OT - Dell GX60 Problem

[the_constructor]

I have been given a Dell GX60 PC. I have formatted the hard drive and installed fresh WinXP Pro onto it. Obtained a driver disc from Ebay and got it all working just dandy. Acquired a 512Mb RAM chip for it and installed it so that memory would be 768Mb. Switched on, th epC went Beep Beep and invited me to press F1 to try and load or F2 for Setup. F1 did nothing. F2 took me to setup where it recognised the 768Mb of RAM. It still wouldn't boot.

I removed new RAM chip and swithced on. Now the stupid machine sits there wanting me to select which program I want to install.

Anyone had this and if so, how have you cured it.?

I have been through all the setup settings and they all look ok to me.

It isn't possible that something on the hard drive has become corrupted is it ?

I await your comments with baited breath

Kindest regards,

Jim

[R]

[the_constructor]

Although a fantastic website, which I thank you for, it doesn't explain why my Dell should be doing what it is doing !! Jim

[Neil]

Check the pattern of Beeps against the first table on the website page. This should help you identify the root cause of the problem.

[Adrian C]

If this is not a new hard drive, it sounds like it has dropped into starting Dell's pre-installed utility partition, rather than your OS.

[the_constructor]

Thanks Adiran, When I reformatted the Hard Drive, I chose remove all partitions because I couldn't work out what the 40Mb was used for. Now I know thanks to you. Have printed out all the info from website so will be able to put it right. There's no need to tell me I'm a plonk, I already worked that one out. Thanks again to everyone who responded. Jim

[The Natural Philosopher]

No one is a plonk when faced with the adventure role playing game called 'second guess the software twits who write this shit'

[NT]

A standard trick is to remove as much as poss, ie unplug the hdd etc. Also worth sticking a linux mint CD in before switch on, if I'm puzzled its a way to rule out some issues.

NT

[Mark]

i think you will need DSRFIX (google it) to get it started again, at least if my memory is correct that's what i had to do when presented with a fall to boot Dell.

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[Ron O'Brien]

Don't Dell do life support for their PC's anymore? I remember having an old Dell laptop I bought second hand and they were quite happy to walk me through some process or other I needed at the time.

Ron