Dear John/Jeff,

 

Sorry, I forgot to put that info in!  I have a 16XDVD+/-RW with Dual Layer Write Capabilities.  I went into Local Disk (C)>Hardware>CD/DVD Rom>General and it has HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GWA 4164B and in the Device Status window it says "working properly".  I just received the Installation Disk from Dell today and tried the sfc /scannow again, and again it asked for the CD to be inserted in answer to the message "Files that are required for Windows to run properly must be copied to DLL Cache.  Insert WindowsXP Professional CD2 now...".  The replacement Disk from Dell is a DVD, the same as I already have, and so consequently, I get the same message after I put the disk in..."The CD you have provided is the wrong CD.  Please insert WindowsXP Professional CD2 into CD Rom drive"!  I have come full circle, I think!

In answer to your warranty query, no it is not still under warranty.  I got this computer from Dell in March last year and so the warranty ran out 6 months ago.  Since I haven't put a DVD in before, only CDs, I wasn't aware of a problem until now.  CDs play ok.

 

Regards, Kaz

The error seems to indicate a problem with the drive itself. The USB device initialization issue is unrelated and probably doesn't mean anything.

 

What DVD drive do you have? Is your system still under warranty?

Hi Guys!

 

I have already done the diagnostic tests and followed the instructions from page 56 in my manual.  However, I did do them again and did the Express Test instead of the Custom Test and came up with Error 0F00:136C, IDE DEVICE FAILED: Blank media or no media is present in optical drive.  Test requires media with digital data (Resource CD, Installation CD).

Any more ideas, guys!

Kazza

Kazza:

 

If your XP disc was in the drive ( as I instructed above), then your drive has failed.

 

If you forgot to put the disc in the drive, try again.

Yes, thanks for that.  The drive has failed then because I did have the XP disk in both times when I did the test.  So what exactly does that mean I have to do now?  Do I have to take this drive out, buy a new one and install it?  If so, what would you recommend for my system, a Dimension 9150?

Thankyou for your replies too!

Kazza..

 

Just so I'm sure this is the right way to go, your XP disc is a CD-ROM disc, not a DVD-ROM disc, correct?

No, it isn't a CD Rom!  That's what I mean!  It's a DVD and that's what won't play in the driver.  The CDs play ok and that is what I thought Dell was going to do when they said they would send me out another one.  I thought they were sending the same info out but in CD format rather than DVD.  However, they have sent me another DVD and so that one won't play either.  I tried booting up from the DVD and after the black screen comes up with the Windows logo and the blue bars passing along from left to right, the screen just goes black with the cursor arrow flickering in the center and a little disk comes up periodically on the screen.  There is a lot of noise activity coming from the driver, but nothing comes up on the screen until I eject the disk and then the Windows welcome comes up and the system continues to boot up as normal.  Quite bizarre!

Thanks!

Kazza..

Run the diagnostic using a data CD-ROM disc in the drive. If that passes, then try booting using your XP disc (set the DVD drive as your first boot device in the BIOS).

Will try doing as you suggested but I may need a little guidance as to how to set the DVD as my first boot device in the BIOS!    I'm relatively new to all this computer diagnostic stuff and don't want to mess with my BIOS unless I am absolutely sure that I know what I am doing!  I know that you guys are so if you can give me instructions, I will do it step by step according to your directions.  Many thanks for your time with all this....you have the patience of a saint!

Kazza..   :smileywink: 

Ok..here are some facts for you that I am sure will make more sense to you than to me.  Have been into the F2 Setup pages, but did NOT change any of them yet until I hear from you.  This is what I found:

 

DELL SYSTEM DXPO51

 

Boot Sequence is as follows-

1. Onboard or USB Floppy..(not present)

2. Onboard SATA hard drive

3. Onboard IDE hard drive..(not present)

4. Onboard or USB CD-Rom drive

5. USB device..(not present)

 

Drives-

Diskette drive set to USB

Drive 0: SATA-0 is ON

Drive 1: SATA-1 is OFF

Drive 2: SATA-2 is ON

Drive 3: SATA 3 is OFF

Drive 4: PATA-0 is ON.........(is this the one causing all my troubles!??)

Drive 5: PATA-1 is OFF

 

Onboard Devices-

Integrated NIC is ON

Integrated AUDIO is ON

USB Controller is ON

 

Have also done the Diagnostics Test (Express) with CD-Rom in the drive and all systems passed ok.  I do recall now that I have used a DVD in the drive before as I checked some of the games I have and I have both DVDs and CDs amongst them, and have played both of them.  Tried again today to play one of them and had the same result with the computer telling me to put the CD in the driver when it already was in there.  With the CD Rom, I can hear the disk humming as it is being 'read', whereas if I put in a DVD there is just spasmodic clunking sounds and I don't hear the 'spinning' noise of the disk being 'read'.  Then the 'insert CD into the drive' message comes up.  I am curious why the messages are fairly specific in regards to saying 'CD'.  It never says CD/DVD or, for that matter, never says DVD at all.  Is there some logic here?  Am I looking things into it that I shouldn't be?!

 

I hope this can give you some insights into what may be wrong.  Obviously it did work once!  Many thanks!

 

Kazza   :smileysad:

Uh-oh.  Since I sent you that last post, I have yet another development (sigh!).  When I turn everything on, before the bootup is complete, I am now getting a message on a black screen saying:

"Drive 2 not found: Serial ATA, SATA-2"!  Yikes...now what?  I have the choice of pressing F1 to continue, or F2 to go back to setup.  Checked the latter first and Drive 2 is still set to ON, so just going with the F1 for now.  Bootup continues as normal with this one (till next time!).  Won't do anything further until I get your advice.

Forgot to mention that SATA Operation is set to: RAID Autodetect/AHC1 as well.

Cheers,

Kazza..

SATA refers to your hard drives. Do you have one drive or two?

Yes, I did, and it came up all ok...no problems found.

Kazza..