[Bruhahn5565@]

Good Morning,,, I am stumped.. Here is my story.

As my son is using an old Dell (about 4 yrs. old i think) with only 37 gig hard drive I realized it was time to reformat and reinstall the OS. Everything was sailing along smoothly until I realized that I forgot to take the first copy off. I was thinking it would just cover it up. Therefore when I was finished I realized i had 2 copies on the machine thus leaving him only about 5 free gigs of hard drive.

I dont know at what point it happened because the computer had been booting up fine everytime. Now it wont boot up at all. It does still give me the option to select which OS (both copies of XP are displayed) which I then select. It gets to the first screen that says Windows XP etc. Then it stops at a black (well sort of gray) not as black as when its off color of a screen.

The only thing I am noticing is I am getting a Keyboard Error when it boots up. Now mind u the keyboard seems fine... It works when I use it. The lights are all on, etc. I am wondering if this could be the problem? What error could there be since it seems fine? Should i hook up my other keyboard??

Oh yes and even though I know i did it before I cannot get it to boot from the Windows XP CD. I go into setup and change the boot order to CD first. All I get when it tries is a error that says to try again press F1. If I press that it just keeps beeping and repeating the error. The only other choice is press F2 which takes me back to setup. I know if i could get it to boot off the cd first I wouldnt be writing this to you this morning...

I have checked setup and I think all the setting in there are correct.

If anyone has any tips for me it would be greatly appreciated. My DH works in the RV industry here in Elkhart, Indiana (RV Capital of the World) and the economy is so bad here that taking this machine in is basically out of the question. If anyone has more questions I will be home at 8 Eastern time from driving my school bus and I will get back to you all then!! Thank you so much.

Beth

[muppy03]

have you tried the f12 option. Dell use it as a one time boot menu. Saves changing in the bios the boot order.

[Bruhahn5565@]

Yes I have also tried to boot from F12. I still get the same F1 and F2 error...

[Bruhahn5565@]

Update... tried a different keyboard,, no help. made sure the ram is all the way in..it is...
am going to take the ram out to see if that helps.

[Bruhahn5565@]

Okay thats it,, unless someone has an idea I am out of them.

[Bruhahn5565@]

update... after researching some more I found that this computer may only boot from the dvd drive. have had problems with it since the door wouldnt open. after fiddling with it and getting it open it is now reading the cd..so i am crossing my fingers that i can get this fixed...will let u know.

[Bruhahn5565@]

Solved... the computer is up and running..beautifully i may add! It was the dvd and cd drives. I found out it would only boot off the cd of the dvd which was stuck closed. Got it opened up and after lots of in and out it finally took the cd so I could reformat and finish.

Another question tho..LOL. Both the dvd and the cd doors wont open!! I took them apart and everything is fine inside. The tray inside is just not able to get into the right position to come out.. i even took off the little black covers over the tray.

So, its either smack it till it falls down or get a new one... anyway thanks to all who helped me.

Beth