Resolved reboot can't find hdd's

I am running XP home SP2. will just reboot and when it does, it can't find either primary disk drive. I don't know what triggers the reboot but I can make it happen every time I try to install sp3. Does anybody have any ideas about where to start to fix this problem? DPI.

 

You will need to supply more information. What error messages do you see when there is no "primary disk drive" (you say either), or at what point does it reboot when you try to install SP3?

 

Pheonix ROM BIOS Version 1.10 A08(at top of Screen)

"primary HDD 0 Not Found
primary HDD 0 Not Found
Strike F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility. "

I get this message on a black screen while it is trying to reboot.

It will be running just fine and all of a sudden it will just try to reboot with no message.
During the reboot I get the above message. I then turn the machine off and on and it works just fine. I get the impression that it looses track of the IDE hard drives. I hope this makes some since to you. DPI.

 

I suggest you press F2 and select defaults
http://support.dell.com/support/top...&s=gen&docid=4C1BF720A3E78F92E040A68F5A2811BE
Save and Exit. (You are not using modified BIOS settings, like overclocking?)

One of my computers spontaneously reboots, but I know exactly which program and it's hardware, causes it. New hardware and program time (It was on special, but I have learnt something.) I can't make shoddy programming work properly. Do you run any add-in (PCI) cards?

You have 3 HDDs and 2 optical drives and an add-in graphics adapter. (Does it have...did it have, an onboard graphics adapter?) You might be overloading the power supply. From my experience, Dell only supplies a power supply to cover it's original hardware configuration. Check out your power supply EXTENSIVELY, some of the Dell P4 power supplies used a modified motherboard connection system and the motherboard could be burnt-out if a standard power supply was used (probably before your model).
http://journeysystems.com/?power_supply_calculator

Have you turned off Automatically restart?
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab -> Startup and Recovery -> Settings button -> System failure, uncheck Automatically restart. Let us know if you get any error messages.

Matt

 

I have turned of automatic reboot and now i have been kernel_..._inpage errors with the "dreaded" blue screen but at least now I can see the errors. I also just got SP3 installed and cleaned my registry cleaned. I havent had a blow-up since(fingers crossed) yet. DPI

P.S. if you have any ideas about the inpage errors i'de sure appreciate it.D.

 

You receive an error message on a Windows XP-based computer: "Stop 0x00000077" or "KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR " It concentrates on testing the HDD. It looks like all the HDDs will be checked, but make sure they all are. The tests might take many hours. You can run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics utilities on them as well.

If the drives test OK, there are suggestions of checking/testing the RAM (see my signature), along with swapping the modules around, etc.

Matt

 

I have Maxtor drives so I tried to download seatools(Seagate now owns Maxtor). when I try to install them, I get the error message "MSI Launch conditions failed. Installation failed ". Any ideas? DPI.

 

Thanks I found that, did all of the other installs and finall got Sea Tools up.DPI.