Hard Drive in Inspiron Modular Bay Problem.

Question

Dear Dell Helpers,

I hope you all had a great New Year and have recovered sufficiently to help me with a problem that is driving me up the wall.

I have a four year old Dell Inspiron 8200 portable. It is running XP Home with 1 GB of DRAM. It has a media modular bay into which one can put either a floppy drive (which is what is in there working fine right now), a second hard drive, or a DVD.

I want to put in a second hard drive.

I got from Best Buy, USA, a Seagate Ultra ATA/100, 5400 rpm, 2.5", 9.5 mm, 60 GB HD. There was no installation/driver CD disk or instructions with the drive. I bought the modular case for it from Dell and installed the HD in the case. No problem with that. I left it in the Slve mode as per Seagate site, i.e., no jumpers.

According to the Dell manual, all I had to do is stick the module into the bay and all would be well. Not so.

Immediately on power up I get a “gray” screen message telling me that the module is not recognized, to shut down, make sure it is pushed right into the bay, and try again; this message is the first thing that appears, so I cannot get to F2 with the module installed before power up.

The module is fully in.

I have started up the computer with the bay empty and then hot inserted the second hard drive, which the manual states you can do, though I do not like doing it. The new HD is not in the list under My Computer, though all the other memory and DVD/CDs, etc., are.

Some more info: the system BIOS is dated 08/17/02 and is Dell 27d20811. Processor is x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7; about 1.7 GHz, I believe. There are several IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.

Please, can anybody in this august body enlighten me? I bet/hope it is something simple and I will be chagrined with myself when I find out what it is. Meanwhile, time for returning the drive is running out as is my patience as I have spent hours on what should have been a ten minute job!

In anticipation,

All the best for 2006,

David (Beecham) PA-USA.

boppo · Answer

well this is the latest bios and it's the floppy method, only use the floppy way. if that don't fix it I will tell you what I did for the same problem on my I8200.   http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R71738&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_8200&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=2287&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=9&formatcnt=4&fileid=93101

Windsurfer148 · Answer

Boppo! Thank you for your reply to my query.

I installed BIOS A11 as you suggested via the link you supplied. All went well, though the HD and the fans went bannanas at first.

By the way, how do I go back to BIOS A6 if I want to?

But, the problem is still there. At first I thought I was home as I got the wallpaper, but then it locked up. On restart I got the same old message; Make sure ithe module is inserted proerly, press Esape, and try again. No luck I'm afraid.

So, you had the same problem as me. How did you fix it? I tell you, this is the absolute pits as far as installation is concerned. I wonder how many other peoople have just given up. But not me yet! But I only have until Wednesday noon to get the new HD back to Best Buy.

Thanks again, and any further help will be most gratefully received.

David.

boppo · Answer

david fn+Z will reset the fan and I suggest to get this free program to monitor the fans, of course you have been blowing out the heatsink with canned air every few months to clean out the dust. haven't you?

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=DIM_CEL_3000&os=WW1&osl=EN

boppo · Answer

to get started you need a win98se boot disk to put in your floppy from bootdisk.com. and make it so your able to boot to dos.

Windsurfer148 · Answer

That was two quick replies!

No, I have not been using the canned aur; I thought it might blow any filter and just push the dust into the PC. I will get some.

If I get the disc to get into DOS, what then? I am not a PC expert. What are the steps I would take?

Than again,

All the bet,

David.

boppo · Answer

ok this is what i had to do to get it to work. 1, remove both drives from the system. 2, take the blade connector off the main HD ( be very carefull taking it off. a little on each side not to bend the pins). 3, put the connector on your new drive. 4, put the drive back in the main drive caddy. 5, put it back in the computer. (the screw is not needed at this time). 6, have the floppy disk in the drive and turn on the system. 7, it will boot to a prompt after ansering yes to a few things. 8, once you get to A:\ type   fdisk. 9, pick the one that say create a dos partition (i think it's 1) 10, it's going to ask if you want to us the whole thing (yes or ok) 11, esc out and then reboot with the floppy in and go to the A:\ prompt and type format and say yes or ok and let it format. 12, then put it back in the media bay and put the connector back on the main drive and put it back in the computer. 13, remove the floppy and boot to windows. 14, when you get to that point let me know.   this is all from memory and i am a old man so it might not be word for word.

boppo · Answer

if your in the US you can private message me with your phone number, I can call you for free just like tech support but you will be able to understand me since I am not in India.

boppo · Answer

when you get the air pop off the black power button cover from the right side, put tooth picks in the fans  (when the systems is off) and blow the air at the fins at the heatsink at the keyboard side.tooth picks are so you don't over rev the fan when the air hits them.

leduke30 · Answer

Excuse me, But did the original poster install the HDD in the 2nd Harddrive Module circuit board side up? It is possible to install it the other side up and connect it, but it will not work that way. Also, long shot, but the drive should be unjumpered.

boppo · Answer

the connector is keyed so it will not fit upside down, but it is possible to miss a row if your not careful. as for the jumpers on the drive, I can't recall seeing any jumpers on my laptop drives and I 5 of them.

leduke30 · Answer

Sorry again, boppo, but on the one I have, the connector is not keyed or blocked, and it is possible with this one to install it circuit board side down. I have a couple of laptop harddrive jumpers that came on used drives, but it is rare to see one I grant you.

boppo · Answer

hopefully he will see these last posts, thanks for the info

Windsurfer148 · Answer

Dear Boppo and the other gentleman (whose handle I cannot seem to find),

I checked the connector and it is fine.

I ran Dell checkup and it found some uneccessary start up links. Now I can find the Seagate hard drive in the modular bay on System. Great progress! It says it is working fine. And is in "0". But so is the original drive.

I do not have any jumpers on the drive in the modular bay and the Seagate site states that none are needed for a slave.

My only problem now is that the new drive is not in My Computer. There is only one hard drive, "C". So the new drive is invisible to me.

Does the original HD on C know it is supposed to be the master I wonder?

Boppo, you offered to call. I am on the East Coast near Allentown, PA. You can call me on 610 967 3676. I can then call you back to save your nickel if you wish.

I was going to return the drive this morning as it is the last day for Besr Buy's 14 day period and the module should be returned to Dell for credit soon. But you guys have been so helpful and I seem so close that I am willing to give it a further try.

All the best,

David.

Windsurfer148 · Answer

Boffo and the Other Gentleman:

It works! It works! Did I tell you it works?

The second hard drive in the modular bay is on My Computer with the letter I assigned and partitioned and "healthy".

I have copied a file from C to the new drive and opened it. I have taken the module out and replaced it with the A Floppy module and that still works. I hae then put the new HD back in and it is still recognized.

To help other people with the same trouble, this is what I did. I think this was a key factor.

First, I contacted the Dell Community Forum.

Boppo kindly sent me the link for an updated BIOS which I installed.

I then ran the Dell Support program at: http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/en/dellsupport20?c=us&l=en&s=gen

This program reported that I had several links at startup that needed to be fixed, which it did. I believe thsi was the second important step.

I then went to the Seagate support site at: http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/index.html

This site walks you through the detection and fixing of HD problems. While the illustrations it uses use Seagate drives as examples, the site is not Seagate specific and the instructions are very clear. With a bit of stumbling I managed to get the HD recognized, partitioned and formatted.

Without this site I would not have been able to intialize, recognize , partition or format the drive without a lot of efort and time.

That was it!

Anyhow, I cannot thank you guys enough for your E-mails and support. Without them I would have given up. Now I have a second 60 GB removable drive in my computer that I can use to store data out of the way of viruses and other problems.

All the best to you both,

David.

Windsurfer148 · Answer

Dear Leduke30.   Thank you for your E-mail.   Yes, I realize that now, but as quite a computer novice it was not obvious to me at the time. I guess I took too literally 'Plug and Play' and Dell's instructions for instaling a HD module in their manual that did not mention anything about initializing or anything else. A single sentence of warning would have been a great help. I am more used to plugging in USB devices and having them work with no problem,.Anyhow, all's well that ends well.   The modular bay ($33 without HD, of course, and don't forget to order the screws as they do not come with the module for some strange reason) purchased from Dell was a refurbished item; it seems, according to the lady in the parts department ,that all those they have are refurbished. My experience leads me to wonder how many other people have bought one and reurned it in frustration.   And I fele that I would not have solved my problem without the encouragement of you guys. Again, thanks!   All the best,   David.

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Hard Drive in Inspiron Modular Bay Problem.

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