is out in the storage shed. I'll let you know more tommorrow.By the way, I don't recall seeing that about the OS install mode in the bios. Maybe you can tell me where that is at. Thanks folks, until tomorrow
keep stroking them keys

 

This was just something I came across and it was not for the b110. It may not be in your BIOS but I thought I would bring it to your attention as it does suggest why you only see 256MB of ram. I will try to find something on this tomorrow for the the b110.

 

I could not find anything in the BIOS settings of the B110 relating to OS install mode but I came across a thread that may be similar to your problem.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19428637/20018605.aspx#20018605

I looked at a schematic of your motherboard and there is no option to clear the CMOS via a jumper, only the password. To clear it, you should remove the battery, unplug the computer from the power source and hold the power button down for 30 seconds. Then replace the battery, plug the computer back in and boot.

I also found this on clearing NVRAM on a B110

 

tgell shnerdly,sach2; think I've got it again.I bought a brand new HDD and installed it. So far it shuts down as it should and reboots. I'm getting no error codes. Maybe both HDD I had installed had a bad boot sector. I'm going to shut it down for a couple of hours and see if it continues ti boot with no problem. Thanks alot for all the help

 

Alright everyone, it's official; it was a bad boot sector in the HD's I was using. I'm on the problem computer at this time- no problems! If I can't repair these other HD's with my Data Lifegaurd or my Mac, then I'll just put them in the stack of bad ones to be toen apart and recycled for the aluminum in them. That way no one can get info aff of them and I make a little money also:- Thanks for all the help:wave

 

Thanks for letting us know the problem is solved. We're glad you got it going.

 

majorgeeks has been a good source to me for a long time. I always recommend you to my friends with pc problems if I'm not able to assist them. Just today I installed some antivirus software on a friends laptops because they didn't know how to do it. I also informed them to do a backup disk since it was new laptops. They don't even know how to do that, so I told them to bring them back ( with the power cords), and I would do it for them. Once again though, thank everyone there very much for their assistance.