blinking cursor during boot

so I'm finally getting time to continue to try to use my DELL PC.

but so far no luck.

I have executed the BIOS reset per the suggestion in a previous post.

"Try resetting BIOS to factory defaults by removing the motherboard battery, pressing/holding power button for ~30 sec and then reinstalling the battery (right-side-up!)." I did install a new battery.

the original harddrive (160 gb) has been installed in another PC and formatted and chkdsk run successfully using the Gateway PC.

I also have another old harddrive (30 gb) that I deinstalled from an old Gateway PC.

I also formatted it and chkdsk run successfully using the Gateway PC..

Both have been installed in the DELL PC.

160 gb as the Master and 30 gb as a slave.

30 gb as the Master and 160 gb as a slave.

160 gb by itself.

30 gb by itself.

every thing I try results in the following:

strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

F2 takes me to the setup displan.

F1 does retry to boot.

I have also changed the boot sequence to try to boot from the CD drive 1st with my Windows XP os CD installed.

I get the DELL splash display with the F2 and F12 options with the same result.

it seems to me that since I have tried to use 2 different harddrives that my problem isn't a harddrive problem.

but as I have said previously, I'm not very technical and appreciate any additional suggestions from this forum.

I have the jumpers set for cable select.

Hard drives have to be jumpered for CABLE SELECT in Dell PCs, not to Master/Slave!!

What color are the 4 diagnostic LEDs on rear of the tower when you get the blinking cursor. If not all green, look up error codes here.

Failed optical drive ??

I'm now confident that I do not have a harddrive problem.

I've tried using Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98 and Windows 54 os CDs.

What other hardware problems could be keeping me from being able to boot using Windows oc CDs?

I unplugged the CDs cable from the motherboard and plugged it back in.

I unpludded cable for both of the CD drives and plugged them back in.

I noticed that I was getting 2 beeps which suggests that the memory modules be reseated which I did.

NO LUCK....

I have 2 CD drives.

I need to check the cabling per Ron's reply.

hmmmmm, interesting....

A, B, C are green

D is yellow

I looked up the codes and found this combination to be:

"Ensure that the cables are properly connected from the hard drive, CD drive, and DVD drive to the system board."

so now I'll check the cabling of the CD drives.

the harddrives cabling are OK per my testing. I was able to write all zeros to both drives using the DELL PC.

I'm back from a weekend mini-vacation.

Here's the latest results of my attempts to get my DELL PC running.

I followed Ron's suggestions (THANKS Ron) and finally got the DELL to try to boot using the WinXP os CD.

4 green lights and NO beeps.

I had a spare harddrive ribbon cable and switched cables

I pretty sure that I don't have an optical drive problem with either of them.

The latest problem is that the Windows SETUP process seems to be caught in a "loop" and repeats itself and never completes.

Interestly enough, when I remove the os CD and try to boot from the harddrive the 3 green/1 yellow lights and 2 beeps returns.

I seem to be inching my way toward a resolution but I'm not there yet.

Given this latest info, any more suggestions????

What version of XP is on the CD? Home, Pro, or MCE and which Service Pack, SP1, SP2, or SP3?

If it boots with 4 green LEDs from the OS CD without beeps but not from the hard drive, that sounds to me like something is wrong either with the hard drive or maybe with the IDE drive controller on the motherboard.

Can I assume you only have one IDE optical drive which is NOT a DVD drive connected to the end of the ribbon cable on the 2nd IDE channel and the boot hard drive is the only drive on the primary IDE channel and is connected to the end of that IDE ribbon?  Both jumpered for Cable Select.

If you only have boot hard drive on primary IDE and one optical drive on secondary IDE, go into BIOS setup and make sure Primary Drive 0 and Secondary Drive 0 are both set to AUTO, and Primary Drive 1 and Secondary Drive 1 are both set to OFF. And confirm that the IDE Interface option is set to AUTO.

WinXP Pro SP2

I have disconnected the 2nd optical drive and the 2nd harddrive from the ribbon cables.

I believe the optical drive (HT-DT-ST GCE-8400B) is a CD drive and not a DVD/CD drive but I'm not sure.

They are both connected to the end plugs of the 2 ribbon cables.

Setup shows the harddrive as Primary Master 0 amd the CD drive a Secondary Master 0.

Both are set to AUTO.

The other harddrive and CD drive show as OFF in Setup.

The IDE interface is set to AUTO in setup.

more info:

when setup repeats, it recognizes that Windows is already on the partition with a warning that installing multiple copies is not recommended.

there are only 2 options: ENTER to continue or F3 to Quit.

F3 results in a reboot and repeating the setup process (if the os CD remains in the optical drive) or 3 green/1 yellow and 2 beeps if the os CD is removed from the optical drive.

BTW, the setup process displays in blue screen format which seems strange.

Running out of ideas here.  

Have you disconnected all peripherals, including network cable, leaving only mouse, monitor and keyboard connected?

Have you ever used this XP CD before? Don't you get to this "Welcome" screen when you boot from the CD, after a screen which asks if you want to install other drivers (you don't) ?

You should press Enter at this screen so you do a repair on subsequent screens

Have you disconnected all peripherals, including network cable, leaving only mouse, monitor and keyboard connected?

YES

Have you ever used this XP CD before?

YES

Don't you get to this "Welcome" screen when you boot from the CD, after a screen which asks if you want to install other drivers (you don't) ?

YES I get the welcome blue screen. I have not seen an option to install "other drivers".

I have done a Recovery Console repair:

chkdsk /p (no disk problems reported)

bootcfg /rebuild

fixboot

I have switched the RAM between the two positions. There is no indication that I have a memory problem.

same results....

Are there other Recovery Console command I should run?

Have you disconnected all peripherals, including network cable, leaving only mouse, monitor and keyboard connected?

YES

Have you ever used this XP CD before?

YES

Don't you get to this "Welcome" screen when you boot from the CD, after a screen which asks if you want to install other drivers (you don't) ?

YES I get the welcome blue screen. I have not seen an option to install "other drivers".

I have done a Recovery Console repair:

chkdsk /p (no disk problems reported)

bootcfg /rebuild

fixboot

I have switched the RAM between the two positions. There is no indication that I have a memory problem.

same results....

Are there other Recovery Console command I should run?