Computer Problems

[Dragonlordfrodo]

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 2.4 GHZ, 512 MB DDR RAM. I just bought a New Hard Drive (Western Digital 160 GB) and a Video Card (Geforce FX 5200 256 MB DDR PCI) and I am having a few problems

1. Whenever I boot up it tells me my primary drive 1 cannot be found, then I press F1 and it loads like normal.

2. My video card won't display. I installed the drivers and after I install, it tells me the Device won't start or something and there is a problem with the install. Sometimes it freezes during the driver install. Also someone told me I have to flash the bios then set the primary video card to PCI or something, but I don't even have a Floppy Drive to do that. Is there a way to do it without the floppy?

[Nirvanaguy777]

call dell, DURF

[bignick]

What are teh jumper settings on the hard drive. Im pretty sure dell uses cable select, so if you set your new one to master, and still have teh dell drive in there, that could cause problems.

Was your old video integrated? If so, go into the bios and disable it.

[bignick]

Oh ya, I would take one of those things out, and get one thing at a time to work.

[pukemon]

call dell for the best tech support blah blah blah. but yeah their techies are pretty good.

[Dragonlordfrodo]

What are teh jumper settings on the hard drive. Im pretty sure dell uses cable select, so if you set your new one to master, and still have teh dell drive in there, that could cause problems.

Was your old video integrated? If so, go into the bios and disable it.


I took out the dell drive and replaced it with a new WD HD. The jumper settings are weird. There are five settings and they aren't marked. There a pic on the drive that shows all the settings but I tried them all and I still get the message

As for the Video Card, I did go into the bios, and under the "Integrated Devices" menu it had video. The only two choices were "Onboard" and "Auto". I put it on Auto and I get no picture whatsoever from either video output... Until I physically take out the video card.

[Dragonlordfrodo]

call dell for the best tech support blah blah blah. but yeah their techies are pretty good.

Shouldn't I call The Nvidia or Geforce Tech support? Would Dell be pissed if I told them I didn't put there card in it? I am trying to avoid tech support as much as possible because I do not feel like talking to some indian or chinese guy that I can't understand.

[bignick]

So do you have integrated video or did it come with a video card?

Set the drive to master, there should be a little pic near the jumber settings, second check the bios, make sure it is set to auto detect ide devices, and that is is set to boot from your new hard drive.

[Dragonlordfrodo]

My computer originally came with integrated video. I bought a video card on my own (PCI one I would have bought the AGP 8X only I don't have the appropriate slot)

[Storamin]

Shoulda got a proper computer...

[bignick]

My computer originally came with integrated video. I bought a video card on my own (PCI one I would have bought the AGP 8X only I don't have the appropriate slot)
try a different pci slot. What other pci devices do you have?

[Dragonlordfrodo]

Shoulda got a proper computer...

Shut Up.

I am going to redo the hard drive right now.

[Dragonlordfrodo]

My computer originally came with integrated video. I bought a video card on my own (PCI one I would have bought the AGP 8X only I don't have the appropriate slot)
try a different pci slot. What other pci devices do you have?

All I have is a Wireless Card and the Video Card.

[bignick]

My computer originally came with integrated video. I bought a video card on my own (PCI one I would have bought the AGP 8X only I don't have the appropriate slot)
try a different pci slot. What other pci devices do you have?

All I have is a Wireless Card and the Video Card.

Try moving the vid card to a different slot.

[Dragonlordfrodo]

Okay I did everything big nick told me to and still nothing, however I found out something interesting. I didn't really notice before in a lighted room, but I turned off the lights and put the monitor into the video card, and it wasn't a completely black screen. it didn't look like the monitor was off, but the screen was like a faint black. Very hard to explain but I can tell the difference between it being off and the faint black color. Weird.

[Dragonlordfrodo]

Something interesting just happened. I set the BIOS to Auto. and I got the video card to work, but only during boot up. It goes to a blank screen right after the loading Windows XP screen, before the Welcome screen and the desktop shows up. I put it on Onboard And only onboard works. Now I have a new problem, My taskbar disappeared. Is there a way to get it back (I know it is a simple process but I forgot how)

[red flare graf]

Take your cursor to the bottom of the screen and get the double arrows, then drag it up?

[Dragonlordfrodo]

Good News I got the Video Card Fully Working! Basically I did a clean install of XP and installed the card again. I even got it so that it hooks up to my TV!

However I still get the message about the hard drive during boot up. And I made sure that it was on Cable Select.