Dell 2400 CDROM boot issue

Here is the skinny.

The PC is a Dell 2400 Dimension desktop. I have spent endless time with Dell on the phone, frankly I am not impressed with the advice I was given. I have narrowed the problem down to a "simple one". However I am having trouble with the so called simple problem.

Symptom:
When the pc boots to the HD "invalid system disk"
I corrected this with the device driver from the dell website.
The hd has a fresh format on the drive so it is clean. The user I am helping wished to have a clean install "out of the box new if you will". After running the format/u as told b dell techs, the pc will not boot from the CD rom. Missing drivers right, I think so also.

I checked the bios boot secquence and everything was in order. I removed the cd rom and double checked it in another pc. The drive functions correctly as it did before the format. I feel that if I had the device driver for the drive I could create a bootdisk load the path to both the cd and the hd and then run the restore cd. Here is the catch, online dell website there are 9 different roms avaliable for the 2400 model, plus they are all windows based installs.

So do any of you hardware ninjas out there have a good cd boot disk toolkit I can use?

The machine was an xp sp1, the HD is 100% formated. NTFS partioned


The machine worked fine prior to the restore. Everything worked correctly, the reason for the restore. The pc is to be given to his child, while he upgrades to a laptop.

Thanks all
Be safe and Stay free
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas
may all your tech wishes be filled on Christmas day

what if you were to slave the hdd to a working pc. That way it has all the working drivers already and you can just do a fresh install on the drive while its slaved.

Also

Quote:

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After running the format/u as told b dell techs, the pc will not boot from the CD rom

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I thinkt he problem with this sentance is the way the dell techs said. I am pretty sure you can find a tutorial on formatting somewhere on the site. I just never trust the techies over the phone. I know there are some that know what they are talking about, but for the most part they don't.

Maybe the world has changed since I was a young jedi,
but I can't see how failure to boot from the cdrom could
be anything but a BIOS problem. What could drivers
have to do with it if there's no OS installed? The cd should boot
without respect to the contents of the hard drive, otherwise, how could you install
the OS?

Check on a BIOS upgrade/repair.
:cool:

rcgreen

So, if I folllow your thought. You believe the bios has become corrupted somehow. I guess I never thought of it that way. So tell me this then, if the drive functions in another pc.
I open the case and pull the ribbons to the HD, floppy, and the dvd, reboot access the bios boot sequence and bump the cdrom to the 1st slot for good measure, yet still get a invalid system disk error. Knowing the cdrom is in working order, then I guess I have eliminated everything but the bios eh?

Thanks alot for this help

Dell does have a repair/update for the bios. I am going to download it now

Yeah, if that same cdrom drive will boot in another pc,
or if a different cdrom still fails to boot in this one,
I think it's the BIOS.

Hmmmm,

Difficult to figure what has caused it to happen?

When you boot the machine does the BIOS detect the CD?..............are there any lights on it?

If you can get hold of one, I would try a Win98 boot disk (3.5" floppy) with that set to #1 in the boot sequence.

Have you tried the Windows XP CD in another machine?

:)

If I remember, you can get just about any boot disk at www.bootdisk.com

Corrupt Bios? Ummm, it's obviously possible but don't get to hear about too many of those. UV rays used to do it if you had the box open in the sunlight

~cheers~