Iteach,

 

Start the system using a DOS disk or use the F8 key at startup to choose the option to start in MS DOS mode.  Once you have arrived at a C:\> prompt or C:\Windows> prompt, type in Scandisk to run it from a true DOS prompt.

 

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for the reply.  I cannot get past the screen which requires "delete" to Resume which gives me a blank black screen with a flashing cursor.  At this point I have green lights on ABCD.

Larry

lleach123,

 

The ABCD lights being green indicate that the system has completed POST and has passed control over to the operating system.  It appears that the OS has become corrupted or the hard drive may have gone south.  If you have the Resource CD or Windows CD, you can verify that the system can at least load an OS by booting to the Resource CD or to the Windows CD.  If not, you can make a boot diskette from the file located at this link:

 

http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?cat=sup&subcat=dyd&c=us&l=en&s=gen&k=CDENABv2.exe

 

Try booting to something other than the hard drive to help isolate the problem. 

 

Steve

Steve,

Thanks again.  I used  a floppy to boot up into MSDos and ran Scandisk from the disk.  This time it scans to 39% then stops.  I get a message ".......encountered data error while reading the FAT on drive C.  I can read the C Dir, but Windows will not open.  Is there a definitive test to determine if the  HD is toasted ?

Larry

lleach123,

 

The hard drive may be OK, but the table of contents (FAT / File Allocation Table) has apparently been corrupted.  On your Resource CD (approx version 3.11), there should be a folder called HDDUTIL.  There are several diagnostic utilities in that folder tailored to specific brands of hard drives.  You can check in your system BIOS to determine what brand of hard drive is installed in your system and run that particular diagnostic.  You can also download the Dell 32 bit diagnostic program for your model of system from this link:

 

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&deviceid=196&libid=13&releaseid=R37400&vercnt=4&formatcnt=0&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P3C_4100&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=-1&impid=-1

 

You can run hard drive diagnostics using this diagnostic utility.

 

Steve