Slow boot for GX1 PCs - Hard drives not recognized properly

[Guest]

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

Hi,

I am in the process of refurbishing 2 GX1 PCs for family/friends. Both
appear to be the same basic machine - BX motherboard. Both are desktop
(non-tower) machines with one being the smaller form factor (1 5.25" bay")
and one being the larger (2 5.25" bays.)

I loaded XP Home on both with SP2 immediately after using the
factory-installed hard drives (6.4 and 7.5 GB respectively). No real
issues - everything went great. I upgraded to hard drives on both to
identical Seagate ATA-100 10GB drives. I am now having LOTS of issues
getting both PCs to boot correctly. For some reason the PCs hang forever at
POST and then I will get a message stating that "Primary Hard Disk is Not
Found" and I have to hit F1 to continue. The hang time is pretty long.

I go into BIOS and it looks like the primary drive is recognized, but yet I
get this error when I boot.

I Ghosted the image back to the original factory-installed hard drive and I
am still getting this problem.

I set the boot sequence to Hard Drive Only, thinking it would avoid trying
to do Network Boot. That helps the boot time slightly but I still get the
Primary Hard Drive Not Found error message every time.

I upgraded the BIOS on both to version A10, the newest that I could find on
dell.com. That has not helped the situation.

Does anyone know any hints/tips with these older PCs that will make this
recognize the hard drive and boot normally?

If you need additional info on the config, etc. I can provide it.

Thanks in advance!
Keith

 

[Guest]

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

"KWA" <email@email.com> wrote in message news:<ed5Wc.29344$Nl1.21789@fe1.columbus.rr.com>...
> Hi,
>
> I am in the process of refurbishing 2 GX1 PCs for family/friends. Both
> appear to be the same basic machine - BX motherboard. Both are desktop
> (non-tower) machines with one being the smaller form factor (1 5.25" bay")
> and one being the larger (2 5.25" bays.)
>
> I loaded XP Home on both with SP2 immediately after using the
> factory-installed hard drives (6.4 and 7.5 GB respectively). No real
> issues - everything went great. I upgraded to hard drives on both to
> identical Seagate ATA-100 10GB drives. I am now having LOTS of issues
> getting both PCs to boot correctly. For some reason the PCs hang forever at
> POST and then I will get a message stating that "Primary Hard Disk is Not
> Found" and I have to hit F1 to continue. The hang time is pretty long.
>
> I go into BIOS and it looks like the primary drive is recognized, but yet I
> get this error when I boot.
>
> I Ghosted the image back to the original factory-installed hard drive and I
> am still getting this problem.
>
> I set the boot sequence to Hard Drive Only, thinking it would avoid trying
> to do Network Boot. That helps the boot time slightly but I still get the
> Primary Hard Drive Not Found error message every time.
>
> I upgraded the BIOS on both to version A10, the newest that I could find on
> dell.com. That has not helped the situation.
>
> Does anyone know any hints/tips with these older PCs that will make this
> recognize the hard drive and boot normally?
>
> If you need additional info on the config, etc. I can provide it.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Keith

Firstly, make sure you only have drive 0 set to AUTO and drive 1 set
to NONE in the bios if you only have one drive - if you set the second
drive to AUTO it will cause this error if the second drive isn't
detected. Secondly, make sure all the HDDs are set to cable select
(Dell GX1s don't like master/slave) and put the drive you want as
master on the connector furthermost from the motherboard.

 

[Guest]

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

Peter,

Awesome advice! That worked perfectly.

I've built probably 200 PCs in my spare time, but this is the first I have
run into this.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to share it with me. Now I can give these
PCs away!!

Best regards, Keith


>
> Firstly, make sure you only have drive 0 set to AUTO and drive 1 set
> to NONE in the bios if you only have one drive - if you set the second
> drive to AUTO it will cause this error if the second drive isn't
> detected. Secondly, make sure all the HDDs are set to cable select
> (Dell GX1s don't like master/slave) and put the drive you want as
> master on the connector furthermost from the motherboard.

 

[Guest]

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

Your are welcome.

These and the Dell forums have helped me many times in the past with
problems and it is only right to pass this knowledge on to help
others.

"KWA" <junkmail@junkmail.com> wrote in message news:<dJmWc.33341$cT6.18337@fe2.columbus.rr.com>...
> Peter,
>
> Awesome advice! That worked perfectly.
>
> I've built probably 200 PCs in my spare time, but this is the first I have
> run into this.
>
> Thanks a lot for taking the time to share it with me. Now I can give these
> PCs away!!
>
> Best regards, Keith
>
>
> >
> > Firstly, make sure you only have drive 0 set to AUTO and drive 1 set
> > to NONE in the bios if you only have one drive - if you set the second
> > drive to AUTO it will cause this error if the second drive isn't
> > detected. Secondly, make sure all the HDDs are set to cable select
> > (Dell GX1s don't like master/slave) and put the drive you want as
> > master on the connector furthermost from the motherboard.

 

[Guest]

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

On 23 Aug 2004 05:49:51 -0700, peterfelgate@hotmail.com (Peter Felgate) wrote:

<SNIP>
>
>Secondly, make sure all the HDDs are set to cable select
>(Dell GX1s don't like master/slave) and put the drive you want as
>master on the connector furthermost from the motherboard.

Dell GX1's (and other Dell models as well) are perfectly fine with master/slave
jumpering, as long as the right cable is used. But most people have only the
drive cables that came with their computer, so cable select is almost always the
way to go with a Dell (or HP)... Ben Myers

 

[Robert]

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

Hard drive jumper setting - CS or master?

"KWA" <email@email.com> wrote in message
news:ed5Wc.29344$Nl1.21789@fe1.columbus.rr.com...
> Hi,
>
> I am in the process of refurbishing 2 GX1 PCs for family/friends. Both
> appear to be the same basic machine - BX motherboard. Both are desktop
> (non-tower) machines with one being the smaller form factor (1 5.25" bay")
> and one being the larger (2 5.25" bays.)
>
> I loaded XP Home on both with SP2 immediately after using the
> factory-installed hard drives (6.4 and 7.5 GB respectively). No real
> issues - everything went great. I upgraded to hard drives on both to
> identical Seagate ATA-100 10GB drives. I am now having LOTS of issues
> getting both PCs to boot correctly. For some reason the PCs hang forever
at
> POST and then I will get a message stating that "Primary Hard Disk is Not
> Found" and I have to hit F1 to continue. The hang time is pretty long.
>
> I go into BIOS and it looks like the primary drive is recognized, but yet
I
> get this error when I boot.
>
> I Ghosted the image back to the original factory-installed hard drive and
I
> am still getting this problem.
>
> I set the boot sequence to Hard Drive Only, thinking it would avoid trying
> to do Network Boot. That helps the boot time slightly but I still get
the
> Primary Hard Drive Not Found error message every time.
>
> I upgraded the BIOS on both to version A10, the newest that I could find
on
> dell.com. That has not helped the situation.
>
> Does anyone know any hints/tips with these older PCs that will make this
> recognize the hard drive and boot normally?
>
> If you need additional info on the config, etc. I can provide it.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Keith
>
>
>