BIOS not reading HDD or CD-ROM

Question

i have a Dell Latitude C840 with BIOS version A12. i was using the computer and it started giving me all sorts of errors regarding the applications i was using, but they were all 'unknown errors.' i restarted the computer and then it says:   Primary hard disk drive not found Fixed optical drive not found   No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility   i tried going into the bios, resetting to factory settings and doing a manual hdd detection (Alt+E... it did nothing), but none of those worked. i tried reseating the hard drive and even replaced it with another one... still nothing. i can boot from floppy but that does me no good, since i can't use a cd or install anything on a drive that won't read. any suggestions?

Rijko · Answer

Looks like the IDE controller gave up since both your IDE devices cut out at the same time.

Did you check that the IDE controller in the bios is enabled ?

I would remove the harddrive and cdrom and just boot off the floppy, flash the bios just to be sure.. i know that prob won't work but it's about all you can do afaik...

Do the HDDs startup - can you hear them spinning in the C840 ?

Is it possible for you to try both HDDs in another system just to see if they function and give access to the stored data ? Just to rule out harddrive failure, even if improbable....

DisasterArea03 · Answer

i have tried the drives in another computer and both the HDD and CD-ROM work in another computer. i tried flashing the BIOS and it is the same. the strange part is that people here say that the same thing has happened to this computer before (several times) and one day just fixed itself. i checked the IDE bus and it is enabled, but still reads nothing.

Rijko · Answer

well.. i am sorry i have no ideas left ...

I think the tests you did all point to hardware failure on the pci bus or of the ide controller or at least on parts you cannot repair yourself...

I do hope someone else can think of something and you get this sorted out.

Best of luck to you.

leduke30 · Answer

I suggest you update your BIOS to the latest A13 by the Floppy method if that is still working. I have had 2 C800 boards that did almost the same thing, except on those the Floppy was not bootable either. I did a trick on those to Flash the BIOS to the latest version, and normal operation was the result. Somehow the BIOS EEProm had gotten corrupted and the BIOS Flash corrected it. No guarantees, but it is worth a shot.

DisasterArea03 · Answer

thanks... i thought i should try that, but that didn't work either. i think i'm just going to send it back to Dell for a replacement.

leduke30 · Answer

Well, I guess it's M'Board time.

DisasterArea03 · Answer

well... i found the problem. my hard drive is intermittent. it won't read in my Dell and it seldom reads in an external case... and always has errors when it does read, so i can't use it. i put another hard drive in there and it works, cd-rom and all. i guess the hard drive must have been just locking up the bus. thanks for all your help.

leduke30 · Answer

Just when you think you have computers figured out, they pitch you a 'screwball'(reverse curveball). It is good you found the problem.

Hungloz · Answer

I have been dealing with the same stuph... You need to keep reconfiguring the Hardwear in the laptop until you get it to boot once... Then up date your bios....  Mine was a pain for 4 month or better    LOL  . Use the     fn-x combination and enentually you will get stuph to recoginize

DisasterArea03 · Answer

fn-x combinations? i'm not familiar with those.

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BIOS not reading HDD or CD-ROM

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