[mom4jdc]

I also have the "Dell Tools System Software" and "Drivers and Utilities"

[mom4jdc]

The laptop I'm on now?? I believe that it does. I've never tried it on here.

[NeonFx]

If you have a blank CD we can create a CD that we can use to try to remedy the situation.

Download RC.ISO and burn it to a cd as an ISO image. You may need a burning toy like ISO Recorder to do this...be sure to get the version for your operating system.

[mom4jdc]

Also found the Dell Dimension Resource Cd. Does that help?

[NeonFx]

No, we need one that just says Windows XP on it. Regrettably all the other ones are for making your system like new, not fixing it.

[mom4jdc]

I have the burned cd..what next?

[NeonFx]

Nice. Insert the CD into the drive, and then restart the computer. Watch for the prompt to "Press any key to boot from cd" and press the spacebar when you see it. You may have to change the boot priority in BIOS Setup to accomplish this...we'll cross that bridge if we get to it.

When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console...by number (usually 1)
When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If you have not set an administrator password, leave it blank and just press "Enter".

At the Recovery Console command prompt, type fixmbr and press "Enter".

If warned about the dangers of doing that, type Y and press Enter.

Then type fixboot and press "Enter"

After doing that, type exit and press "Enter". The machine will restart...let it try to boot normally...do not boot to the cd this time.

[mom4jdc]

Ok..it's going to be difficult. No option to boot from a cd. I go to the black and white screen asking if I want to start in safe mode which then takes me to the blue screen which tells me to check for viruses on the computer...

next?

[NeonFx]

Ok, as soon as you turn your computer on are you asked to press a key to Enter setup or to select boot device?

If you press that key should should either see a list of devices from which you need to select your CD drive, or you should see a screen with a lot of setup options. You will want to find a "Boot Order" list and follow the instructions on screen to list your CD drive further up on the list.

Let me know what you see if you have trouble.

This will tell your computer to boot to the CD drive.

[mom4jdc]

Okay, It's not working but I do have options that I guess might help:

On the Boot Device Menu I can choose
1. Normal
2 Hard-disk Drive c:
3. IDE CD-Rom Device

4. System Setup
5. IDE Drive Diagnostics
6. Boot to Utility Partition


Do any of those look promising?

[NeonFx]

Have you tried option 3. IDE CD-Rom Device ? That's where your CD should be.

[mom4jdc]

Yes...I've tried 3. and I went into the F2 Setup menu to make sure that it was first in the boot sequence.

[mom4jdc]

When I enter 3 it gives me a "strike F1 to retry or F2 for setup options" It doesn't recognize the 3??

[NeonFx]

Ok. It's possible the CD wasn't burned correctly. We needed to burn the ISO Image to a cd, not burn a cd with the rc.iso file in it.

What program are you using to burn the cd?

[mom4jdc]

I went ahead and downloaded the program that you linked to....I'll do it again.