Dimension L800 Boot Problems

Question

Reply  Dimension L800 Boot Problems Options     KenBaxter Forum Member Posts: 4 Registered: 03-17-2005 Viewed 60 times Hi,   My daughter was using our Dimension L800R and said that it had been running slow so she did a reboot.  Ever since then, Windows ME will not completely reboot.  The desktop appears and the cursor stays as and arrow with an hour glass and cannot open or run anything at all. The only way to shut it down is to power it down.  I ahve checked the hard drive while it is 'running' via another computer on our home network.  The drive shows Capacity 18.6 GB, Used 17.2 GB and 1.3 GB Free.  I did delete several files to get it to this point.  I originally thought th hard drive was full but still doesn't boot now.  I have run a Symantic virus scan on the drive via another computer and find no virus either.  Ideas?  We use the computer for homeschool as well as personal use.  We need to get this thing runnin again.  HELP PLEASE!!!!  Thanks, Ken  03-17-2005 09:46 PM    Reply  Re: Dimension L800 Boot Problems Options     danjane Forum Member Posts: 160 Registered: 11-13-2004 Viewed 51 times Try starting in safe mode and running an adware sweeper or a system restore. There are four lights on the back what color are they.  Here is a link for light pattern problems. http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dmum/codemess.htm   03-17-2005 10:06 PM    Reply  Re: Dimension L800 Boot Problems Options     KenBaxter Forum Member Posts: 4 Registered: 03-17-2005 Viewed 34 times I booted machine in Safe mode and ran my adware program.  Several items were quarantined as threats.  I thought I nailed it with that but now it still won't boot completely.  Also seem to be having trouble getting into Safe mode now also.  What does Safe mode do and how is it supposed to work? Thanks, Ken  03-18-2005 12:12 PM    Reply  Re: Dimension L800 Boot Problems Options     KenBaxter Forum Member Posts: 4 Registered: 03-17-2005 Viewed 34 times One other thing, this lights on the back ofthe machine are all green so that should be OK. 03-18-2005 12:13 PM    Reply  Re: Dimension L800 Boot Problems Options     danjane Forum Member Posts: 160 Registered: 11-13-2004 Viewed 21 times  Safe mode loads only the necessary programs to run the system.  It sounds like some of those files are corrupted.  I would try to save what you can and do a reformat and reinstall OS 03-18-2005 08:46 PM    Reply  Re: Dimension L800 Boot Problems Options     KenBaxter Forum Member Posts: 4 Registered: 03-17-2005 Viewed 22 times Thanks Dan,   I am thinking maybe I ought to go for a larger hard drive if I'm going to go to this trouble.  Do you know off hand if the Dimension L800 will take 2 hard drives at the same time or only one?  Is there a limit on the size, speed, etc?   Is it possible to just reinstall Windows ME and not lose anything?   Thanks,  Ken  03-18-2005 09:30 PM      Reply  Re: Dimension L800 Boot Problems   [ NEW ] Options     danjane Forum Member Posts: 160 Registered: 11-13-2004 Viewed 12 times   I dont know much about the L series computers so check your manual.  You can add hd but some times the mb has no other controller slot and you have to add a pci card to do the controlling.  With the OS corrupted you need to do a reformat which will delete all info on the hd.  Be careful with what you put back on the hd after reinstall as anything could have a problem and  you will be in the same boat later 03-19-2005 08:04 AM    Reply  Re: Dimension L800 Boot Problems   [ NEW ] Options     danjane Forum Member Posts: 160 Registered: 11-13-2004 Viewed 8 times Try a post here its the ME software site they might have a better way. http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=sw_winme 03-19-2005 08:14 AM    Reply  Re: Dimension L800 Boot Problems   [ NEW ] Options     shesagordie Forum Regular Posts: 8392 Registered: 11-08-2001 Viewed 6 times KenBaxter. If you have an open 3.5' bay between the floppy and CD/ROM, then you can install a second hard drive in it,you will need to purchase a new 80 wire, three connector cable for the two IDE drives and maybea 'Y' connector for the power supply. Regarding rails, these are not made for the L Series system, as the primary drive is located inside a bracket on the front panel, therefore you will have devise a 'workaround' to hold the drive in place, because Dell did not make provision to add a secondary drive.   It should be noted that Dell uses 'Cable Select' for ATA drives.   You could install an external HD.    As the L Series has USB 1.1 and this would make an external drive operation slow, if you have open PCI slot, then you could install a high speed PCI  USB 2.0 card and connect an external HD to it.  An easier method would be, just replace the exsisting drive with one of larger capacity.   Bev.

KenBaxter · Answer

I installed KB891711 recently (on Sunday 3/13/05) and have had problems with my machine since. I have Windows ME installed on my Dell L800R. This has driven me nuts for over a week. I have been out of my league with this as I'm not a Windows expert by any means. I finally tried booting tonight using the msconfig in the Start, Run window, adding one thing at a time to the Startup. When I hit this one, the machine wouldn't boot completely as it's been doing sine 3/13.

Anybody know what this is supposed to do and if there's a fix out there for Windows ME?

Flooby · Answer

It appears from the thread at the link below that your best bet would be to uncheck KB891711 and leave it unchecked.  There are a number of other comments in this thread, but the one at the link and the next 5 or 6 that follow seem to be the most pertinent, and if I were experiencing the same troubles, unchecking it in msconfig/startup would be exactly how I'd deal with it. http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6132-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=91523&messageID=1034555

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Dimension L800 Boot Problems

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