Empty DVD-ROM Drive starts blinking during boot, hangs system

Question

Dimension 8400 with XP Prof. has DVD-ROM and DVD+/-RW.  During boot, the light on DVD-ROM starts blinking and system hangs.  Must hold power button in for several seconds to shut off.  At power on, the system recognizes unusual shutdown and ask what to do.  Select normal startup and system starts up ok.  Called Dell support and was told to run hardware diagnostics which showed no problem.  Was told must be software problem.  Have since done Dell Recovery to original software, still have same problem.  Have opened cabinet and unplugged two cables from DVD-ROM.  No longer have problem.  Just asked at boot whether to continue with missing drive.  Of course, I no longer have a DVD-ROM drive available, but hardly ever use it anyway.  Any thoughts?

osprey4 · Answer

It sounds like a combination of two things. You have the DVD-ROM set to boot before the hard drive, and your DVD-ROM drive is defective or has a non-bootable disc in it. This is not a software problem because the issue occurs during POST, not OS startup (as far as I can tell from your description).

Go buy another DVD-ROM and replace this one and see if that helps. The drive must be jumpered to cabel select and instqalled on the connector where the old drive was.

WilliamBr · Answer

No disc in drive.  Hard drive light indicates activity before blinking light.  When light is blinking, the button will not open the drive.  When I open the drive manually with a paper clip, there is no effect on the blinking of the light or anything else.  I do not know what POST is.  This is an unaltered configuration from Dell purchased 9 months ago with a 3 year service plan, so buying a new drive is not in my list of options.

osprey4 · Answer

POST=power on self test, a hardware level system check. Something is not checking out during this process.

After you are able to boot the system, does the drive work properly? The advantage of havinga ROM drive, obviously, is that you can use it as your workhorse read drive and save your burner for burning.

WilliamBr · Answer

When the ROM drive was connected and the system was up, the ROM drive worked fine.  It has not been used much.  Only for install of printer and scanner and viewing some saved photos.

osprey4 · Answer

Hard to say what's going on. You might try clearing NVRAM.

osprey4 · Answer

No, it only affects system setup parameters.

WilliamBr · Answer

I have figured out what NVRAM is and how to clear it.  Will this affect my printer, scanner, or Earthlink setups?  Should I reconnect the DVD-ROM drive first?

WilliamBr · Answer

On old Gateway laptop because can't get windows to start on Dell.

Went to Setup with F2. Went to maintenance, load defaults, continue, save/exit. Now get DELL window, www.dell.com window, black & white window saying "We apologize...", then blue & white window saying "A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down...".

Tried plugging the DVD-ROM drive back in but no difference. Have redone the clear NVRAM process several times but no difference.

The blue and white window says to do CHKDSK /F, but I can't figure out how to get to where I can do it.

osprey4 · Answer

This is starting to sound like a corrupted OS or possibly a hard drive issue. Follow these instructions from MS.

osprey4 · Answer

Ok, you'll need to use the Windows XP Recovery Console.

WilliamBr · Answer

Everything gets me to the blue and white screen with "A problem has been detected...".

I need to find a way to be able to enter the chkdsk command. Even the safemode options take me to the blue and white screen. When in the blue and white screen, I can't do anything.

WilliamBr · Answer

In order to run recovery console, I need a Windows CD-ROM.  DELL only supplies discs for utilities and Microsoft Works.  A card was included saying 'Your computer does not require an operating system CD...'.

osprey4 · Answer

Yes, you do need your XP disc (another stupid Dell money-saving idea! ARGH!!). If your system is still under warranty, you can call Dell and request OS and application discs.

The alternative is to use the PC Restore Utility, but I suggest you run a diagnostic and check the integrity of your hard drive before trying that to rule out any problems there.

WilliamBr · Answer

Ran Hard Drive diagnostic, passed.  Ran Extended Test Dell Diagnostics, passed.  Ran Dell PC Restore to original software and stopped.  Powered off and on several times and no problem with DVD-ROM.  Activated Norton and installed/activated Earthlink, only connections were to activate.  Powered off and on, DVD-ROM blinked and hung system.  Disconnected DVD-ROM.  I guess that is the way it has to be.  Thanks for your help.

Storage, Drives & Media

Empty DVD-ROM Drive starts blinking during boot, hangs system

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