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I am having trouble with my optiplex gx260. I haven't used it in a
while, and I recently bought a hard drive to put in it and I am trying
to get it to boot to a cd so I can install an OS. On the Dell screen,
the white bar fills up, and then the computer just hangs there for a
long time. It will eventually beep and say 'press f1 to continue, f2
to go to the setup menu'. The setup menu says there is no hard drive
installed and no cd rom installed. I know the drives are functioning
properly, and the floppy is working fine. I am at a loss as to what
where to go from here. If anyone has any troubloshooting suggestions,
I would greatly apreciate it.
thanks
Kevin

(Kevin King) wrote in
news: om:

> I am having trouble with my optiplex gx260. I haven't used it in a
> while, and I recently bought a hard drive to put in it and I am trying
> to get it to boot to a cd so I can install an OS. On the Dell screen,
> the white bar fills up, and then the computer just hangs there for a
> long time. It will eventually beep and say 'press f1 to continue, f2
> to go to the setup menu'. The setup menu says there is no hard drive
> installed and no cd rom installed. I know the drives are functioning
> properly, and the floppy is working fine. I am at a loss as to what
> where to go from here. If anyone has any troubloshooting suggestions,
> I would greatly apreciate it.
> thanks
> Kevin
>
Try a boot disk in the floppy. Set the Bios to load from that first.
Download one from either of these if you need one.

http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
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"Kevin King" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> I am having trouble with my optiplex gx260. I haven't used it in a
> while, and I recently bought a hard drive to put in it and I am trying
> to get it to boot to a cd so I can install an OS. On the Dell screen,
> the white bar fills up, and then the computer just hangs there for a
> long time. It will eventually beep and say 'press f1 to continue, f2
> to go to the setup menu'. The setup menu says there is no hard drive
> installed and no cd rom installed. I know the drives are functioning
> properly, and the floppy is working fine. I am at a loss as to what
> where to go from here. If anyone has any troubloshooting suggestions,
> I would greatly apreciate it.
> thanks
> Kevin

Sounds like the disk controllers are screwed, i saw this happen on a P2
Compaq machine once.
Try sticking a PCI ATA card in and see if it boots off that.
Just hope theres nothing wrong with the southbridge... its a slippery slope.

hamman

Just a thought, but, you didn't change the IDE cable, did you?

Many Dells HATE "long" IDE cables, cables that would be the normal length in
other machines.

At times I have had to remove the IDE connector off the cable and re-clamp
it back onto the cable nearer the mobo, cutting off the excess cable. This
has solved the problem countless times. HOWEVER THIS IS NOT EASY in that it
is extremely difficult to remove the connector and reposition it accurately.


"Hamman" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> "Kevin King" <> wrote in message
> news: om...
> > I am having trouble with my optiplex gx260. I haven't used it in a
> > while, and I recently bought a hard drive to put in it and I am trying
> > to get it to boot to a cd so I can install an OS. On the Dell screen,
> > the white bar fills up, and then the computer just hangs there for a
> > long time. It will eventually beep and say 'press f1 to continue, f2
> > to go to the setup menu'. The setup menu says there is no hard drive
> > installed and no cd rom installed. I know the drives are functioning
> > properly, and the floppy is working fine. I am at a loss as to what
> > where to go from here. If anyone has any troubloshooting suggestions,
> > I would greatly apreciate it.
> > thanks
> > Kevin
>
> Sounds like the disk controllers are screwed, i saw this happen on a P2
> Compaq machine once.
> Try sticking a PCI ATA card in and see if it boots off that.
> Just hope theres nothing wrong with the southbridge... its a slippery
slope.
>
> hamman
>
>

eric the seal wrote:
> Just a thought

BWAGHAGAHGAHGAHHAAHAHHAAHHA!!!


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