My computer is evil, can someone help me out?

Ok so I have Dell Demension 8400 with a 3.2 gig processor, and a gig of RAM. So lately it's been crashing a lot, like BSOD crashing and it accredits it to a hard drive failure. I boot it back up runs fine for a while, then crashes on average about twice a day. I figured I should back my stuff up and try to reformat the drive see if I can save having to go buy a new drive right before giftmas. I boot up from the windows CD and hit enter when it tell me to, and it says I have no hard drive connected. I obviously have one connected, cause I'm using it right now. I tried reinstalling the drivers and nada, still says I have no hard drive. Is there anyway I can fix this?

We have dells at work, and I use them often - this sounds like a classic sign of a harddrive failing. I'd suggest the following*:

1: verify that the harddrive is connected completely to the IDE cable
2. download the harddrive diagnostic using this link, and try it out
3. get as much critical stuff as you can off that drive ASAP
4. If you're under warrenty still, call Dell and explain it to them, they can send you a new drive
5. if you are not under warrenty, start shopping for a replacement drive.


I hope this helps.

Taco


*bear in mind, I'm not terribly bright.

Know anywhere I can get a cheap hard drive? The warenty expired last month, is the way it always happens

If the cables are tight, I'd run a disk scan. Go to My Computer, right click the hard drive, click Properties, click the Tools tab and mark the boxes, then run the scan.

that IS the way it always happens. For hard drives, I recommend newegg. I don't know what size you want, but I like newegg because they are in california and ship quickly, they have good prices, and they don't totally fuck up my orders.

Is Dell like notorious for this? At my job we have about 100 of a particular flavor of dell machine, and the capacitors on the motherboards for about 1/3rd of them have blown out, riiiiight after the warranty expired...

Edit > Do'h, and I forgot to mention, a couple of them the hard drive had died also, after looking online found a lot of references to them getting cheap motherboards and harddrives, at least for this particular model... Wondering if it's an increasing trend or something for Dell to get cheap, shoddy parts...

I'm going to guess that that you're talking about Optiplex GX270's? If so, that's a known issue involving a crappy motherboard. As you said the capacitors overheat, bulge, and leak, causing blackouts (I've had to swap out 5 so far here in the last 2 months).

Ding ding! Yup, actually the capacitors look like the jiffy-pop foil tins you used to put over a flame, they start to pop open at the top leaking silicon. I had to swap another one out this morning actually...

i hate that model - it's to the point now where I look and see how many more we have here, as I know i'll eventually have to swap the mobos out on all of them

Just be glad, aside from about half a dozen laptops, every machine in my office is this model. Even the one I'm on right now... I'm waiting for the morning when this very machine will not boot up and gives me a fan-error.

Ok after 4 hrs of intensive scanning of hardware It claims there is nothing wrong with my hard drive I think it is now time for some sort of voodoo ritual *sigh* or checking out newegg.com

If the hard drive is fine, check your bios settings for the hard drive. It should be set to auto. Also, make sure the hard drive is the main boot drive.

EDIT: If it turns out to be the bios settings, your battery may be going bad.

I would recommend running a full ad-aware scan followed by spy-checker followed by an updated anti-virus scan with this proggy (free) http://www.free-av.com/

Get this too http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
for a proggy from the spawn of satan it actually works quite well.

I checked my bios and it's fine, and I have it set to boot from the DVD drive, because I was trying to reformat the drive. I can access the drive fine if I boot up from windows but if I try to boot from the windows disk it says I don't have a hard drive, my computer is useable but runs like shit.

I've had that for months lol I ran pretty much every test I could come across and a few that I got from other people, and they all claim everything is fine.

I would suggest you try to restore the system to a time it worked correctly.

access restore thru Start-programs-acessories-system tools

Ahh good call, providing she had it turned on

Mae, which AV are you using? If you say Norton YOU'RE FIRED!
J/k but seriously I have seen Norton cause more problems than help. Check out the AV I linked. I have been using it for a year now and it is awesome and FREE.

I use AVG Norton is a tool of teh debil! AVG is free and I've used it for 2 years problem free

before taking any more of Leck's advice, have you ever stopped to consider his name is an anagram for Bacon Hitler Klan?

Eh true but I'll do anything not to have to blow an extra $100 right before Giftmas, kids are expensive to begin with and add a holiday and I'm broke.

Ciao! To rub

The worst case sererio should be to reinstall XP fresh, running the partion/format. Since it's a Dell, the disks should be simple to follow.