No Booot Device found in BIOs

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"John Lettiere" <lettiere@optonline.net> wrote in message
newskiic.1516$GN3.861498@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
>
> I'm working on a friends Dimension 4300 to replace a defective HDD, and
when
> I try and set the CD drive
> as the first boot device in the BIOs, in order to reinstall the OS,
> nothing's there, no floppy, hard drive or
> CD-ROM, just the numbers 1-3, but no description of any of the devices.
>
> How do I get the BIOs to recognize the CD-ROM drive?
>

http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/syste [...] tm#1097056

Scroll down to 'boot sequence' and press 'enter'. Then highlight the CDROM
and use your " - " key to move it up in the order. Or, boot the machine and
press F12 at the dell splash screen. This should give you a boot menu with
the CDROM among the choices for boot devices.

If the CDROM doesn't appear, it may not be properly connected to the IDE2
ribbon cable (or may have a bent pin on that drive or the mb) or the power
isn't connected.

You can also press ALT+F in the BIOS and then ESC to exit to force IDE
detection/reconfiguration immediately after leaving system setup.

There's no reason for the CDROM to disappear due to hdd replacement.

Good luck

Stew