Can't boot, install, anything

Dell Dimension won't boot up. Can and did run diagnostics, found issues with Dimm 1, but all diags on the HD passed.

So boot from install disk, go to install, says it can't find HD. Tried new HD, still can't see it.

Removed stick from DIMM 1, no good.

BIOS sees the HD.

All in all, pretty dim, could this be a failed MOBO? Seems I jump from mem probs to HD probs, but shouldn't the diags fail as well?

 

Hey, brandypeppy...

My first step when this happens is to boot to a Linux distro (I use Mint) - the info gleaned from Mint either seeing or not seeing the HD, coupled with the tests already run, usually give me a better starting point...

 

Thanks, where can I safely find that? Is it simply downloaded and installed on a DVD? Any special instructions.

BTW, the message I get when attempting to boot is BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO and other verbage about bad hardware or software.

But I can run full diags on the HD and it passes all.

Also, this machine has 4 SATA ports, any chance it's a port thing?

 

Mint 9 (Isadora) - you'll have to burn it as an ISO to a CD/DVD...

Could very well be issues with the mobo and/or ports - what kind of specs can you come up with?

 

Do I navigate to a US location, save the file to my HD, then open it and I'll be given menu to burn it to a DVD? Does that make an ISO file on the DVD? I don't want to take any risks with my machine in doing this. Plus I have 64 bit and the one I'm working on is 32 bit.

Dell System 8400, Intel Pentium 4, 3.000GHz, SATA West. Dig. 250 G, 1G DDR2RAM. 2 optical drives, 6 USB ports. All in all, worth saving, but I'm not very confident.

 

Per the user guide, download the ISO and burn it as an image - you'll have to use something like Nero, etc...AFAIK, the 64-bit should be fine...

There are no risks: you'll be running an OS (Mint) from an optical drive, which will allow you to read/manipulate devices without having to install anything...of course, you can always install a distro and use it as an alternate bootable OS, but using a live disk is a great troubleshooting tool...

 

Okay! I made the DVD and I can boot into Linux Mint.

Not many tools there, what should I try next. Does this mean the MB is okay?

It'll read my flash drive stick, but not run any of the programs.

Are there Linux based diagnostics I could copy to this?

 

More tries, no results.

Dell diagnostics find all perfect with HD.

But can't boot, so boot from install CD, when go to install OS, can't find HD.

Removed the CMOS battery for 30 minutes, No Good.

Can boot from Linux CD, works great, but when go to install on HD, can't see it. Also tried replacement SATA HD, same thing.

Plugged into different SATA port, made appropriate changes in BIOS, tried both HD's, NG. Neither XP or Linux CD will see HD regardless. (Yet the utility partition on original HD says all is well :confused confused

Damndest thing, what else to try????? If this is the MOBO, why does Linux run?

 

I'm stumped...I'd hate to advise a motherboard swap, but that's what it's looking like - the southbridge controls the PCI busses (which must be working if you can use an optical drive), but it also controls the SATA ports, which don't seem to be up, or at least aren't recognizing the drive...

You don't happen to have a spare box around with a mobo? You might be able to use a testbed to try to isolate symptoms...I've always got 2-3 cannibalized machines laying around for testing purposes - but they're here...

Tough problem - hang in there, keep us posted...

 

Thanx again Caliban. Alas, it does seem to be a requiem for this machine. I can do a organs harvest and make some other machines whole again perhaps.

I had pronounced it so when I first received from my sister, but I thought I might be able to do the Lazarus thing, guess I ain't no JC though.

But what will always stump me is the ability to access the utility partition and have it pass all the HD tests. confused

 

brandypeppy,

I've followed this thread, and like you I'm puzzled as to why the BIOS can see the drive but the OS disks can't find it to install. Even more puzzled by the fact that the Dell utility test can be ran and turns up fine! XP I can sort of understand because of no native SATA support, but most Linux distributions have native support for SATA. The reason the Live CD worked on your computer is that most of what it needs to operate is loaded into the computers memory and it accesses the optical drive when it needs something.

As you have nothing to lose by doing this, please download and burn this to disk. http://www.majorgeeks.com/Dariks_Boot_and_Nuke_d4596.html. This will be a zip file containing several things, but what you want is the ISO file. You burn this to CD in the same way that you made the Linux CD. When made this will be a self booting Linux based hard drive zeroing application. I'm curious as to whether this can find and zero the Dell hard drive and it does support SATA.

 

@Novice, but that wouldn't explain why it also couldn't install on a brand new HD??

@Digital, wouldn't the Mint 9 Linux CD I burned and attempted to install on the HD, both the old and the new, have those drivers already included? And there is no option, that I can find, to change the SATA drives to IDE.

 

brandypeppy,

You are correct in that it wouldn't explain anything! I was curious as to whether this Linux based disk utility could find and zero the hard drive, whereas the OS installtion CDs can't find the hard drive to install. As to whether it would help or not, its doubtful!

 

brandypeppy,

You might read this, as it could explain why Mint couldn't find your hard drive. https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/612719.

 

That article indicates that Mint 7 doesn't have the same probs as 8 & 9 - you could always try a Mint 7 disk...

We may be barking up a wrong tree, however - sure would be nice to be able to mount the drive on a different mobo - for that matter, the original issue with DIMM 1 is still worrying me...

 

What the confused ??

 

That's a handy nLite article, DLS - thx!

Yeah, that's kinda why we were on the live CD route to begin with, just using it as an isolation/troubleshooting kind of thing...

I can see where the slipstream approach may tackle some of the SATA recognition problems...