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Inspiron 531 won't boot - Help please
Help please!
My Inspiron 531 was frozen up the other day. mouse pointer would move but couldn't click on anything.
Shut it down. When re-started, Power light comes on solid blue
it makes a single beep
Dell splash screen comes up, but never gets the loading bar.
Eventually goes to a black screen that says "No boot devices available
Sata 0: installed
SATA 1: installed
Sata 3: none
sata 4: none"
F2 takes me to the setup and F12 takes me to boot menu
On the setup page it says SATA 1 : None
Tried F8 and CTRL-F11, neither did anything.
My machine is running Vista home premium. I didn't get, or can't find my oRiginal Dell disk.
I found a Vista restore disk here: http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/
When I run the restore program, when I get to the System recovery options, there is nothing to choose. When I try to load drivers with the hard drive drivers from the Dell site it does not recognize any of them as the correct type.
Help please. Thanks,
Mike
gregory.jones
412 Posts
0
May 30th, 2010 20:00
When you go to F12 is there an option ot boot to the diagnostics or utility partition? If so & if you can, run the dell diagnostic tests. I'm concerned about the HDD maybe failing (but we hope not).
If that doesn't work you can boot to the Vista disc & then via the command line run this "chkdsk /r c:" without the " "
gregory.jones
412 Posts
0
May 30th, 2010 21:00
Hm, I see.
Try getting a standalone hard drive diagnostic tool in an .ISO format- this allows you to boot directly to a CD like the Vista disc.
Try to find something like DFT. It may take a couple hours to run (IF it will run) but it should tell us if the HDD is bad.
One other thing to try (if you don't care about losing your data & if you haven't tried it yet) is a clean reinstall of the OS.
kabonk
4 Posts
0
May 30th, 2010 21:00
From F12 boot menu:
CDROM
-4th master: PBDS DVD+/-RW DH-16W1s
Utility partition
when I select utility partition, it goes to the black screen and says:
No boot device available
SATA 0: installed
SATA1: Installed
SATA 2: None
SATA 4: None
chkdsk /r c: gives the message cannot open volume for direct access
jsktx
729 Posts
0
May 31st, 2010 04:00
When's the last time you changed your CMOS battery? It could be dead and that's why it's not booting. The battery is a CR2032 and can be found at any drug store or Walmart. Instructions for changing the battery are HERE.
kabonk
4 Posts
0
May 31st, 2010 14:00
Never replaced the 2032 battery. My BIOS clock is still correct. See my previous reply. Is this still worth trying (changing the battery).
Thanks for the help!
jsktx
729 Posts
0
May 31st, 2010 14:00
I think so. Doesn't cost but three or four dollars. My mom's PC had the very same issue and the time and date was still correct. Put a new battery in and all was good again. In any case you'll either be up and running or you'll know it wasn't the problem.
kabonk
4 Posts
0
May 31st, 2010 14:00
Tried running Seatools for DOS. Said no hard drives found.
I don't have or didn't get a dell disc with this. What would the most cost effective fix be? New HDD and request a setup disc from Dell? Any way to try and recover what is on this drive. I have my old desktop out in the garage, use that HDD and then try to repair the bad one?
Is windows 7 a big enough improvement to upgrade?
Thanks for all the help.