Hard Drive Diagnostics

Question

I have a Dimension 3100 with a 80gb hard drive.  The PC crashed with the following message  displayed.  'A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer.etc.....'  I then started on the boot menu and tried each of the start options i.e. safe mode, normal, last good configuration etc and i get the same message 'A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down........'   I then tried to boot from the CD rom using a boot disk.  This wne through the process of loading files and then prompted me to continue (pressing enter).  This then resulted in the following mesage being displayed: 'Examining 76294 mb disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi.....'  following which it froze.   I've now ran a Hard Drive diagnostic check (pressing control ALt d at start-up) and after some minutes received the following message;   Hard Drive Diagnostics runnning, please wait... Drive 0:  WDC WD800-75MSA1 - Pass   Does 'Pass' mean that the hard drive is OK.  What should I be doing?   Any advice much appreciated as the PC is two weeks out of warranty!

shesagordie · Answer

spartasparta

Did you run the extended test [read, seek and verify] on the hard drive or did you use the "express" test? The extended test takes about one hour ±.

Pass means that the diagnostics found no errors on the hard drive.

Bev.

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spartasparta · Answer

Bev,   I've just tried again.   After I pressed control,Alt, D the screen says ' Hard Drive Diagnostics running, please wait.....   One minute later it said ; Test Complete, Press to reboot

shesagordie · Answer

spartasparta

That's the express test.

When the Dell logo appears, press F12, a boot device list appears, highlight the "Boot to Utility" partition and press "Enter", then choose the "Extended" test.

Bev.

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Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

zorander1 · Answer

Hi Bev, im having the same probs as this, only i think mine is probably terminal. Im getting all the same blue screens and 'stop' errors but when i tried the hard drive diagnostic it came up 'error code 7'. This happened once before about a year ago. My Windows CD will not boot up and i cant remember the procedure to access my harddrive so that i may wipe/repartition it and then start again from the CD. Can you help? Tony

shesagordie · Answer

zorander1   Tony   Sorry to say, 'Error Code 7' means the drive has failed it's self-test and should be replaced.   Bev.         Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

spartasparta · Answer

It seems that the problem with my hard drive was terminal so I have just replaced it and re-installed the operating system   Next problem!  I now can't get any sound! When I open the 'sounds and audio devices' icon in the control panel the volume control is greyed out and doesn't work.  I've keyed my service tag into the Dell website to see my original configuration and can't see anything about audio so I don't know whether I need to down load drivers.  Any ideas please?

shesagordie · Answer

spartasparta

Yes, you need to install the driver, if you have intergrated sound, the D-3100 Audio Drivers are listed here,

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_3100&os=WW1&osl=EN

Bev.

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Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

shesagordie · Answer

spartasparta

Do you have intergrated sound or a sound card?

Bev.

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spartasparta · Answer

Bev.  Thanks again for your support.    I assumed that all of the drivers I needed would have been on the re-installation discs which Dell sent to me.   Nevertheless, I've followed the link and opened the Audio Drivers.  I didn't know which one I needed so downloaded both.  Still no sound from the dvd/cd player or from the internet.   Incidentally do I need to download a driver for the DVD drive?

shesagordie · Answer

spartasparta

They should be on the Drivers and Utilies CDs.

Yes, you need to download the software for the DVD.

Bev.

===================================================
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Storage, Drives & Media

Hard Drive Diagnostics

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