Dimension 2400 Windows XP (home). Has Floppy drive and two optical drives, CD ROM, DVD RW.
Pc will POST then warns: Press F1 to retry boot or F2 to enter SETUP. (F1 Just Loops back to same error)
In BIOS only the floppy drive is detected. all other drives say UNKNOWN DEVICE.
Nothing has been changed or upgraded, PC was working then simply failed to boot up.
Hard drive is connected to MB with a single ribbon cable (Grey).
Two Optical drives are connected to 2nd port on MB with single (daisy chain) ribbon cable.(White)
Floppy drive is connected to MB port with single ribbon cable.
What I have done:
Spend two days reading on Computerhope.com.....
1, Reseat EVERYTHING, Cables plugs, connectors, memory sticks etc.
2, Clean PC with canned air to remove dust (Lots Of Dust!).
3, Swap Cables from HDD/DVD RW drives.
4, connect HDD leaving all others disconnected. Repeat connecting HDD to other MB slot. (CDROM/DVDRW Slot)
5, Remove HDD and inspect/clean. Hard Drive Does Spin when powered up !
6, Test Power Supply, GREEN LED on MB is "ON" !
7, reset BIOS ( Disconnect power cord, remove CMOS battery, Hold power button "ON" for 1 minute, Replace battery and reconnect power cord)
While some of these test produce different and expected errors, Machine will not detect the hard drive or optical drives at all.
I am thinking Controller on mother board has failed or the HDD is defective. I do not have another HDD or PC to substitute parts at this point. I have not checked HDD jumper/dipswitch settings since this was a running machine. But I will do that anyway...
Question: Have I missed anything? If the Hard drive has failed would that prevent the detection of the other drives (DVDRW/CDROM)
Any other test or suggestions ??
THANK YOU !