BleepingComputer.com: INSPIRON 1545 ISSUES PLEASE HELP!!!

Hi all, first post here :-)

I picked up a second hand Dell Inspiron 1545 recently and the previous owner said it might have been "knocked" (which probably means thrown across a room lol).

On switiching the laptop on the fan fires up as does the HD (which he claims is new), but there are no power lights to be seen! (any thoughts on why not?) I get the Dell logo and it bleeps a couple of times and says "No bootable devices-- strike F1 etc".

Initially it was showing no HDD in the setup list but after removing both the HD and the optical drive and refitting they are both now showing!

There is a Windows 7 Key under the battery but i'm asuming if the HD is indeed new there will be no OS on it! I have tried all downloadable recovery discs and diagnostic discs from Dell but nothing does anything it tries to read the disc then brings me back to the error message!

So I dropped an XP disc in from my desktop and it starts to load up and run through some settings, then as it's says "Starting Windows" I get a blue screen saying it's shut down the install to prevent damage to the computer etc!

Any thoughts on what to do next? i've ordered a SATA to usb connector which should be here tomorrow to double check the HD but assuming it's ok is it just new Mobo time?

Many thanks in advance

This post has been edited by dkw1972: 17 August 2010 - 03:23 PM

You may have a problem on the inside of the laptop, most likely a faulty connection or maybe a cracked circuit board.

The hard drive will of course show this error you posted above "No bootable devices-- strike F1 etc". Because there is no bootable operating system installed on the hard drive.

Now you're attempting to install an OS off of a previously used Windows XP installation disk, if this key has already been used on another system, you are going to run into activation issues, unless you purchase another license key, to activate this copy of Windows.

The fact that the computer shuts down to prevent damage means there is something not correct with a setting or two, or you have an internal hardware issue.

You should first boot to the laptops BIOS setup utility first and make sure the hard drive is recognized there, then for a stable running system, I suggest choosing the option to run set up defaults, or load system defaults.

Then try again.

Please be advised, I do not support software piracy in any manner, nor does Bleepingcomputer.com

Bruce.

Right - if there's no OS on the HDD, you shouldn't be able to boot it.

However the XP setup blue screen doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your computer - the most likely culprit here is XP's lack of SATA support during installation.

Your easiest fix should be going into the BIOS, locating the setting for SATA Operation, there should be some soft of choice between "ATA" and "AHCI" or "Legacy" and "Native". If it's the former choose ATA and if it's the latter choose legacy.

If you're still confused, or those options do not exist, post back here.



Note: this will install XP without native SATA support and consequently you'll suffer a small performance hit. There is a way to do it correctly, but it's a pain and requires either a floppy drive or slipsteaming drivers into an xp cd.

I have an Inspiron 1545...

In the BIOS, click System Configuration. Then click SATA Operation. Select the ATA option, as Cohen stated.

Save the settings and then try.

Louis

Many thanks for your replies :-)

I bought a second hand mobo from ebay last night and the seller only lived in the next town so he delivered it this afternoon! i've only ever messed with desktops before so was quite surprised how straight forward it was to strip down and swap the boards over! and luckily I did find some impact damage to the old board!

So i've fired it up and it still gave me the no bootable blah blah screen but I went in and changed the SATA operation to ATA and dropped an XP disc in and it starte loading up fine and now i'm at the partition screen which says:

The partition is either too full, damaged, not formatted or formatted with an incompatible file system etc

Now the previous owner told me this HD is brand new, now if he lied and this is in fact the original drive then according to the product key it should be loaded with Windows 7!!

Any thoughts on the best plan of action?

Does the screen...reflect any partitions on the hard drive?

What's reflected on the partition screen?

Louis

EDIT: <<...and now i'm at the partition screen which says:>>

This post has been edited by hamluis: 18 August 2010 - 01:55 PM

Hi Louis, sorry you have lost me there, what do you mean?

Pull the drive out & take a look
There should be a manufacture date on it somewhere

Also when you install XP did you delete the partition and recreate it?

You can delete the partitions and format a new one... the drive might be just fine.


You can also run the HDD diagnostics:


http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic28744.html