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Question

dell dimension 3100c wont boot

Jun 3, 2012 4:35AM PDT

My computer started showing a blue screen a couple of days ago and a techie friend suggested I could solve the problem by reloading windows xp. Now I have the disk it doesnt show the blue screen- is making a clicking noise and I cant get it passed the first screen which is offering F2 setup or F12 boot. I have tried both those which then offer alt,control delete and I am back to where I started. Any ideas including chuck it would be welcome!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
(NT) Ask your techie if they think the hard drive has failed.
Jun 3, 2012 4:43AM PDT
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Re: ask your techie
Jun 3, 2012 4:50AM PDT

Installing Windows on a failed hard drive would be a strange thing to do. Even a strange thing to suggest!

Kees

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Just a little stretch.
Jun 3, 2012 4:57AM PDT

After seeing such failures and the mention of the clicking makes me wonder if that's it. As we don't get to see and hear the PC, we guess (sometimes badly.)

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Answer
That doesn't sound good.
Jun 3, 2012 4:43AM PDT

What happens if you take that XP disk out and boot from the hard disk as you usually do?

And, just to make the issue more clear: when did that blue screen appear a few days ago? One time or reproducible? And what was the error number and description on that blue screen?

Kees

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cant read hard drive
Jun 3, 2012 6:47AM PDT

the computer doesnt now show the blue screen but I have managed to get further by trial and error. It is now saying that it cant read the hard drive. If this is a hard drive failure is it likely to be possible to merely take one hard drive out and replace it with a new one (assuming it is worth it) and it will work again or is it likely to be more complicated?

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Re: hard drive failure
Jun 3, 2012 6:59AM PDT

Steps:
1. Replace the drive.
2. Install Windows.
3. Install all drivers.
3. Visit Windows update a few times (once is not enough).
5. Install all programs
6. Visit Microsoft update a few times if one of those programs was the MS Office suite.
7. Redo all settings
8. Restore all your data from your backup.
That's all.

But not being able to read the drive can be caused by a motherboard failure also. That was the reason I had to replace my daughters first laptop for.

In that case, probably step 2 will already fail, saving you a lot of work. And result in having a nice new Windows 7 machine shortly (with a huge discount on Windows 8, if you prefer that above Windows 7, which seems a little bit doubtful reading the reviews).

Kees

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not worth it!
Jun 3, 2012 4:31PM PDT

Hi Thanks for your help. I am coming to the conclusion that it is not worth the effort and cost. The machine is probably 6 years old and I had been considering upgrading to a new laptop in the near future so maybe the time has come a bit earlier.

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Answer
DELL Diagnostic to run to check the functionality
Jun 7, 2012 7:09AM PDT

Hi,
My name is Rajesh and I work for Dell Social Media Forum. I just go through your queries and I would like share few points which can assist you in resolving the issue. As far as checking the functionality of the parts of your system there is inbuilt DELL Diagnostic available.
The Dell™ Diagnostics utility is a hardware diagnostic program placed in the utility partition on the hard drive. The diagnostic utility can also be found on the Dell Resource CD.
You can press F12 key on boot to get in that screen. It should come automatically , but if it doesn't come then you can change the booting sequence and choose the option of boot from cd rom and put the resource disc to run the diagnostic. You can run the customer test on hard drive and memory or can run express test to check the functionality of all the parts of the system.

IMP info—as far as clicking sound is concern it seems to be hard drive issue and would recommend you to check the functionality of the hard drive. When you run the diagnostic you will see the functionality of all the parts. If hard drive is bad hard drive need to be replaced.

Hope it should resolve your purpose and your query as well.
Thanks,
Dell-Rajesh K