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March 3rd, 2018 19:00

Dell Dimension 8400 Repair

Help.

10 Elder

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24.8K Posts

March 4th, 2018 08:00

Reset the drive settings -- make sure at least your first  drive (0 or 1, usually the former) is seen in setup (F2 at powerup) and that the system is set to boot from it.

If you have the drive channel enabled, but don't see the drive, chances are it has failed. This is after all a 13-14 year old system.

 

10 Elder

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44.3K Posts

March 4th, 2018 11:00

Always include version of Windows in your posts.

Reboot and immediately press F2 to open BIOS setup. Look for "Drives 0 - 5" and make sure your boot hard drive is correctly identified on the SATA0 port.

Then look for SATA Operation (aka: SATA Mode or Drive Controller) setting and make sure it's set to RAID AutoDetect/AHCI. If the battery was changed, this setting got reset to the default RAID AutoDetect/ATA which is probably not correct for your Windows installation and this would cause "Drive not found" errors.

And lastly, look for the Boot Sequence option and make sure your boot hard drive is first in that sequence.

Be sure to save the changes before exiting setup. :Idea:

(I'm typing this on my Dimension 8400 which  -knock wood- is still going strong. :BigSmile:   )

9 Legend

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33.3K Posts

March 4th, 2018 08:00

The Dimension line was discontinued about 6 years ago.  Any repair will have to be done by a local PC repair shop.  If you need parts, search places such as e-bay.

March 4th, 2018 08:00

Dell Dimension 8400 Troubleshooting


On screen: No boot device available - Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

Back of computer: A B C D indicators are green

CR2032 battery has been removed and replaced with a new one

Strike F1: on screen message repeats

Strike F2: screen goes to setup utility

 

Thanks.

March 8th, 2018 18:00

I thank you for your help.

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