Boot error- Dimension 4600, pls help.

Question

Hi, I'm new here and hoping someone can help. I have a Dimension 4600 with bios A08 and when I power it up, the error 'strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility' comes up and I can get pass it no matter what I do in the setup utilty. and I noticed the diagonostic lights at the back has green on A,B,C and yellow on D which in the manual says: ther failure has occurred (something to do with cables connection from the HDD,CD,DVD drive to system board). The only recent thing I did was connect the 4-pin cable from the DVD drive to the CD-in slot on the soundcard. I can see the cable for CD-SPDIF is also connected. Removing either or both of these cables doesn't fix the boot error. Any help on this issue would be gretly appreciated.

dbramlet · Answer

Something simple to check first. Many times when one works inside a computer they will accidentally bump the HD cable or memory un-seating it. Go back inside and reseat the HD cable at the MB and on the drive. Best to pull the cable and re-seat it. May as well reseat the memory also but with no error beeps I imagine it is ok.

07RS4 · Answer

Thanks for the tips. I did that and it was still the same but then I thought to unplug the power cord and tried again after 30 seconds or so and hehold...it booted up with auto IDE config thing then asked me to go into the bios to set up time and date and it worked! What was wrong is still a mystery but it works now. Thanks again. p.s: The other thing when it hang at boot error, there were 2 beeps...does that mean anything?

Message Edited by 07RS4 on 11-13-2007 11:54 AM

dbramlet · Answer

Usually when you get beeps you get like 3 and sometimes short beeps with like 1 long beep. There probably is a normal system beep like most computers have. Not sure about 2 beeps only but if the diagnostic lights are all ok and it boots then I wouldn't worry about the beeps unless there is a problem.

it_student07 · Answer

ok tell this being i had 2400 that did the same & i fixed that but what i cant figure out y my 4600 wont start at all i have the flea light working but i have video on my 2400 i had no video till i changed the memory & it picedk up the strike f1 & f2 key till i turned off the extra drive spots & it works like a charm i just cant get the 4600 to boot tho

it_student07 · Answer

ok heres what your problem is i assume u have just the one harddr ive right ? if u do & i notice that your having the strike f1 & f2 key u need to go into the bios & shut off the extra drive hook ups such as the secondary drive drive 1 & primary drive 0 & it should read just the cd rom & hard drive

Storage, Drives & Media

Boot error- Dimension 4600, pls help.

Was this post helpful?