I have a Dell L800r PC - Intel PIII 833 Mhz, Windows 98 DE, 128 MB SDRAm and 20 GB HDD.
I tried ti upgrade my PC with another 128 MB SDRAm and 160 GB HDD. although my BIOS recognizes the new drive, I am unable to format it. When I run fdisk the integrity check does not move beyond 1%. This is with my original 128 MB Ram
Also my PC does not boot when I add the additional 128 MB SDRAM.
Does anyone know what could be wrong. Do you think my motherboard is not compatible to support the 256 MB SDRam and 160 GB Drive. Any clues ??
I thought I would ask you guys before I take back to the store to return.
Yes go to the Dell website and put in your Make and Model and to see if any updates are available for yours put in your Tag # on the back (usually) on the back of the tower
Do you have XP?.....if you do go Start>>then right click on My Computer and the go Manage..then on the left click Disk Management...if you can see the drive in there right click on it and format
It asked for which drive and I chose the drive 2. then it started to check the integrity of the drive which is where my problem started because it wount not move beyond 1%.
thanks Bonk. I just checked with DELL which confirmed that my system cannot handle more than 137 GB. Looks like I may have to return the HDD. Also there are no BIOS uprgdes for my model.
I am back. DELL further clarified that there are no updates for BIOS to handle a HDD of over 137 GB. But there are updates for memory upgrade and I have downloaded an updated version of my BIOS.
My question is - Is there any danger in upgrading the BIOS ? I have saved the file in a bootable floopy. How do I update my BIOS......Just run the exe file ??
I've never heard of someone in my circles ever having a problem as long as it is from the Manufacturers with Bios updates..........Firmware updates are a bit different matter.
THe thng to remember is that with Win 98 you are never going to recognize a 160Gb drive at the full capacity unless you have the drive connected to an IDE controller card that supporst large drives. Most modern ones do. There is also going to be a partition size limit of I think about 32Gb with Win98.
I would guess this is the first time for a Bios update for you.........Bios updates are released to make the bios able to work with other upgrades and make it compatible with new hardware etc. I updates my Bios when there is one available and my chip-sets and video drivers....I have no worries myself....in the olden days you had to sent of your Bios and then they would send you a replacement.......I wouldn't say that Bios is a regular update...I have had my PC for 4 years and only had to update once......
If you do run into problems you may very possibly run the risk of ending up with a door stop rather than a computer. On earlier boards when Bios upgrades go bad it renders the motherboard useless. Just a word to the wary.
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