Dell Notebook Problem

[hartken]

My laptop is having problems. I had to put a new hard drive in it and it was running the Windows 2000 setup, although very slow. I never got it to run all the way because it didn't get past the very first part in Windows where it is loading drivers to the disk (it is a DOS program and after the message "hit F6 to load 3rd party SCSI Raid drivers").

I held the power button in to turn off the computer but from now on I get no monitor signal. The three power and hdd activity lights just blink. Do you think a new hard drive would cause this? The keyboard casing seems a little loose, do oyu think that's the problem?

I tried pulling everything on this, including the ram, battery and hard drive and I can't get nothing. Please help!!!

[mairving]

Could be something besides the hard drive. I would go to Dell's site download the diagnostics for the laptop and run them. It could be a bad system board. If that is the case, unless it is in warranty I would forget about trying to replace it.

[hartken]

Will the diagnostics run eventhough the computer isn't booting up? I don't even get the BIOS screen. It just blinks with the power light, and then blinks on the battery light. It keeps doing this until I pull the power cord.

On thing I found is that there are screws missing from the bottom. Also, when I bump the the laptop when it is blinking, the lights turn off. Are there sensors that see if screws are missing, or if the casing is loose? Thanks. And the Tick rules.

[glc]

I think maybe you need to take it apart and put it back together right - or have a laptop service center fix it. There should be no missing screws or loose parts.

[Stuey]

My laptop is missing a screw on the bottom too, no biggie. But if you have several... that's kind of fishy if you didn't disassemble it. I think you should include more details. I suppose you should start with a description dealing with why you replaced the HD.