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pgb

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pgb

35 Posts

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9402

November 19th, 2007 02:00

DELL Diagnostics

I have recently been experiencing a lot of Exception and fatal exception
errors and troub le starting/booting the system.  I can always start in Safe Mode
.  I have used some troubleshooting procedures provided by
Microsoft for these type problems but have not been able to correct the problem.
I tried using the Dell Diagnostics today but am having trouble getting the Diagnostics started.
I am using the the Dell Reference and Troubleshooting Guide, the Dell Dimension Resource CD and the Microsoft Boot Disk.
When the a: prompt appears to enter the designation for the CD-ROM drive, I enter d for the drive
I am using.  I get a response saying INVALID COMMAND. Just to be sure that no mixup in drive
id  also entered e for my other drive and got same response.
 
Must be something very simple that i'm missing but I can't get it.
 
Any help will be apprecciated.
 
XPS T700
256 memory
19gb hard drive
Windows 98SE
Thanks
  • M

    mombodog

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    Posted November 19th, 2007 03:00

    Use   D:       d colon,     if there is no cd in the drive you get "the device is not ready" message
     
    Dos will usually mount the cdrom as E, and F if you have 2 but not always, so try D:  E:  F:
     
     
    To run the diagnostics from the CD, try and boot from the Resource CD.
  • M

    mombodog

    2 Intern

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    Posted November 19th, 2007 03:00

    did you use the drive letter and colon?   E: 
     
    Use the   map    command to list all the drives present.
     
    It is easier to boot from the resource CD to run the diagnostics
     
    I am not sure what boot disk you are using, but some older ones do not have cdrom support.
    Here is a Dell utility to make one with cdrom support
  • P

    pgb

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    Posted November 19th, 2007 03:00

    This is a correction to my first post.  WWhen I enter the letter designation for
    the CD drive the program responds with "Bad Command or File Name"
    instead of Invalid Command.
  • P

    pgb

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    Posted November 19th, 2007 05:00

    Thanks mombodog.
    I knew it was something simple, I failed to include the colon.  It recognized the
    d:
    I ran full tests on all devices and all passed.
     
    the diagnostics loaded ok by using both the Microsoft Boot Disk and the
    Dell Resource CD.  The CD would not load without using the Boot Disk.
     
    I am going to post another message tomorrow to see if you or others
    may have suggestions about what I can do further to try and repair
    the problem.
     
    Thanks again. 
  • P

    pgb

    35 Posts

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    Posted November 19th, 2007 18:00

    I would appreciate some suggestions for helping me to resolve problems
    indicated in my original message.
     
    The Exception and Fatal exception errors are very random and seldom
    occur at same location.  I have searched them through Google, Microsoft
    and Dell and never find any matches to explain reason for errors.
    Most of these occur during shutdown and restarts.
    although I get some when system is running for no particular reason that I can determine
    During Restarts I
     
    get Windows Protection Errors.  You need to restart your computer.  Some times it will provide
    additional info such as Windows Protection error while initializing device IOS.
     
    I have ran anti-virus pgm several times, Lavasoft, Spybot Search & Destroy.  Also the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Problems for troubleshooting problems.
     
    In researching these problems on Internet I see that numerous programs are available that claim
    to fix these type problems.  I downloaded a free version of 2 of these and both indicated 3 or 4 hndred
    problems. I haven't purchasedd the full version to actually correct the identified problems.
    I did use CCCLEANER and deleted a few files that were indicated to be no longer in use, duplications
    etc.
     
    What to you think about these pgms that  claim to fix Registry problems, 0028 errors and guarantee
    to fix your system.
     
    Any suggestions will be appreciated.
     
    XPS T700
    20GB hard drive
    256 memory
    Windows 98SE
    AT&T DSL
     
     
     

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