Clean Install XP on Dell4600 delema

I am having some troubles right out of the gate trying to do a clean install of XP Pro that I have on a DVD for my Dell4600.

I have a CD Drive and a DVD Drive on the Dell4600 but the DVD Drive is not listed in the BIOs an therefore I am not able to put the DVD at the top of my boot list to boot the XP Pro DVD....

The BIOs do not list a USB either in the boot list....tried that with no luck.

How can I get my Dell4600 to boot from the DVD Drive first if it does not list the DVD Drive in the Boot order?

 

in the bios does it have a boot sequence??
also does your pc have a 5 1/4 floppy drive??
if you have home edition http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=18804
and if you have professional www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=8030

 

My boot sequence is as follows:

1. IDE CD-ROM Device
2. Hard-Disk Drive C:
3. Diskette Drive

3 is unchecked (disabled) and is a 3.5" floppy. I do not have any 3.5" floppy discs to use in this drive.....so this really is not an option for me to use.

I also have an external DVD-reader/writer attached via a USB port

 

Hi my friend SLoTH_XVX , are you loading default settings in bios ? Try it !! :wave

 

I can't remember all the rules on IDE cables, so I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong.

I believe that the DVD would have to be set as Master on its IDE cable to be a bootable device. You may have added it as a secondary/slave device when you installed it.

I'm assuming both optical drives are on the same IDE cable. DVD is probably on the middle/slave position of the cable. You want to move it to the end/master position. You will also have to move the jumper to the master position according to the markings on the drive (usually just an "m" seen above the jumper pins).

If you can see/change the jumper settings on the DVD drive without removing the drive, it may be easier to just temporarily remove the IDE cable from the CDROM altogether, then attach the end of the IDE cable to the DVD and change the DVD jumper to Master. When done with install put DVD jumper back to slave and connect it back to slave/middle position of IDE and plug end of IDE cable back into CDROM. Otherwise you will have to change the jumper on the CDROM as well and connect it to middle/slave position of IDE cable.

http://www.betaarchive.com/imageupload/1304159566.or.33063.gif
http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/200504/hddinstall_jump.jpg

 

Before I try all your suggestions I think I should note that I have been COMPLETELY unsuccessful in getting ANY iso to boot from my CD Drive at all. I have set IDE CD-ROM Device as 1 and it still goes right to booting Windows......

 

http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu166/SLoTH_XVX/102_0491.jpg

http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu166/SLoTH_XVX/102_0492.jpg

Here are images of my DVD and CD Drives (DVD on top CD below it).

I am kinda lost on what to do (as suggested by sach2).....
do I just unplug the wires from the CD drive and plug them into the DVD drive? Is it that simple?

Both of these drives were installed when purchased from DELL, I did not install them after purchase.

 

I am not sure this will work as you say the DVD is not shown in BIOS. If you disable CD-Rom in BIOS and then press F12 during boot, is the DVD drive shown? If so, select it and see if you can boot. I read that sometimes it is necessary to disable one optical drive before dell will boot from the other.

 

A quick note is that if the CDROM is really only a CDROM it can't read DVDs at all. So if you are writing ISOs to DVD discs the CDROM can't read them ever.

Looking at that pic, if the DVD drive is on top then it is connected to the IDE cable correctly. It is on the end of the cable so that is the Master position.

I'm not sure why the DVD wouldn't show in BIOS. Try unplugging the power cable from the CDROM and then checking BIOS for the DVD. Try F12 during the Dell screen to see if you see any mention of CD/DVD drive.

 

I unplugged the one with the red, yellow and black cables from the CD drive and started her up pressing F12 at the Dell sceen and below is what I have on the Boot Device Menu:

1. Normal
2. Primary Master Drive
3. Hard-Disc Drive C:
4. IDE CD-ROM Device
5. System Setup
6. IDE Drive Diagnostics
7.Boot to Utility Partition

Nothing about a DVD drive...

 

Primary Master may be your DVD drive. Give that one a try.

 

Yep I understand that. Just was giving more information on the issues I am having....can even get the computer to boot from the cd drive with an iso'd cd. Sorry I wasn't clearer in my earlier post.:-o

 

Nope, the Primary Master Drive does not appear to be the DVD drive. I just tried that and I am getting "Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility"....and F1 takes me to the standard Windows boot not the disk boot.

 

I thought that was what you meant--I just like to be sure. I'll add one more insulting note that ISOs have to be burnt as an image file using a program like imgburn or your favorite program's ISO burning function. They can't be burnt as regular data files. Just to rule that out as a possible cause of the CD booting problem--not to be funny.

With the installation disc in the DVD drive go ahead and select 4 for CDROM device. A lot of BIOS just use that generic term for any optical drive. See if it says no system files or such.

 

Not sure if this means anything or not but I am looking through the BIOS and the 'Install Mode' is set to ON...is this correct?

Also, the 'IDE Hard Drive Acoustics Mode' is set to Bypass....

I have no idea what either of these settings do but though more info would be good.

 

I did burn it as an image....but I think just to be sure I will burn it again and try once more will select '4. CDRom' as suggested...

stay tuned......wait a minute....5 is the CD-ROM Device, 4 is the hard drive 'C'....I assume you meant 5 right?

 

OK, I reburned the ISO Image to a DVD and placed it into the DVD Drive and have the CD Drive power disconected. I have rebooted and pressed F12 at the DELL screen and tried the following from the Boot Device Menu:

2. Primary Master Drive
4. Hard-Disk Drive C:
5.IDE CD-ROM Device

All of these return the same message, "Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility". And in each case F1 does not boot the DVD it simply boots the standard Windows start-up......

 

I'm not sure what is going on.
There should be a screen in BIOS for Drive Configuration. With just the HD and the DVD drive getting power it should just have entries for Primary 0 and Primary 1. Is that what it looks like and does it give model numbers for both the HD and DVD drive. I don't need the model numbers--just want to know if they are there.

Edit: It will also have floppy but that doesn't matter. I'm going from this http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4600/en/4600i/sm/syssetup.htm#1139574 scroll down just a little to see that Drive Configuration should be a listing.

 

WOW....somehow I got it to boot from the DVD!

I restarted and pressed F2 and it said it could not find a drive and to press F1 (which I did) and then press any key to boot from disk and now it is running the DVD!!

Whooot!!

Took the long way around but she's a working!!!

Thanks sach2 for haning in there with me, I appreciate your help!

 

Windows XP Set-up is running right now. I will let you know if I run into any othe rissues or if i am successful. Thanks again for all you help!

 

Good work!

I was waiting to see if the install got through the first reboot before replying. Let's see how the install goes and I'll think about the optical drive boot problems and let you know if I come up with any reasons why you had so much trouble.

I've been thinking about it and I don't really believe the position on the IDE cable counts for optical drives. I'm sure I have booted off both my optical drives without switching cable position in the past. I can't really understand why you have never been able to boot from your CD drive, as long as it can read a CD it should be bootable. It is going to bug me.

 

....damn....having a new set of problems.

Haven't been abel to get completely through the install.

I get a black screen with white texts the says "SATA Primary Drive 0 not found. Primary Drive 1 not found" then on the next line it says "Press F1 to continue, F2 to go to Set-up".

I press F1 and it continues the Windows Set-up. The set-up screen says it completed the following:

Collecting Information
Dynamic Update
Preparing Installation

and then the next step is Installing Windows where it continues for about 6 minutes and the screen start blacking out and coming back. The blacking out of the sceen gets progessivly worse until I get a Blue Screen that says...

device drive got stuck in an infinite loop

something about NV4_DISP issue and that a physical memory dumo was completed.

I looked up NV4_DISP on google and found that it is a nVidia Driver problem and I need to get the updated driver....how do I do this when I can't even get the Window XP install to complete...???

 

Good News!!

I found some time and the original Windows XP install disc and got XP installed on this computer....however, another issue I can not seem to reslove has come up.

I can not figure out how to get this computer to acces the internet.
After the instal of XP it is back to SP1 and I have the computer directly conected to my Att-Uverse box with an ethernet cable.....but I am not sure what to do to get the computer to recognize the connection. I also need to make this the 'base' computer for my home network but that is secondary to getting connected to the internet.

 

You should probably install the chipset driver and then the Network adapter driver.

Select chipset from the list: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19
The Network is the last in the list under that category or directly here: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...rFileFormats?DriverId=5K26D&FileId=2731106304

 

Deleted post. sach2 beat me to it.

 

Awesome! I am in the money....so to speak! Thanks...AGAIN sach2 (you to tgell)!

Internet is active and working! No on to re-setting up the home network. Any tips?

 

Every time I restart I am getting a black screen with the following message:

"Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A07
Copyright 1985-1988 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
Copyright 1990-2003 Dell Computer Corporation
All Rights Reserved

Dell System Dimension 4600i Series
BIOS version A07
www.dell.com

SAT Primary drive 0 not found
Primary drive 1 not found
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility"

How do I correct this......

 

Damn....now after updating to SP3 I am back to having the SAME issues that caused me to re-install and re-format in the first place!

The monitor goes blank and comes back on and goes blank and comes back on...the I get a blue screen that says

"a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

The problem seems to be caused by the following file: nv4_disp

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

The device driver got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates problem with the device itself or with the device driver programing the hardware incorrectly.

Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x000000EA (0X8633B468, 0X862BE008, 0X00000001)

nv_disp
Begining dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance."

This is the same message (or very close to the same message) I got before my re-install.

Is this a nVidia driver issue? and if it is how do I install and updated or update to the driver is the computer won't even boot up to my desk-top?

Errruuuggh....I am beyond frustrated at this point.

 

I am not even able to reboot in SafeMode. Also goes to blue screen with nv4_disp message.

 

Admittedly, I haven't read all the replies but, XP was meant/designed to be delivered/loaded from CDROM, NOT a DVDROM.

 

can you get into safe mode with command prompt without getting a blue screen?

 

No I can not.

I am in the process of starting over on the install and gonna try to install and updated driver for my nVidia card BEFORE I update to SP3.

Everything works fine until I do the update to SP3. Once I complete the update the screen goes black and comes back and goes black and then eventually goes to the blue screen with the message about nv4_disp.

Right now I am trying to find out what Video Card I have so I can DL an up-to-date driver for it onto a flash drive. I ran the Belarc Advisor but under display it says "None Discovered"

 

Before you go to SP3, create a system image with Macrium or Todo backup. If you have a Seagate or Western Digital drive, you can get software on their site that is based on Acronis for free. Just make sure you can see all of your drives with the boot disk. Then if you get another problem like you are currently, it would only be a few minutes to reinstall everything as you probably are dealing with at most about 5GB or data on a new install. This assumes you have an external hard disk or another internal hard drive available. You could also create two partitions on your hard drive, one for the system and the other for image backups. This would work for recovering an image unless the hard drive itself failed.

Some people have had better luck installing an older Nvidia driver.

 

I am having difficulty getting any nVidia driver right now I am having to DL them and see if they will install one by one....I tried the 'auto-find' driver tool thingie on their site but it said it could not identify my VCard....I am starting to wonder if it is a nVidia card at all....

It has to be! I have not switched out the video card at all it is the original one from purchase.

 

If you go to Device Manager and select Graphics Adapter, after you install XP, you should see what the card is. Before you download any Nvidia driver, post an Everest Log here and we will be able to see what card it is.

 

Have you tried a different video card just in case the one in your dell is going bad??:cool

 

Sorry that it has taken me so long to reply, but life just keeps gettin' in the way.

@hugh750:
I do not currently have the option to put in a new Video Card. Thank you for the suggestion but I want to try to get this corrected before going that route. It is an older computer and updating it further than I already have is not something I think I will be doing. If I can get her running again I will ge happy, if not.........maybe a new PC....who knows?


tgell,

I have attached the Everest report and found that I have a nVidia GeForce FX 5200 video card in this relic.

 

Here is the nvidia driver for your card.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html

 

Great thanks tgell!

I have DL'd and installed, waiting on reboot.

Should I set XP to auto update to get to SP3 or would I be better off with a direct DL from Microsoft?

Computer rebooted and I don't think the settings are right for the display. The desk top is very large and all collors are goofy. I tried to make adjustments in the Display Properties window under Settings but the screen resolution is at 800x600 and will not allow me to change it (I am logged in as Admin). Also the color quality is a whopping 4Bit.

Not sure what to do next.....

I have not done anything yet, will wait to hear back.

 

I am not sure why you are getting that resolution. When you go into Device Manager what is listed under your Graphics adapter? Were you getting an okay resolution before the driver update. If so, you can roll back the driver in Device Manager under the driver tab when your right click and select properties of the graphics adapter.

Edit: I just updated an XP computer to SP3 and used the full download to do it with no problems.

 

In the Device Manager I only see a Display Adaptor (not Graphics Adaptor), I think this is the same thing....? It lists NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200.

Yes the resolution was fine prior to the driver update.

When I went to roll back the drivers it said there was nothing (no drivers) to roll back to.

 

When I tried to rollback the driver it asked if I wanted to uninstall the nVidia driver and I said yes, rebooted and the resolution has been corrected but now the nVidia driver is uninstalled.

I looked at the Device Manager and "Display Adaptor" is no longer listed.

 

Edit: okay, I would leave it for now and install SP3 next.

 

SP3 installed and seems to be fine with the exception of the graphics are choppy.....when I move a window I get trails of the window moving. It is not smooth.

I have not reinstalled the nVidia Driver yet.

Auto updates are DL'ing now.....

 

edit: Updates complete.

Still getting trailing windows. Is that the refresh rate? Never did that before....

I am not getting the blue screen or the moitor going black and back on again like /i did the last time I installed the SP3 update...that's good. But still getting the press F1 or F2 screen when restarting.

 

For the F1 and F2 issue, have you replaced the CMOS battery? Also, there seems to be quite a few people with Dell's that have the same issue. See if the solution in the following link will help solve the problem.

http://johnpoelstra.com/2007/11/05/dell-bios-voodoo/

I am still trying to figure out the Video problem.

 

I looked at your everest report and it gave a service tag# of 1KKS441.

Here is the download page for your computer and the video driver. Create a restore point first.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriversHome/NeedProductSelection

 

if you do get a new pc get a gateway (their good) i used to have one and it lasted me close to 10 years.