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tommyo1954 wrote:

Hi friends...  I decided to take the 4700 out of the closet to reinstall Windows XP. It was fragmented with bits and pieces of McAfee files, and it was due for a fresh start anyways.  Last month I reinstalled XP on this E-510, and all went well and I encountered no problems. But I am having one heck of a time with the 4700.

I tried to reinstall 6 times now...  and and I am not successful at all. Here's what I am doing; I hope someone can spot something I'm doing wrong...

I changed the boot sequence to boot from the CD rom device. I rebooted with the Dell XP reinstall disc in the drive, and upon reboot it does boot to the disc without problems. So I go through with the reinstall..... First I deleted the present C drive, then I try the new reinstall on the C drive. All goes well, and after about 35 minutes, it appears that I have successfully reinstalled. (I choose the quick method..) So after the initial setup like giving the computer a name, and the rest of the normal reinstall things, all appears well and there are no problems yet.

But, then I take the reinstall disc out of the drive, and reboot my computer. But I get a black screen saying "no boot device available..strike F-1to retry boot; or F-2 for setup utility".  Retry's do not work, and the F-2 takes me to the blue screen with all the computer info. So I go to the Boot Sequence to see what the order is...   this is what it says........

1.  onboard or USB  CD-Rom drive

2.  onboard or USB floppy drive

(no number for this..)  SATA hard drive

(no number for this one too)  onboard IDE hard drive  (not present)

(no number for this neither)  USB device     (not present)

 

What I have been trying here.......    the very first thing that I did was to install the chipset drivers; then the video...network...modem.. and all the drivers.  Now on the next reboot, it goes to that black screen saying "no boot device available"..

 

Can someone shed some light on this for me please? It seems like I am missing something somewhere, but I cannot spot what I'm doing wrong here. Any assistance would be most appreciated (before I sprout more gray hairs; I have too many now, lol)

Thanks so much....

 

Tommy:smileyhappy:

 

EDIT>>  Since I typed the above this morning, I have attempted the reinstall at least 5 more times without success. I ran the hard drive diagnostics and the Western Digital hard drive passed.  It seems as though the hard drive is invisible; for lack of better wording... Everytime I attempt a reinstall, all appears perfect....the process takes about 40 minutes and seems to go through perfectly. I have read, and re-read so many tutorials now... I can't figure out what I am doing wrong here. After the reinstall, the hard drive cannot be found for some reason. Upon next reboot, the black screen pops up "no boot device available".  I have a hunch the this 4700 will be going back into the closet for eternal rest. lol.......     At least I have this E-510 and it is working beautifully. I would however, like to know what I'm doing wrong with the 4700..

 

Anyone ??????

 

I don't see where you said you hit F6 and installed the SATA drivers...

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tommyo1954 wrote:

Hi guys; many thanks for replying.  The computer was stored for two months....  it was working like a champ two months ago; I used it merely for extra storage. Then I got rid of McAfee because they are now forcing a hefty security package which I didn/t want. I since installed AVG anti-virus and all was wprking well.  Before I put the 4700 away, I knew I would soon be doing a new reinstall; not because of any problems, but merely to just start from scratch brand new.  So yesterday, I copied my important files over to this E-510. (it ran excellent yeaterday too)  So last night I decided to reinstall, and that's when I had problems...

I guess I should have not tried to fix what was not broken.......

 

RAID drivers.....    You know, I always see that option to hit F-6, but I didn't think it pertained to my 4700....  I don't even know what RAID is, or where to begin to find a RAID driver.  This is the very first I've ever heard of RAID.

 

Diagnostics ......     The hard drive diagnostic test reported it to be good...    BUT ....   I might have just gotten a clue here.  For the heck of it, I looked at those four lights in the back of the tower. (letters A,B,C. and D.)   During the XP reinstall, all four are green. But when it comes to that part for the reboot, the pc reboots but goes to that black screen. It also beeps twice when it black screens.  I looked at those four letters in back, and A,B,C  are green.  D is orange.  I don't know if that has anything to do with this problem... I've never had the opportunity or need to troubleshoot those four letters before.  Perhaps that is a clue ?????

 

That's the latest here....    Thank you again for helping me with this...

 

Click on Technical Support tab above, then Manuals.  It's the "Other" error.