Dead Dell..

[Mad Machinist]

Have a 120Mhz Pentium Dell I am trying to resurrect.......I recieved it with no HDD. Installed a HDD, and when I power it up it will ID the processor, run the memory test and detect the keyboard and mouse. Occasionally it will detect the floppy and the HDD and occasionally it will let me enter the BIOS, but it won't let me change settings.

computer is a Dell XPS P120c, American Megatrends bios version A02. Any ideas...besides putting it in the 50 ton press at work?

Also ...on the rare occasion I do get into the bios......it enters in the second page.

PART 2//////////

Disconnected the HDD and powered up.....sucker went right into bios and will let me make changes now........with no HDD attached. Any ideas ?

[Anna]

You might try downloading the newist bios and utility to a bootable floppy then shut down the machine, clear the cosmos. then boot the machine w/the floppy and upgrade the bios first and give that a try.

Also make sure all the conection cables etc. are on correct.

Good Luck

[weazel]

check the jumpers on the drive...i had a similiar problem with an older acer computer...also make sure all the pins are lined up on the ide cable to controller...i botched that up to because it was just bare pins with no indication of what was pin 1 a bit of trial and error and I finally got it