Dimension E510 Floppy Disk Seek Failure

Just to add I do have Webroot Virus protection. Could it be a possible virus?

Hi Rajath! Thank you! I changed the diskette drive field to "off".

How do I change the order of the boot? Do I delete number 1? Seems like that is the only option unless I can move them up and down somehow.

Reboot and press F2 before Windows starts to load to  open BIOS setup. Look for the Diskette Drive option and set it to OFF. Save the change and exit setup. That will stop the floppy seek error you're getting.

Note: I am assuming you don't have an internal floppy drive in this system...

 EDIT: Rajath types faster than I do! :emotion-2:

Hi Nicci,

Replacing the CMOS battery will reset the BIOS settings to the default settings. I suggest you to change the boot order and select the Onboard SATA Hard Drive as the first boot device using the Left and Right arrow keys.

Click on "Drives" and set the option to "Off" under Diskette Drive field. This will disable all the Floppy Drives and will directly boot from the hard drive.  Press "Esc" and select Save and Exit.Webroot Virus Protection is a security software and not a virus.

Please let me know if you need further assistance.

HI Ron, no I don't have a floppy drive. I changed the floppy drive to off and pressed enter. It went gray and then I clicked escape. I shut the computer off and got the same floppy message. So I went back to drive and it was back to Internal. Do I need to do something else to get "off" to stick? Thanks!

Signed,

Very "inside" computer illiterate!

Hi Nicci,

Thank you for your reply and for providing an update on the status. Please delete the first option, if it is the only option available. It seems that the BIOS settings are reset when the system is restarted. This happens if the CMOS battery does not work or if there is an issue with the motherboard. To confirm, this please check if the data/time is set properly in the BIOS.

Please let me know about your findings.

The date was incorrect before I made changes but I changed the date and time did all changes and it stayed this time. I got to the place where it said save/exit. I didn't see that before. I rebooted it went to the dell splash screen and then black again. So I rebooted again and hit F2 and everything stayed changed. Anything else I can try? I really hoping it is not the mother board. If it is can my files be recovered if I don't replace the mother board?

The E510/5150 had power supply issues: one of my relatives has a 5150 and the power supply started failing in 2011, and a new Cooler Master 460-watt fixed them.

I was able to run a hard drive diagnostic test and this is the result

Drive 0: Maxtor 6L080M0 - Pass

Drive 1: No device

Drive 2: Sony DVD-Rom DDu1615 - Diagnostics not supported

Drive 3: Sony CD-RW CRX217E -  Diagnostics not supported

What color is the power button when it won't boot? And is the button steady or blinking?

What color are the 4 diagnostic LEDs on the front panel? Do all 4 turn solid green or is there a different pattern?

What version of Windows?

Reboot and press F8 before Windows starts to load. Choose "Safe Mode with Networking" from the menu. Does it boot to the "Safe Mode desktop"?

Does any of that help?

power button was green and solid, The diagnostics are actually 1, 2, and 3 and were green. I have Windows XP.

I did the F8 thing above and have a whole page of Multi disk (0) RDisk (0) Partition with stuff at the end. It took up the whole screen and not doing anything. Can we post pictures here? I was going to take a pic of the screen.

Oh when I ran the F8 test the diagnostic lights went out. :(

Oh, when I did the F8 test the diagnostic lights went out :(

If the diagnostic LEDs are 1G-2G-3G when you try to boot normally, then you have some sort of hardware issue.

So lets start with this: Power off, unplug and press/hold power button for ~15 sec. Disconnect all peripherals, except mouse, monitor and keyboard. Reconnect PC to the wall and see if it boots now.

If it still won't boot, try this:

1. Reboot and press F2 to open BIOS Setup
2. Use arrow keys to move up/down to look for Boot Sequence
3. Use arrow keys to highlight Boot Sequence and press to access the menu
4. Press the up- and down-arrow keys to move through the list of devices
5. Press the spacebar to enable or disable a device (enabled devices have a checkmark).
6. Press plus (+) or minus (–) to move a selected device up or down the list.
7. Move the hard drive to top of the list
8. Disable (uncheck) everything except your boot hard drive
9. When you're done, save the changes and exit setup
10. Does it boot now?

BTW: What you saw when trying Safe Mode from F8 menu was normal, except it froze because there's a hardware issue.

 EDITED