Lou, I am having the same problem. I hit F1 like 30 times... and on number 31 it "cought" and booted up. Did you ever recieve and direct replys or help from support on this after your posting?
No Adam, I never received an answer. But the result was that my CD/RW was N/G. But I was still under warranty, so a tech came out to my location and relaced it, no charge. If your under warranty, call tech support, no charge.
I have gotten that frightening Secondary Hard Disk Drive 0 and 1 Not Found message about every time that I have opened the case to clean it, to insert a new PCI card, or most recently, to add a Xeon. The CD/DVD drive(s) just disappear. Here is why this is happening, at least in the case of my Precision 530MT workstation. It may apply to other Dells and, for all I know, throughout the world of workstations.
The cable connecting the CD/DVD drive(s) to the motherboard (marked PWBCONN and with an orange pull strip on the socket in my machine) can be loosened when you open the case. It is just long enough to connect the CD/DVD drive(s) to the motherboard -- good. It can be accidentally routed so that part of it passes over the green mounting clips for the drives -- not good. Look near your drives to see if that is happening. If the cable does take a path that is just that silly millimeter longer, opening the case loosens the cable at the motherboard. Just reseat it well and push the cable away from the mounting clips.
But the BIOS will have missed the CD/DVD drive(s) when you booted, which is why you got that frightening message. This is why you have to go through the F2 Dell BIOS Setup (undocumented???) procedure outlined by DLaware (above). That is: (1) Reboot; (2) Press F2 until you get to the gray Setup screen; (3) Put NumLock, CapsLock, and ScrollLock ALL on; (4) Press Alt and F simultaneously; hear a beep; (5) Press Alt and E simultaneously, hear delayed beep; (6) Press ESC to finish; and (7) press Enter to Save Changes and Exit from Setup. Your machine will now reboot and do an Automatic IDE Configuration. You ought to see a message about a Master device and, if you have a second drive, a Slave device. Your CD/DVD drives are now restored. If you don't see that message, it may be that the cable is not yet properly seated. You may have to press F1 to Try Reboot again to get this to work, or it may work the first reboot.
But another scary thing usually happens to me when I do this: I lose the hard drive(s). Not good. Go back into Setup (F2) and scroll down to Legacy devices. Press Enter. Near the top of the list on the pop-up screen you will see SCSI Controller. When I lose my hard drive, that is set to OFF. Scroll down to SCSI Controller, press an arrow key to change it to ON, and press Enter. Then ESC and Enter to Save Changes and Exit to reboot. Now your CD/DVD drive(s) and hard drive(s) should be available. I don't know why the IDE Configuration utility is doing this to the SCSI Controller, but I suspect that it is.
Incidentally, while in the BIOS, it is a very good idea not to change anything else unless you absolutely, positively know what you are doing.
All this Setup stuff can be avoided if when you open the case, you have the machine turned off and you check that opening the case did not loosen the IDE cable (or any other cable, for that matter). A good practice is to check all cables when the case is open. Just don't short anything out with static electricity while you are doing that (ground yourself).
adoti
2 Posts
0
September 1st, 2003 14:00
Lou, I am having the same problem. I hit F1 like 30 times... and on number 31 it "cought" and booted up. Did you ever recieve and direct replys or help from support on this after your posting?
-Adam
k9konnect
4 Posts
0
September 1st, 2003 17:00
No Adam, I never received an answer. But the result was that my CD/RW was N/G. But I was still under warranty, so a tech came out to my location and relaced it, no charge. If your under warranty, call tech support, no charge.
Lou
DLaware
4 Posts
0
February 12th, 2004 02:00
A QUICK FIX: Here's what worked for me (I don't know if it will work for you!):
1. Reboot
2. Hit F2 continuously until you see the gray Dell "menu"
3. Make sure Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock are all ON (lights are lit)
4. Hit the Alt key and the F key simultaneously
5. Hit the Alt key and the E key simultaneously
6. Hit Esc
7. Choose "Save changes and Exit"
Obviously, this doesn't tell you WHY it happened, nor HOW to prevent it from happening again -- sorry, that I don't know...
TollandRCR
3 Posts
0
March 14th, 2004 15:00
I have gotten that frightening Secondary Hard Disk Drive 0 and 1 Not Found message about every time that I have opened the case to clean it, to insert a new PCI card, or most recently, to add a Xeon. The CD/DVD drive(s) just disappear. Here is why this is happening, at least in the case of my Precision 530MT workstation. It may apply to other Dells and, for all I know, throughout the world of workstations.
The cable connecting the CD/DVD drive(s) to the motherboard (marked PWBCONN and with an orange pull strip on the socket in my machine) can be loosened when you open the case. It is just long enough to connect the CD/DVD drive(s) to the motherboard -- good. It can be accidentally routed so that part of it passes over the green mounting clips for the drives -- not good. Look near your drives to see if that is happening. If the cable does take a path that is just that silly millimeter longer, opening the case loosens the cable at the motherboard. Just reseat it well and push the cable away from the mounting clips.
But the BIOS will have missed the CD/DVD drive(s) when you booted, which is why you got that frightening message. This is why you have to go through the F2 Dell BIOS Setup (undocumented???) procedure outlined by DLaware (above). That is: (1) Reboot; (2) Press F2 until you get to the gray Setup screen; (3) Put NumLock, CapsLock, and ScrollLock ALL on; (4) Press Alt and F simultaneously; hear a beep; (5) Press Alt and E simultaneously, hear delayed beep; (6) Press ESC to finish; and (7) press Enter to Save Changes and Exit from Setup. Your machine will now reboot and do an Automatic IDE Configuration. You ought to see a message about a Master device and, if you have a second drive, a Slave device. Your CD/DVD drives are now restored. If you don't see that message, it may be that the cable is not yet properly seated. You may have to press F1 to Try Reboot again to get this to work, or it may work the first reboot.
But another scary thing usually happens to me when I do this: I lose the hard drive(s). Not good. Go back into Setup (F2) and scroll down to Legacy devices. Press Enter. Near the top of the list on the pop-up screen you will see SCSI Controller. When I lose my hard drive, that is set to OFF. Scroll down to SCSI Controller, press an arrow key to change it to ON, and press Enter. Then ESC and Enter to Save Changes and Exit to reboot. Now your CD/DVD drive(s) and hard drive(s) should be available. I don't know why the IDE Configuration utility is doing this to the SCSI Controller, but I suspect that it is.
All this Setup stuff can be avoided if when you open the case, you have the machine turned off and you check that opening the case did not loosen the IDE cable (or any other cable, for that matter). A good practice is to check all cables when the case is open. Just don't short anything out with static electricity while you are doing that (ground yourself).
k9konnect
4 Posts
0
March 14th, 2004 15:00
Message Edited by k9konnect on 03-14-2004 11:55 AM