Installing new HDD in a Dell... Can't enter BIOS

[RyeTronics]

I'm trying to install a new hard drive (Maxtor) and when I boot the
computer, it doesn't allow me to access the BIOS.

A black screen shows up that says...

Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Copyright yada yada

KT600-A Ver 1.0D

Main Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Memory Testing: 524288K OK

Press DEL to enter SETUP

***********
Now I press DEL from right when I hit the power button and nothing
happens. Also, this screen stays up here and never changes. Anyone have
an idea what is making it freeze at this point?

Thanks.

Also, I have one other question...

I thought the HDD was dying on this pc, so I bought a new one. The
old HDD was making weird clicking sounds and not booting. So when I put
the new one in the case, I replaced the old ATA Cable with the new one,
and the click's have gone away. Now granted, I can't get past this BIOS
screen, but is it possible for an old/bad ATA Cable to prevent a
computer from booting?

Thanks again!

 

[Lil' Dave]

Hard drive question-Not enough info, I'll let someone else guess additional
symptoms to reply an answer.

Ide cable question -Yes, its equivalent to a corroded or loosely bound wires
in a telephone outlet. Bad voice contact (scratchy), intermittent dialing
problems.

 

[RyeTronics]

What other type of information would you need? Here's some...

Athlon 2600+
512 ram
two Maxtor HDD... an 80 gig and 120 gig

There is BIOS information in my post.

Just let me know what else you guys would need to know. Thanks!

 

[Impmon]

Now I press DEL from right when I hit the power button and nothing
happens. Also, this screen stays up here and never changes. Anyone have
an idea what is making it freeze at this point?

Improper jumper config on the HDs could cause problem with HD
detection at BIOS. Make sure your HDs are set to CS and you are using
CS cable (just about all 80 conductor cables are CS). If that doesn't
work, use the old Master and Slave jumper setting and pray.

Thanks.

Also, I have one other question...

I thought the HDD was dying on this pc, so I bought a new one. The
old HDD was making weird clicking sounds and not booting. So when I put
the new one in the case, I replaced the old ATA Cable with the new one,
and the click's have gone away. Now granted, I can't get past this BIOS
screen, but is it possible for an old/bad ATA Cable to prevent a
computer from booting?

Yes but hard drive with bad controller board could cause hang up on
BIOS since it might not be responding properly to a query on IDE
channel.

Clicking noise is a bad sign IMO. Actually, any noise rather than a
typical whirring noise are bad for HD. I haven't heard any "normal"
clicking noise since the old day of external stepper motor on 5MB
drives.

 

[Rod Speed]

I'm trying to install a new hard drive (Maxtor) and when I
boot the computer, it doesn't allow me to access the BIOS.

A black screen shows up that says...

Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Copyright yada yada

KT600-A Ver 1.0D

Main Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Memory Testing: 524288K OK

Press DEL to enter SETUP

***********
Now I press DEL from right when I hit the power button and nothing happens.

Looks like what is causing it to freeze is what gets the DEL key ignored too.

Also, this screen stays up here and never changes.
Anyone have an idea what is making it freeze at this point?

See what happens with the hard drive unplugged.

Also, I have one other question...

I thought the HDD was dying on this pc, so I bought a new one.
The old HDD was making weird clicking sounds and not booting.
So when I put the new one in the case, I replaced the old ATA
Cable with the new one, and the click's have gone away. Now
granted, I can't get past this BIOS screen, but is it possible for
an old/bad ATA Cable to prevent a computer from booting?

Yes, its possible. More strictly it can result in a VERY long pause
in the very early boot. It might eventually decide that there is no
drive visible, and that can take a surprisingly long time. In other
words its not necessarily frozen, just appears to be frozen.

See if it still 'freezes' with no ribbon cable plugged into the
motherboard at all. If it still does, you may well have either
managed to damage something in the process of replacing
the drive and ribbon cable, or you have an intermittent
short to case thats been seen after the mechanical stuff.

 

[RyeTronics]

The drives don't seem to be spinning. When I put in the old ATA cable,
the drives make the same clicking noise and seem to struggle spinning.
Yet when I put in the brand new ATA cable, nothing seems to happen.

So I tried a third ATA cable and once again it started the drive
spinning, but it continues to have trouble. It seems to not
necessarily click, but struggle to start spinning.

I then unplugged the drive from the ATA cable and power and booted.
When I do this I get a normal BIOS boot screen (with the device
listing) and at the bottom is says "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM
DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

So I'm wondering if the brand new HDD I bought is either busted or I
mucked it up. Any thoughts?

Thanks for all of your responses.

 

[Rod Speed]

The drives don't seem to be spinning.

OK, that can certainly see a very long pause while the bios decides
that the drive isnt going to reply to the POST poll for drives.

When I put in the old ATA cable, the drives make the same
clicking noise and seem to struggle spinning. Yet when I put
in the brand new ATA cable, nothing seems to happen.

The 12V rail may be well under spec and the new drive
doesnt even try to spin up with that voltage available.

So I tried a third ATA cable and once again it started the
drive spinning, but it continues to have trouble. It seems
to not necessarily click, but struggle to start spinning.

More evidence of a problem with the 12V supply.

What does the bios say about it with no drives plugged in ?

I then unplugged the drive from the ATA cable and power
and booted. When I do this I get a normal BIOS boot screen
(with the device listing) and at the bottom is says "DISK BOOT
FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

OK, that shows that the problem is with detecting hard drives.

So I'm wondering if the brand new HDD I bought
is either busted or I mucked it up. Any thoughts?

Its possible, but unlikely given that you are also having a
problem with the original drive. Its more likely to be a power
supply problem and the 12V rail is sagging and not even
able to spin up the new drive. I'd put a multimeter on the
12V rail and see whats happening with that voltage at boot
time with the new drive in the system. If you cant do that,
you could try a new power supply, they arent that expensive.

 

[Mike Redrobe]

OK, that can certainly see a very long pause while the bios decides
that the drive isnt going to reply to the POST poll for drives.

On some dells this pause can be 2 minutes if an IDE channel
is set to auto detect and no drive is connected.

 

[RyeTronics]

Thanks Rod. I don't have a multimeter, but I think I will try a new
PSU. Now I'm a little confused b/c this is a 450W PSU... So does the
large wattage not make a difference with the 12V rail? And which
portion of the psu is the 12v rail for b/c the power cord for the HDD's
are labeled 300V on the yellow cord.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

On some dells this pause can be 2 minutes if an IDE channel is set to auto
detect and no drive is connected.

Yeah, its basically done that way because some drives can take
a surprisingly long time to respond to the bios poll if they are having
a real problem getting the basics off the platter at reset time.

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks Rod. I don't have a multimeter, but I think I will try a
new PSU. Now I'm a little confused b/c this is a 450W PSU...

Its likely to be a failure, not what it would have done when
new. There are diodes that produce the 12V and if one of
them has gone bad, you can get that result, it cant produce
the rated current while maintaining the 12V anymore.

So does the large wattage not make a difference with the 12V rail?

Yes, but that was its specs, not what it can do with a fault.

And which portion of the psu is the 12v rail for b/c the power
cord for the HDD's are labeled 300V on the yellow cord.

Presumably you mean 300W. Thats still fine, but
again, thats what the specs are without a fault.

 

[Impmon]

Thanks Rod. I don't have a multimeter, but I think I will try a new
PSU. Now I'm a little confused b/c this is a 450W PSU... So does the
large wattage not make a difference with the 12V rail? And which
portion of the psu is the 12v rail for b/c the power cord for the HDD's
are labeled 300V on the yellow cord.

the rating varies witht he brand of the power supply but a typical 450
watts should have been enough. Bear in mind 450 watts is the TOTAL of
all output combined and some cheap models have 3v leeching off 5v rail
so they may share the same number but can't have both near max at the
same time. I have a 600 watts supply that shows 25A on 12v rail (300
watts just on 12v rail) and can handle large number of hard drives at
once.

And ignore the 300v number, it is just the max voltage on the wire.
That doesn't mean there are any 300v in the computer at all.

 

[Lil' Dave]

What other type of information would you need? Here's some...

Athlon 2600+
512 ram
two Maxtor HDD... an 80 gig and 120 gig

There is BIOS information in my post.

Just let me know what else you guys would need to know. Thanks!

Ron managed to milk some more symptoms from you. And, I agree with his
assessment. Even if the power supply replacement did not fix the problem.
A given power supply with more overall wattage rating may have the same
amount of 12V amperage capacity as the former one.

A few more things to try. Disconnect all from the power supply output
except the motherboard. Disconnect the ide cables from the HDs and any
other devices. Disconnect any external devices. Can you access the bios
setup now?

 

[RyeTronics]

Hi Dave. Thanks for your reply.

I disconnected everything except the motherboard from the psu and I get
the boot screen as before with the "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM
DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

Does this still lean towards it being a PSU issue?

 

[Rod Speed]

I disconnected everything except the motherboard from the
psu and I get the boot screen as before with the "DISK BOOT
FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

That's normal, what you should get with just the motherboard connected.

Does this still lean towards it being a PSU issue?

Yes.

 

[RyeTronics]

So I got a new PSU and everything is working perfectly. You guys were
dead on in your assesment.

Thanks so much Rod, Dave and Imp for soliciting your knowledge to me.
I really appreciate it.

 

[Rod Speed]

So I got a new PSU and everything is working perfectly.
You guys were dead on in your assesment.

Thanks so much Rod, Dave and Imp for soliciting
your knowledge to me. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for the feedback, that should help anyone
using groups.google to research a similar problem.

 

[Impmon]

So I got a new PSU and everything is working perfectly. You guys were
dead on in your assesment.

Thanks so much Rod, Dave and Imp for soliciting your knowledge to me.
I really appreciate it.

No problem When PC starts to misbehave and it's not software
problem, the power supply is almost always the problem.

 

[JohnJAdamson]

So I got a new PSU and everything is working perfectly. You guys were
dead on in your assesment.

Thanks so much Rod, Dave and Imp for soliciting your knowledge to me.
I really appreciate it.

With Dell don't you have to buy a PSU from them?
I've heard that they use proprietary units and that a generic ATX power
supply would damage the motherboard.

 

[RyeTronics]

The Dell was out of warranty, and I hadn't read any documentation about
that, so I guess we'll see in the coming months if that's true. I'll
be sure to post if that is the case.