Dell Inspiron HDD&DVD Drive problem...

[Original Sin]

have a DellInspiron 8000, 1ghz 256mb ram, 20gb HDD and DVD Rom.

I recently had some issues with the Laptop restarting uncontrollably and now it does not detect my HDD or DVD-Rom(fixed optical drive).

I know I can change it in the bios, but when I enter the bios it only allows me to change the time and date. I should be able to scroll through with the arrows and other keys, but I don't know which ones(I have tried practically every button randomly) and nothing. Just time and date. I see it does not detect the HDD and DVDRom drive since it is listed on Page 1 of 7, so how do I go about fixing this?

I tried removing both the HDD and DVDRom and I re-inserted them both and it still says they are not installed. How do I move about in the bios? It should be the same as my PC but I cant do a single thing.

All help on how to get it going again is greatly appreciated. It is a pretty good Laptop for some small things like playing music, watching movies and such and I want it back because it is so much easier to move around then a desktop.... :(

[Hades-Knight]

I have same problem with my dell latitude d600 notebook, it wont let me change anything in the bios except time and date

[Original Sin]

If you find anything out, let me know adn i'll do the same.

[D3V]

have a DellInspiron 8000, 1ghz 256mb ram, 20gb HDD and DVD Rom.

I recently had some issues with the Laptop restarting uncontrollably and now it does not detect my HDD or DVD-Rom(fixed optical drive).

I know I can change it in the bios, but when I enter the bios it only allows me to change the time and date. I should be able to scroll through with the arrows and other keys, but I don't know which ones(I have tried practically every button randomly) and nothing. Just time and date. I see it does not detect the HDD and DVDRom drive since it is listed on Page 1 of 7, so how do I go about fixing this?

I tried removing both the HDD and DVDRom and I re-inserted them both and it still says they are not installed. How do I move about in the bios? It should be the same as my PC but I cant do a single thing.

All help on how to get it going again is greatly appreciated. It is a pretty good Laptop for some small things like playing music, watching movies and such and I want it back because it is so much easier to move around then a desktop.... :(

Do you care about losing your information? If not just format the machine and it'll do it for you with the window's CD

[Original Sin]

Yes format it because:
A) It does not detect my Fixed Optical Drive aka my only DVDRom drive, no I do not have a CD Drive and...
B) It doesn't let me change anything in the BIOS, which in some cases it simply malfunctions and disables things on its own, but since I can only change the date and time, I can not configure it to detect any drives and...
C) It doesn't detect my HDD, so how am I suppose to install something on it without enabling it.

If you can answer any of these, let me know.

I have found some WinXP Boot/initiate install floppy disks. I am thinking that if I start off with these, could the WinXP installation detect my drives, allwing me to switch to the CD to finish the installation and actually have a drive to put it on?

[D3V]

Yes, format your harddrive.........


Boot from your CD, go to the partition screen and delete the existing one, create a new one and install windows. Windows should do to rest.

[Original Sin]

Nope, after using floppies then switching to CD, it still does not dtect the HDD.

Prolly need a new one.