UNSOLVED
Dimension 4100 Diagnostic CD won't work
I have a Dell Dimension 4100 with Windows ME. If I get it working I am getting rid of ME! Sat. morning the Karmon speakers were making noise & the computer was off. When I turned the computer on scan reg came up but would not run. I ended up having to restart the computer. However, I got a message telling me that my registry was corrupted. I managed to get in the StartUp Menu and make the CDROM the first device. When I put the diagnostic CD in, a bunch of stuff comes up and then the DOS setup. When I type in delldiag like I'm told to do I get the Dell Diagnostics Menu
[1] Dell Dimension 32-Bit Diagnostics
[2[ EXIT
Please Enter Selection
When I enter 1 I get a message saying Entered value must be between 1 & 9. Please try again. I checked Cap Lock and they weren't on. I checked Numlock and it was not locked, I tried the keyboard both with the top numbers and the numbers on the side, and it still came up with the message that the entered value must be between 1 & 9. When I hold the 1 down it says directory not valid. Any ideas. Could a bad sound card be causing this? Is my computer finally doomed? What would happen if I tried to reinstall Windows. I don't really have anything important to lose. My son will loose his music, but oh well.
Thank you for any insight on this.
177
0
Posted August 17th, 2005 21:00
CherAnn,
In the link I provided start with step 2, since you are at a MS-DOS prompt. That is:
2. At the MS-DOS prompt, type cd\windows\command, and then press ENTER. Where windows is the name of the folder in which Windows is installed.
3. At the C: prompt, type scanreg /restore, and then press ENTER. (Note that there is a space after scanreg.)
4. Select the previous registry you want to restore, and then press ENTER.NOTE: A properly working registry has the word "Started" next to the date.
5. When you receive notification that you restored a properly working registry, press ENTER to restart your computer. 2. At the MS-DOS prompt, type cd\windows\command, and then press ENTER. Where windows is the name of the folder in which Windows is installed.
177
0
Posted August 17th, 2005 21:00
As far as I can tell, I don't have a Windows Me startup disc. I'll I have is the Dimension ResourceCD & Reinstallation CD WMe . Any other ideas? Thanks177
0
Posted August 17th, 2005 21:00
Right now when I turn the computer on it comes up with the DOS prompt.
A:\>_ Is there anything I can enter at this point to get to the registry or to do a scan reg of the C Drive?
177
0
Posted August 18th, 2005 12:00
I get an invalid directory message when I do this.Currently, I am trying to find someone who has windows Me to see if the have a startup disk. If I don't find one - I'm wondering - do you think I could just try reinstalling windows - or would this mess things up more?Thanks.177
0
Posted August 19th, 2005 00:00
So - do I just download this to another computer, save it to a CD-ROM and then try it on my bad computer?177
0
Posted August 19th, 2005 01:00
CherAnn,
Download it, save it to a floppy diskette. Place the diskette in the bad computer and restart. This will get you to a DOS prompt which may allow you to restore the registry.
177
0
Posted August 20th, 2005 23:00
That's Not Enough, I Want to Do More
Sometimes, even the startup disk won't get Windows Me back. But it should get you to MS-DOS, which is the operating system Windows Me uses. This is not good, and it means that you'll need to reinstall Windows Me. First you need to save your files to floppies or to a Zip disk, which you can do from MS-DOS. Using MS-DOS commands is beyond the scope of this book, and they can be pretty frustrating if you've never used them before. What I want you to do is call a friend with lots of computing experience, or call Microsoft technical support and get them to walk you through the process.Would someone on this site be able to help me?I have tried typing cd\windows\command at the DOS prompt (A:\>) and I get one of 2 messages:CDR101: Not ready reading drive EorInvalid directoryIs this because my startup disc is on Floppy & not on a CD? Thank you.141
0
Posted August 21st, 2005 01:00
CherAnn,
What are you trying to do? You cannot change directories to windows\command from the A:\> prompt because there is no such directory on the diskette. If you want to access the windows\command subdirectory at the A:\> prompt type c: and . At the C:\> prompt type cd windows\command and . This will get you to a C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND> prompt.
Message Edited by Denny Denham on 08-20-2005 07:24 PM
Denny Denham
2 Intern
•
18798 Posts
177
0
Posted August 17th, 2005 01:00
See if the procedure here will help.