Device problem ???

[mike12]

Tryng to diagnose a problem with a friends computer. It is a Dell Latitude CPi Pentium 2, and running XP Home. Anyway when he started the computer at his house, the regular Dell screen appeared, but the loading bar only filled about 90 % and then there were three sentences describing the problem and what to do. I did not write the sentences down, because I thought I would do it later at my house. Well I started the computer about 20 plus times and have not gotten that message again. The best I can remember is that they said something about a problem with a "device". The computer did not boot at that point, and had to be manually shut down. Now, device to me means something like the CD Rom, Battery pack, or the PCMCIA card that is in the side of the computer. My first thought was that one of those devices was not making a good connection, so I tried loosening each of those three items to see if I could get the error message back. No luck. I even left each of the three half way out, and still no error messages. The only other 'device " I can think of is the power supply itself. I tried just barely plugging it in the side, but again no error message. I really don't think it can be the power supply--either you have power or not.
Now---I have been getting a different error message. It says "DISKETTE DRIVE 0 SEEK FAILURE'. Then another message appears, not sure but I think it says something about another drive. Then the computer continues to boot properly. So I went into the setup. The CD Rom was set as the first boot device, and the hard drive was the second. I set the hard drive to be the first boot device, and the CD Rom as the second. There is no floppy. Maybe that will fix the problem ?? Any other suggestions ? I know it is hard to diagnose without knowing what those three sentences said, but that is all I got right now. Thanks for reading this long post.

[mike12]

Additional info. I got the error message. It says
"The device in the system modular bay can not be identified. It may not be completely inserted or may have some other problem. Please read and complete the following in order.
1). Press the device completely and firmly into the bay.
2). Press the escape key--wait for the system to power down.
3). Press the power button to try to detect the device"
This MODULAR BAY--what device would it be-the battery, CD Rom, or the PCMCIA card ?
I am trying to narrow it down by inserting one device at a time, but not having much luck, unless there is more than one problem. Another error message that I got was that "SECONDARY DRIVE DISK O NOT FOUND"

[Ob1]

the modular bay would be the cd rom drive.pull out the drive and make sure you push it back in securely.

can you boot into safe mode?

[glc]

SECONDARY DRIVE DISK O NOT FOUND would also indicate the CD drive is not seen.

[mike12]

Thanks Ob1 and glc for the replies. It does seem like the CD rom is causing the problem. I tried reinserting it etc. with no luck, so I removed it from the computer. The computer booted up properly several times after I removed it from the computer, however the one time, after 10 hours of being off I got the following message "Diskette drive 0 failure" , but the computer then continued to boot up. This makes no sense, but it seems like I get error message less often after the computer has been on awhile ?

[glc]

You have to disable the floppy drive in bios if it's not installed.

Here's a replacement CD drive:

http://app.infopia.com/Shop/Control/...d/0/rid/122654

[mike12]

Thanks glc, will check the bios again and make sure the floppy is not enabled.