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From: Rod Speed on 24 Jan 2008 14:41
phil(a)problems.problems.com wrote:
> About a month ago, I bought some memory for my Dell Dimension 8400. I
> even brought the packing slip along which came with the computer,
> showing what type of memory was installed at the factory.
>
> Some idiot at one of the electronic stores - after cross referencing
> it on a store computer, still sold me the wrong cards. My machine went
> bonkers after I installed the cards. I had nothing but blue screens
> everywhere. I couldn't get into Windows. I used the F2 key and
> changed a few things in the drive menu. Whatever I did, it allowed me
> the following screen, and with the F1 key, I finally got back into
> Windows. So, the following screen is what I see every time I boot up.
>
> Opening screen before Windows
>
> Drive 1 Not Found: Serial ATA, SATA-1
> Drive 2 Not Found: Serial ATA, SATA-2
> Drive 3 Not Found: Serial ATA, SATA-3
> Drive 5 Not Found: Parallel ATA, PATA A1, (Pri IDE Slave)
>
> Strike F1 to continue, F2 to run Setup Utility
>
> (Let me state here, I had ZERO problems of any kind before this
> happening.)
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> I am running Windows XP Pro.
>
> I have 5 external drives along with my A: floppy and D: CD ROM.
>
> C: (Which came with the machine.)
> E: A Maxtor 275 Gig external.
> F: A Seagate Free Agent 250 Gig external
> J: A Seagate Free Agent 500 Gig external
> M: A Seagate Free Agent 500 Gig external
>
> (I have virtual volumes made with BestCrypt which have the drive
> letters G, H, I, K, and L attributed to them. That's why the listed
> HDs are not sequential in letters.)
>
> Despite what the F2 Setup says, all my disks are working perfectly.
>
> Previously, I had made my CD drive the first in line to boot. This was
> so I could use my Acronis True Image CD to recover from any Windows
> failure. However, Since this snafu by the store idiot, my CD will not
> boot the computer, even though I have it that way in the F2 setup
> screen. The screen does tell me that the CD ROM is in the #1 position
> to boot, but the comp doesn't work that way. It insists
>
> on booting from A:. This means if I have a catastrophic failure, my
> Acronis System Recovery CD is worthless. This was not true before
> this nonsense happened. I know that for a fact because I checked
> frequently by booting from the CD. I wanted to make sure everything
> was right just in case I had a Windows failure. I took it to one
> repair guy who wouldn't touch it because he said he had never seen
> such a thing before.
>
> Here is what I see when I use the F2 key:
>
> Setup Boot Sequence
>
> 1 Onboard CD ROM
> 2 Onboard Floppy
> 3 SATA HD
> 4 IDE HD ----- Not Present
> 5 USB Device
> ---------------------------------------
> Drives
>
> Diskette
> Drive 0: SATA 0
> Drive 1: SATA - 1
> Drive 2: SATA - 3
> Drive 3: SATA - 3
> Drive 4: PATA - 0
> Drive 5: PATA - 1
>
> SATA OPERATION
>
> ===================
> Does anyone have any idea what is wrong?

The system has the wrong memory in it now.

> Would it help if I replaced the C: drive with a new one,
> or is this a hardware problem which would carry over?

You should be able to go back to the original memory, but you
dont say what happened to that, whether you still have it or what.

> I'm wondering if my motherboard is screwed up.

Unlikely but its certainly possible to kill a motherboard when changing memory.

> I'd like to find a solution to this before my C: drive fails. It's quite a few years
> old by now. I'm also wondering if I should just stuff this box and get a new one

That would certainly work.

> - not that I'm delighted with having to spend a few grand for this solution.

If you can return to the original config before the new memory, that is worth trying.


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