pci card not installed yet still recognized

I have not yet tried to boot to a floppy disk. I am
guessing that I could go to bootdisk.com and get what I
need for an XP boot disk, correct?

Meanwhile, everything in the computer seems to be
connected correctly. The person that had the computer
before me, isn't very computer savvy so I don't think that
she would have tinkered with the inside. Is it possible
for cables to come loose just over time?

What I have done, is taken the hard drive out and
connected it as a slave drive in another computer just to
see if I could at least access the drive via a working
computer. Everything went okay when I booted the computer,
it loaded like normal but the slave hard drive(from the
Dell computer) did not show up in My Computer; therefore I
could not access it.

Before Windows loaded, it did say that the configuration
was updated due to a new hard disk being added.

Could this mean that something is wrong with the hard
drive? Unfortunately, I don't think the computer is under
warranty anymore, but I will look into it. Also I will
post back soon and let you know if I can boot from disk.

Thanks for the help, and let me know if more info would be
helpful.
-----Original Message-----
brad wrote:
Cool thanks for the help and the url you suggested. The
Compaq is a P3. That helps in understanding more about
the
computer. I will try what you suggested and let you
know
if that solves the problem

In the meantime, I do have another problem that could
be
easy or difficult and I am not quite sure which one yet.
Here it goes.

Dell Dimension 4400
I turn the computer on and the green light in the power
button turns on like normal; however, nothing else
turns
on. There is no sound of a hard drive humming and there
are no sounds from the internal speaker.

Best Buy suggested that it is a hard drive or
motherboard
problem but there is a fee to examine it.

Could it be a power source problem. I haven't spent
much
time with it yet but if nothing turns on...

Again any suggestions would be great and thanks again
for
you help thus far.

Let me know if you need any other additional info.



Hi,

The jumpers will definitely solve the sound card issue.
Jumpers are
placed across pins protruding from the motherboard. The
pins will be in
groups of 2 or more. As an example, a group of 3 pins,
the jumper is set
across pins 1 and 2, and to change the setting you may
need to place it
over pins 2 and 3, or remove it(sometimes it is "stored"
in place by
being put over just 1 pin). A set of 2 pins is usually
pretty straight
forward; it's either over both pins or none(possibly
stored over 1 pin
as mentioned before). Again, if you need more help, just
post back.

As far as the other computer, there could be several
things that are
wrong. If it just the hard drive that has failed, you
should still be
able to boot to a floppy. But you should also still get
some sounds from
the system speaker, which leads me to believe it's not
the hard drive.

Before you take it in, open up the case(PC unplugged) and
check for
loose cable and things like that. If the PC is still
under warranty, try
Dell's tech support(and enjoy talking to Apu). Otherwise,
it's one of
those things that's pretty difficult to diagnose without
having the PC
to look at. Could be a faulty internal power supply, bad
motherboard or
any number of things, including a loose power cord or bad
electrical
outlet. Do post back with what you find out though.

Glad the Compaq info was helpful to you.

mm
.

brad wrote in message ...
I have not yet tried to boot to a floppy disk. I am
guessing that I could go to bootdisk.com and get what I
need for an XP boot disk, correct?

You could, yes.

Meanwhile, everything in the computer seems to be
connected correctly. The person that had the computer
before me, isn't very computer savvy so I don't think that
she would have tinkered with the inside. Is it possible
for cables to come loose just over time?

Yes, but don't seize on that as a cause just because
I agreed that it is possible.

What I have done, is taken the hard drive out and
connected it as a slave drive in another computer just to
see if I could at least access the drive via a working
computer. Everything went okay when I booted the computer,
it loaded like normal but the slave hard drive(from the
Dell computer) did not show up in My Computer; therefore I
could not access it.

Before Windows loaded, it did say that the configuration
was updated due to a new hard disk being added.

Could this mean that something is wrong with the hard
drive? Unfortunately, I don't think the computer is under
warranty anymore, but I will look into it. Also I will
post back soon and let you know if I can boot from disk.

Yes. It could also be something as simple as the jumper(s)
needing to be changed to indicate that the notebook drive
is now a slave instead of a master. You may also need to
jumper the master to indicate that it now has a slave?

But, you did state specifically that you
"connected it as a slave drive", so I suspect
that you knew about and took care of the jumper issue?

Thanks for the help, and let me know if more info would be
helpful.
-----Original Message-----
brad wrote:
Cool thanks for the help and the url you suggested. The
Compaq is a P3. That helps in understanding more about
the
computer. I will try what you suggested and let you
know
if that solves the problem

In the meantime, I do have another problem that could
be
easy or difficult and I am not quite sure which one yet.
Here it goes.

Dell Dimension 4400
I turn the computer on and the green light in the power
button turns on like normal; however, nothing else
turns
on. There is no sound of a hard drive humming and there
are no sounds from the internal speaker.

Best Buy suggested that it is a hard drive or
motherboard
problem but there is a fee to examine it.

Could it be a power source problem. I haven't spent
much
time with it yet but if nothing turns on...

Again any suggestions would be great and thanks again
for
you help thus far.

Let me know if you need any other additional info.



Hi,

The jumpers will definitely solve the sound card issue.
Jumpers are
placed across pins protruding from the motherboard. The
pins will be in
groups of 2 or more. As an example, a group of 3 pins,
the jumper is set
across pins 1 and 2, and to change the setting you may
need to place it
over pins 2 and 3, or remove it(sometimes it is "stored"
in place by
being put over just 1 pin). A set of 2 pins is usually
pretty straight
forward; it's either over both pins or none(possibly
stored over 1 pin
as mentioned before). Again, if you need more help, just
post back.

As far as the other computer, there could be several
things that are
wrong. If it just the hard drive that has failed, you
should still be
able to boot to a floppy. But you should also still get
some sounds from
the system speaker, which leads me to believe it's not
the hard drive.

Before you take it in, open up the case(PC unplugged) and
check for
loose cable and things like that. If the PC is still
under warranty, try
Dell's tech support(and enjoy talking to Apu). Otherwise,
it's one of
those things that's pretty difficult to diagnose without
having the PC
to look at. Could be a faulty internal power supply, bad
motherboard or
any number of things, including a loose power cord or bad
electrical
outlet. Do post back with what you find out though.

Glad the Compaq info was helpful to you.

mm
.

Okay, first of all when I plug the computer to the wall
the power is already on. I have tried to hold the power
button for 10 seconds and that doesn't work.

When the computer has power, the hard drive light on the
front goes green for a little bit and then disappears,
which means the hard drive is at least getting power,
correct?

On the motherboard, there is a green light which
documentation indicates is the stand-by light.

The DVD-ROM also has power because I can open and close
the tray.

The floppy drive does not appear to be working. The floppy
drive is not being accessed for possible bootdisks, and
when the power is on, there is no DELL logo before Windows
would normally load; therefore, I can not go into safe
mode or even the BIOS.

Can a virus cause this much damage? I ask because I know
the computer was connected to broadband with no antivirus
or firewall software for long periods of time with minimal
shutdowns.

That's where I am at right now. Let me know if more info
would help.
-----Original Message-----

brad wrote in
message ...
I have not yet tried to boot to a floppy disk. I am
guessing that I could go to bootdisk.com and get what I
need for an XP boot disk, correct?

You could, yes.

Meanwhile, everything in the computer seems to be
connected correctly. The person that had the computer
before me, isn't very computer savvy so I don't think
that
she would have tinkered with the inside. Is it possible
for cables to come loose just over time?

Yes, but don't seize on that as a cause just because
I agreed that it is possible.

What I have done, is taken the hard drive out and
connected it as a slave drive in another computer just
to
see if I could at least access the drive via a working
computer. Everything went okay when I booted the
computer,
it loaded like normal but the slave hard drive(from the
Dell computer) did not show up in My Computer;
therefore I
could not access it.

Before Windows loaded, it did say that the configuration
was updated due to a new hard disk being added.

Could this mean that something is wrong with the hard
drive? Unfortunately, I don't think the computer is
under
warranty anymore, but I will look into it. Also I will
post back soon and let you know if I can boot from disk.

Yes. It could also be something as simple as the jumper
(s)
needing to be changed to indicate that the notebook drive
is now a slave instead of a master. You may also need to
jumper the master to indicate that it now has a slave?

But, you did state specifically that you
"connected it as a slave drive", so I suspect
that you knew about and took care of the jumper issue?

Thanks for the help, and let me know if more info would
be
helpful.
-----Original Message-----
brad wrote:
Cool thanks for the help and the url you suggested.
The
Compaq is a P3. That helps in understanding more
about
the
computer. I will try what you suggested and let you
know
if that solves the problem

In the meantime, I do have another problem that could
be
easy or difficult and I am not quite sure which one
yet.
Here it goes.

Dell Dimension 4400
I turn the computer on and the green light in the
power
button turns on like normal; however, nothing else
turns
on. There is no sound of a hard drive humming and
there
are no sounds from the internal speaker.

Best Buy suggested that it is a hard drive or
motherboard
problem but there is a fee to examine it.

Could it be a power source problem. I haven't spent
much
time with it yet but if nothing turns on...

Again any suggestions would be great and thanks again
for
you help thus far.

Let me know if you need any other additional info.



Hi,

The jumpers will definitely solve the sound card issue.
Jumpers are
placed across pins protruding from the motherboard. The
pins will be in
groups of 2 or more. As an example, a group of 3 pins,
the jumper is set
across pins 1 and 2, and to change the setting you may
need to place it
over pins 2 and 3, or remove it(sometimes it
is "stored"
in place by
being put over just 1 pin). A set of 2 pins is usually
pretty straight
forward; it's either over both pins or none(possibly
stored over 1 pin
as mentioned before). Again, if you need more help,
just
post back.

As far as the other computer, there could be several
things that are
wrong. If it just the hard drive that has failed, you
should still be
able to boot to a floppy. But you should also still get
some sounds from
the system speaker, which leads me to believe it's not
the hard drive.

Before you take it in, open up the case(PC unplugged)
and
check for
loose cable and things like that. If the PC is still
under warranty, try
Dell's tech support(and enjoy talking to Apu).
Otherwise,
it's one of
those things that's pretty difficult to diagnose
without
having the PC
to look at. Could be a faulty internal power supply,
bad
motherboard or
any number of things, including a loose power cord or
bad
electrical
outlet. Do post back with what you find out though.

Glad the Compaq info was helpful to you.

mm
.



.

brad wrote in message ...
Okay, first of all when I plug the computer to the wall
the power is already on.

Forgive me for seeming dense, but you have a very terse way
of communicating which I have difficulty with.

Are you saying that the notebook is already booted up
and running on battery power when you plug it into the wall.

I have tried to hold the power button for 10 seconds

Why?

and that doesn't work.

What doesn't?

When the computer has power,

You mean, in the first few moments after you first boot up?

the hard drive light on the
front goes green for a little bit and then disappears,
which means the hard drive is at least getting power,
correct?

Yes.

On the motherboard, there is a green light which
documentation indicates is the stand-by light.

The DVD-ROM also has power because I can open and close
the tray.

The floppy drive does not appear to be working. The floppy
drive is not being accessed for possible bootdisks,

You obviously need to run the BIOS Setup program
and change the CMOS boot option settings.

and when the power is on,

Compared to what?

there is no DELL logo before Windows
would normally load;

That probably means that MSDOS.SYS has been edited
to suppress the logo. That's no big deal.

therefore, I can not go into safe mode or even the BIOS.

Why not? Reboot, and then hold down the CTRL key
as soon as the video display adapter info flashes up.
What happens?

Can a virus cause this much damage?

I haven't seen anything that qualifies as damage yet.

I ask because I know
the computer was connected to broadband with no antivirus
or firewall software for long periods of time with minimal
shutdowns.

Cordless bungee jumping.

That's where I am at right now. Let me know if more info
would help.

Just talk to me like I was a beginner and spell things out
so that I can follow you clearly.

-----Original Message-----

brad wrote in
message ...
I have not yet tried to boot to a floppy disk. I am
guessing that I could go to bootdisk.com and get what I
need for an XP boot disk, correct?

You could, yes.

Meanwhile, everything in the computer seems to be
connected correctly. The person that had the computer
before me, isn't very computer savvy so I don't think
that
she would have tinkered with the inside. Is it possible
for cables to come loose just over time?

Yes, but don't seize on that as a cause just because
I agreed that it is possible.

What I have done, is taken the hard drive out and
connected it as a slave drive in another computer just
to
see if I could at least access the drive via a working
computer. Everything went okay when I booted the
computer,
it loaded like normal but the slave hard drive(from the
Dell computer) did not show up in My Computer;
therefore I
could not access it.

Before Windows loaded, it did say that the configuration
was updated due to a new hard disk being added.

Could this mean that something is wrong with the hard
drive? Unfortunately, I don't think the computer is
under
warranty anymore, but I will look into it. Also I will
post back soon and let you know if I can boot from disk.

Yes. It could also be something as simple as the jumper
(s)
needing to be changed to indicate that the notebook drive
is now a slave instead of a master. You may also need to
jumper the master to indicate that it now has a slave?

But, you did state specifically that you
"connected it as a slave drive", so I suspect
that you knew about and took care of the jumper issue?

Thanks for the help, and let me know if more info would
be
helpful.
-----Original Message-----
brad wrote:
Cool thanks for the help and the url you suggested.
The
Compaq is a P3. That helps in understanding more
about
the
computer. I will try what you suggested and let you
know
if that solves the problem

In the meantime, I do have another problem that could
be
easy or difficult and I am not quite sure which one
yet.
Here it goes.

Dell Dimension 4400
I turn the computer on and the green light in the
power
button turns on like normal; however, nothing else
turns
on. There is no sound of a hard drive humming and
there
are no sounds from the internal speaker.

Best Buy suggested that it is a hard drive or
motherboard
problem but there is a fee to examine it.

Could it be a power source problem. I haven't spent
much
time with it yet but if nothing turns on...

Again any suggestions would be great and thanks again
for
you help thus far.

Let me know if you need any other additional info.



Hi,

The jumpers will definitely solve the sound card issue.
Jumpers are
placed across pins protruding from the motherboard. The
pins will be in
groups of 2 or more. As an example, a group of 3 pins,
the jumper is set
across pins 1 and 2, and to change the setting you may
need to place it
over pins 2 and 3, or remove it(sometimes it
is "stored"
in place by
being put over just 1 pin). A set of 2 pins is usually
pretty straight
forward; it's either over both pins or none(possibly
stored over 1 pin
as mentioned before). Again, if you need more help,
just
post back.

As far as the other computer, there could be several
things that are
wrong. If it just the hard drive that has failed, you
should still be
able to boot to a floppy. But you should also still get
some sounds from
the system speaker, which leads me to believe it's not
the hard drive.

Before you take it in, open up the case(PC unplugged)
and
check for
loose cable and things like that. If the PC is still
under warranty, try
Dell's tech support(and enjoy talking to Apu).
Otherwise,
it's one of
those things that's pretty difficult to diagnose
without
having the PC
to look at. Could be a faulty internal power supply,
bad
motherboard or
any number of things, including a loose power cord or
bad
electrical
outlet. Do post back with what you find out though.

Glad the Compaq info was helpful to you.

mm
.



.

First of all, I never said that it was a notebook. This
computer is a Dell Dimension 4400 Desktop computer.

Are you saying that the notebook is already booted up
and running on battery power when you plug it into the
wall.

Therefore, there is no internal battery. So when I plug
the computer to the electrical outlet the power light on
the front panel of the computer is on. Hence, I do not
have to press the power button to turn the computer on.
The computer is automatically on when it is plugged into
the wall.

I have tried to hold the power button for 10 seconds

Why?

Normally, by holding the power button down for a certain
number of seconds the power automatically shuts down. In
this case, holding the power button did not have that
effect. The power never shut off.

You mean, in the first few moments after you first boot
up?

Here you are referring to all the things that I mentioned
were working and all the things that I mentioned were not
working.

Lets get one thing right. The computer doesn't even make
it that far. Windows never loads.
You wrote:

You obviously need to run the BIOS Setup program
and change the CMOS boot option settings.

You are referring to the fact that I wrote:

The floppy drive does not appear to be working. The
floppy
drive is not being accessed for possible bootdisks,

If it was something as simple as that I wouldn't need to
post. I have pressed the necessary keys to go into either,
or Safe Mode, BIOS and other possible options. Normally,
when you want to go into the BIOS you press the specific
key while the manufacturer Logo is on the screen and
before Windows loads. Lets be clear, the computer displays
no manufacturer logo and no Windows logo.

Here is a little snippet from your last post:

there is no DELL logo before Windows
would normally load;

That probably means that MSDOS.SYS has been edited
to suppress the logo. That's no big deal.

therefore, I can not go into safe mode or even the BIOS.

Why not? Reboot, and then hold down the CTRL key
as soon as the video display adapter info flashes up.
What happens?

First of all, having no DELL logo flash on the screen
after the power comes on is a big deal, because I have
used this computer, before it went belly up. Like I said
my friend is not really knowledgeable of how to tinker
with those kinds of settings and I have seen the DELL logo
on this computer before. Which of course, I did not
explicitly state on a post.

You then suggest that to solve my problem of not being
able to get into the BIOS that I should

Reboot, and then hold down the CTRL key
as soon as the video display adapter info flashes up.
What happens?

Nothing happens. There is no video display adapter info
that flashes up. You might then ask me to check my monitor
and keyboard connections. Both are in good condition
because they have already been tested on another system.

I am actually kinda tired of typing right now. If anything
new develops I will post but I am in communication with
Dell so I'll see if they can help me, but it doesn't look
promising.
-----Original Message-----


Okay, first of all when I plug the computer to the wall
the power is already on.

Forgive me for seeming dense, but you have a very terse
way
of communicating which I have difficulty with.

Are you saying that the notebook is already booted up
and running on battery power when you plug it into the
wall.

I have tried to hold the power button for 10 seconds

Why?

and that doesn't work.

What doesn't?

When the computer has power,

You mean, in the first few moments after you first boot
up?

the hard drive light on the
front goes green for a little bit and then disappears,
which means the hard drive is at least getting power,
correct?

Yes.

On the motherboard, there is a green light which
documentation indicates is the stand-by light.

The DVD-ROM also has power because I can open and close
the tray.

The floppy drive does not appear to be working. The
floppy
drive is not being accessed for possible bootdisks,

You obviously need to run the BIOS Setup program
and change the CMOS boot option settings.

and when the power is on,

Compared to what?

there is no DELL logo before Windows
would normally load;

That probably means that MSDOS.SYS has been edited
to suppress the logo. That's no big deal.

therefore, I can not go into safe mode or even the BIOS.

Why not? Reboot, and then hold down the CTRL key
as soon as the video display adapter info flashes up.
What happens?

Can a virus cause this much damage?

I haven't seen anything that qualifies as damage yet.

I ask because I know
the computer was connected to broadband with no
antivirus
or firewall software for long periods of time with
minimal
shutdowns.

Cordless bungee jumping.

That's where I am at right now. Let me know if more info
would help.

Just talk to me like I was a beginner and spell things out
so that I can follow you clearly.

-----Original Message-----

brad wrote in
message ...
I have not yet tried to boot to a floppy disk. I am
guessing that I could go to bootdisk.com and get
what I
need for an XP boot disk, correct?

You could, yes.

Meanwhile, everything in the computer seems to be
connected correctly. The person that had the computer
before me, isn't very computer savvy so I don't think
that
she would have tinkered with the inside. Is it
possible
for cables to come loose just over time?

Yes, but don't seize on that as a cause just because
I agreed that it is possible.

What I have done, is taken the hard drive out and
connected it as a slave drive in another computer
just
to
see if I could at least access the drive via a
working
computer. Everything went okay when I booted the
computer,
it loaded like normal but the slave hard drive(from
the
Dell computer) did not show up in My Computer;
therefore I
could not access it.

Before Windows loaded, it did say that the
configuration
was updated due to a new hard disk being added.

Could this mean that something is wrong with the hard
drive? Unfortunately, I don't think the computer is
under
warranty anymore, but I will look into it. Also I
will
post back soon and let you know if I can boot from
disk.

Yes. It could also be something as simple as the
jumper
(s)
needing to be changed to indicate that the notebook
drive
is now a slave instead of a master. You may also need
to
jumper the master to indicate that it now has a slave?

But, you did state specifically that you
"connected it as a slave drive", so I suspect
that you knew about and took care of the jumper issue?

Thanks for the help, and let me know if more info
would
be
helpful.
-----Original Message-----
brad wrote:
Cool thanks for the help and the url you
suggested.
The
Compaq is a P3. That helps in understanding more
about
the
computer. I will try what you suggested and let
you
know
if that solves the problem

In the meantime, I do have another problem that
could
be
easy or difficult and I am not quite sure which
one
yet.
Here it goes.

Dell Dimension 4400
I turn the computer on and the green light in the
power
button turns on like normal; however, nothing else
turns
on. There is no sound of a hard drive humming and
there
are no sounds from the internal speaker.

Best Buy suggested that it is a hard drive or
motherboard
problem but there is a fee to examine it.

Could it be a power source problem. I haven't
spent
much
time with it yet but if nothing turns on...

Again any suggestions would be great and thanks
again
for
you help thus far.

Let me know if you need any other additional info.



Hi,

The jumpers will definitely solve the sound card
issue.
Jumpers are
placed across pins protruding from the motherboard.
The
pins will be in
groups of 2 or more. As an example, a group of 3
pins,
the jumper is set
across pins 1 and 2, and to change the setting you
may
need to place it
over pins 2 and 3, or remove it(sometimes it
is "stored"
in place by
being put over just 1 pin). A set of 2 pins is
usually
pretty straight
forward; it's either over both pins or none(possibly
stored over 1 pin
as mentioned before). Again, if you need more help,
just
post back.

As far as the other computer, there could be several
things that are
wrong. If it just the hard drive that has failed,
you
should still be
able to boot to a floppy. But you should also still
get
some sounds from
the system speaker, which leads me to believe it's
not
the hard drive.

Before you take it in, open up the case(PC
unplugged)
and
check for
loose cable and things like that. If the PC is still
under warranty, try
Dell's tech support(and enjoy talking to Apu).
Otherwise,
it's one of
those things that's pretty difficult to diagnose
without
having the PC
to look at. Could be a faulty internal power supply,
bad
motherboard or
any number of things, including a loose power cord
or
bad
electrical
outlet. Do post back with what you find out though.

Glad the Compaq info was helpful to you.

mm
.



.



.