dell dimension 2400

Ok I restarted my computer and turned it back on and the yellow light was blinking and the computer wouldnt turn on so i unplugged and it didnt it again, then i unplugged it and plugged it back in again and it finally turned on but then it said primary drive not found. And I checked my harddrive connections ect. and listened and as the computer turned on the harddrive didnt make any noise like it usually does, although u could feel a bit of heat.

is the hardrive wrecked? or is this fixable any ideas on the problem?. I kinda need this hardrive as i dont have my xp disk anymore and the dell restore was on a partition on it so it sucks if i have to go buy a new hardrive as ill have to by a xp oem disk too. if you need my computer specs they should be in my post i made along time ago.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=133404

 

My first thought is the power supply has failed. Not completely, 'cuz there's still some activity, but enough to where things are screwy. If you have another PSU, or access to one, hook it up and see what happens. If that doesn't work, you can try removing your hard drive and hooking it up to another PC (go to a friends house). The safest way would be to put the drive in an enclosure and connect it thru the USB port..... if the hard drive turns out to be OK, and the Dell power supply turns out to be OK, then your motherboard may have gone south... you can also try booting to a drive diagnostic utility on either your PC on the friends PC with your drive hooked up. All the hard drive makers have 'em for free download on their web sites. This way, you can see if the drive's physical mechanics are healthy. Did you try resetting/clearing the CMOS on your Dell to see if that helps with drive detection?

 

ya i tried the hardrive in a diffrent computer and it didnt turn on either.

 

Does your BIOS see the drive?
If it does then it's not spinning up.
If you have data (music, Pictures, docs) that you need to recover.
You will need a second computer to hook the drive up to (second IDE controller)
Put the drive in a plastic zip lock bag, and put it into the freezer for 4 hours before you hook it up.
Sometimes the drives will spin up long enough to recover your data.
I hope this helps.

 

Well, if the other PC didn't turn on with that hard drive connected, then we know it's the hard drive. It's dead. Muerte. Toast. Sayonara. Question: does the original Dell turn on with the drive removed? It should at least post and let you get into BIOS....

 

No if you read the first post it says that it turns on and says primary drive not detected, the hardrive doesnt turn on with the pc. The bios doesnt detect the hardrive. It was just working then it just stopped.