"Primary Hard Drive not Found"

[jbbrown211]

If my computer has been powered down for any period of time, when I go start up it stays on the Dell startup screen for about 45 seconds, beeps twice, then a get a black screen that says Primary Hard Drive not found. It gives me some options as far as running diagnostics,etc but none of them respond when I hit the requested key. If I manually push the power button to tturn the computer off, then start it right back up, it starts up fine. This has been happening for quite some time. I have a Dell and the 2 calls I made when this first started didn't help me out at all. They had me disconnect & reconnect the cables from the hard drive to the mobo. Any thoughts?

[njskatchmo]

They actually made you do that? Opening proprieatary computers, usually voids the warranty. As for the problem, check the slave settings, bios settings, try swithcing which ide channel the HDD is on.

[jbbrown211]

Any chance of walking me through how to get to that point. Although I am trying to become more familiar, I've never gone into the BIOS, or played with any of the settings you are talking about. I'm going to build my next computer so I can become more familiar with everything.

[njskatchmo]

K sometimes during the post (when all teh information when it first boots up) comes up it shoudl say somethign like press delete to enter setup. Find then and hit that button. There you should get a big menu. Make sure the boot sequence is somethign like this. Floppy, HDD, CD-rom. There are other advanced features that you can look through and if any of them catch your eye post them here and someone will respond as to what it should be set to. The slave settings are those little jumpers on the back of the hard drive. On top of the hard drive is a sticker that says which setting it should be for master/slave. If the hard drive is on the ide cable alone, make it master, if its got two devices on it, set it as master and make sure the second device is slave. If neither of these work, switch which ide slot its plugged into on the mobo. If none of this work, try resettign the CMOS, by removing the battery on the motherboard for 5 miuntes, and then putting it back in. (the computer has to be off when you do this and unplugged fromt eh wall)

[jbbrown211]

Thanks for the explanation. I will give it a shot when I get home and let you know the outcome. Thanks again.

[glc]

1. Dell computers use F1 or F2 to get into the bios setup.

2. I recommend you set the boot sequence to CD first, then floppy, then hard drive. This will give the hard drive time to spin up if it's lazy or the power supply is weak.

3. Dells use cable select cables. Don't mess with the jumpers. Masters go on the end of the cable, slaves go in the middle, and drives should be jumpered to Cable Select (CS). If you haven't swapped a drive, the way it came from the factory is correct.

[jbbrown211]

I haven't changed anything. So I shouldn't mess with any of the hardware? What would I do in the BIOS besides change the boot sequence, if anything?

[njskatchmo]

If you didnt change anythign dont touch it.

[jbbrown211]

So that brings me back to my original problem of how do I fix this. I have on site support for Dell, should I just let them come and take a look at it?

[njskatchmo]

definatly, They know best, and if they dont know they can always replace it.

[jbbrown211]

Thanks for your input on this, I've learned a ton just hanging around this site for the past year.

[jbbrown211]

I haven't called Dell yet. I went into the BIOS and set the boot sequence to Floppy, CD Drive, then HD. It seemed to work, I turned my comuter on this morning and it booted up fine. Usually when I turn it off at night and turn it back on in the AM, the error occurs. If this is the answer (I hope it is) I want to thank you guys for the help.