dell xps600 stopped recognizing HD

As stated, I have a Dell XPS600 that has stopped recognizing my HD, or any HD for that matter. I have replaced the HD as well the sata cable and for over 3 weeks everything seemed to be working fine. I even upgraded it from win xp to 7.

Now the problem has come back and no matter what channel I switch it to, the computer can't seem to pick it up for long. A few times when I switched it managed to pick it up shortly before freezing at the OS startup. I even managed to get into my login once where it told me that it automatically installed the driver for the HD before it locked up and returned to the screen where it tells me it can't find a boot device from any of the channels.

The new HD is a Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black 6 Gb/s SATA drive. I honestly don't think (and hope that) it isn't a failed motherboard. It may just be that the BIOS is outdated and i need to flash it, but I have no idea how since I can't seem to find what type of motherboard they put in this thing.

If any additional info is needed let me know. I'm new at this.

 

Greetings, lasair.

You might try changing your CMOS battery - simply power down and unplug, open the case, locate the roughly dime-sized and -shaped battery, and grab a replacement: most 'puter shops, CVS-type pharmacies, even jewelry stores carry them.

You might also try the Dell site, plug in your Service Tag #, try to find out what model/type of motherboard you're running, and post the info here.

Hang in there, and keep us posted. :major

 

Thanks for the response!

I replaced the the battery and started it up and so far the computer claims to be "Performing automatic IDE configuration" .....for 3 hours now. I'm not sure if it would be better or worse to turn it off and try again. Any suggestions?

Still trying to sort through the dell site, I'll update with the motherboard info if I find it.

 

It's a fresh install of Windows 7 64 bit. Any drivers that needed updating I got from either downloading the Dell site's 64 bit vista version (if it was acceptable) or from the individual manufacturer site. i also replaced the sound card since the one that came with the 600 wasn't compatible with 7. it made the front headphone and mic jack null but oh well. at least i got sound from the speakers.

Dell's site doesn't have the SATA drivers for the vista version so i tried booting in the 64 bit XP version driver to no avail. It read the info but gave me a failed installation popup when it tried to add the drivers.

I'll try your method though halo and I'll keep you posted, thank you for the suggestion.

Feel free to post more suggestions. I'm desperate to get this thing working again.

 

When you attempted to install the drivers, did you make sure to right click and "run as administrator"? Windows 7 can be goofy about installing drivers and pertinent software if not run as administrator.

 

i was trying to install the drivers from the windows 7 boot disc page, i don't think there was an option to run it as an administrator. i'll double check. i currently still have to try and get it going after i replaced the CMOS battery.

keep the suggestions coming though!

 

okay so this time i managed to boot up the computer and i had to reconfigure the setup because of the new battery, during which i made sure that my HD was my first boot device, saved and exited. It then rebooted....and nothing. Back to the same problem. I turned on all the drive ports and it's telling me that nothing is in any of them.

I also think that it's the driver for the motherboard halo, but I don't understand why it would suddenly stop working even with the original HD that came with the computer...

Well, the search for a solution continues. Trying to find the motherboard model from Dell is ridiculously more difficult than it should be, either that or I'm missing something.

I'll keep you posted, meanwhile please feel free to tell me ANYTHING that you think might help and I'll give it a try.

 

You should be able to record the BIOS manufacturer and version # upon boot, and coupled with plodr's link and your service tag #, you should now be able to research whether that board will support your SATA with an available flash update - or not.

But: obviously it did, for 3 weeks - to me, that is a flag that I don't think we've figured out yet.

To verify: the original symptom was that it stopped recognizing the original drive? Was the original drive the same size and type as the new WD?

And, don't worry about the battery: the fact that you changed it is a good thing - one less item on the list.

 

Just keeping this updated: I don't think plodr's link is the same motherboard, but i have the part number from dell and while they don't list it on their site anymore, they gave me a number for their parts & services rep so i can get the exact info on it, i'll call them asap. it's like running in circles with dell i swear.

i took down the BIOS now i just have to get the right motherboard info.

and yes the original problem was the computer not recognizing that the original HD was connected. the old one was a SATA as well and was a 250GB. I checked the updates list on the dell site using my service tag to make sure the 1TB drive i got was on there beforehand.

The flashing BIOS/installing drivers options are all the ideas i have left. I'm desperate for suggestions in case it falls through.

 

plodr if that's the case that would probably mean i need to replace the motherboard correct?

i have discovered the hard way that dell does not like to reveal info about this particular motherboard, also it's not replaceable (checked various sites like newegg, amazon and ebay) and also not upgradeable without a full tearout of the PC

all the info i could discern from the gentleman i spoke with from the dell parts department gave me this:

SBCBLM, TMD XPS600 V2 BLA? (never quite understood him no matter how many times he repeated it) transformer motherboard

also here is a link to the spec sheet http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/document.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~file=/systems/xps600/en/sm/specs0.htm#wp1052939

and suggested replacements i found on a forum (you may have been right about this one plodr) but they're all out of stock: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000280&Description=nforce4+motherboard&name=Intel+Motherboards

the question now is, what next? help! :cry

 

I've seen this type of thing with Dell/Intel boards before, but they were slightly older, and EIDE/PATA.

I remember I actually had to place an HDD on the CD drive ribbon cable once, just to get the POS up and running because the port apparently ceased functioning.

I'm willing to say mobo, but without knowing just what it is, I can't be 100% sure. I hate to see you teardown, and rebuild, but everything has a shelf life.

This is a nice board, and comes bundled with a PSU:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5605782&CatId=2014

 

here's the bios info if it helps at all:

Pheonix ROM BIOS PLUS
Version 1.10 A06
Dell System Dell DXG051
BIOS Version A06

it also tells me this:
Failed to boot at checkpoint
[Bye]

I have all but given up now

Thanks everyone for your help

 

Did you ever try the BIOS flash?

 

UPDATE!!!

I took out the new parts in hopes that i may be able to load the SATA drivers for the old drive with XP on it to get it working. the computer had the temporary grace that allowed XP to boot up on its own, so i tried installing the driver but to my surprise the computer indicated that it was already there, which was bad news to me since that's what i thought the whole issue was. so i took this opportunity to flash the BIOS up to A11.

It rebooted and all seemed okay, besides how slow the drive loads up, but that's an entirely different issue, so I shut down, took out the old parts and put in the new again....and it's WORKING! ~ahem!~ so far. it has worked before before it quit on me, but let's keep our fingers crossed that it stays this way.

Thanks everyone for all your help and I'll keep updated if troubles occur again

 

Fingers are crossed as requested - keep us posted. :major

 

You may never read this, but, the symptoms you indicate could very well mean a failing hard drive. Slow, sometimes unresponsive, working "when it wants to". Yeah, seen that before.

You may want to clone it, just in case, before you totally lose it.

Always err on the side of caution, and always have a Plan B...

 

@mekanic that wouldn't make sense considering that it started on one drive so i replaced it with another where the same problem occurred.

also update....it stopped working again. fml. this has to be more serious than a simple program error. something burnt out on the motherboard maybe. i'm out of ideas