-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Dell Inspiron/Vista
- From: Gman <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:55:42 -0400
Hi Thom,
I'm not sure what a 'hoot' is, but as long as it's not a bad thing, I'll
accept the moniker. ;)
As for the system, it's saying that the optical drive (her CD &/or DVD
drive) is now a paper weight. Personally, I don't trust those built in
testing utilities, but it still may turn out to be true. Luckily, this has
no effect on the data that's stored on her hard drive. Still, I always ask
whether the owner has a recent backup, just in case it turns out to ne more
than what's initially discovered.
If it is just a burned out optical drive, the fix is for her to buy a
replacement optical drive and get someone to install it for her (I'm pretty
sure I know who that'll be). Once the replacement CD/DVD drive is in place,
the windows install disk should do what it's supposed to do and you'll be
able to wipe the drive and reinstall Windows, assuming that's what you plan
to do.
Before you take that route, however, make darn sure the woman has a VERY
recent backup of all of her stuff cause everything (including her
livelyhood) will be wiped from the system. If she doesn't, you need to
connect the drive to another system and copy everything you can before
proceeding with the install. You just might be saving her a TON of serious
grief by putting her precious data ahead of quick progress. :)
Peace,
Gman
http://www.bornagainamerican.org
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thom Green" <twg@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 6:51 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Dell Inspiron/Vista
> Hi Group:
> I've been a long time member,unfortunately,a very infrequent
> contributor, but have been reading the digest every day.G-man you are a
> hoot!
> Now to the problem: A friend of a friend has a Dell Inspiron 1520 with
> Vista installed.Apparently the lady who owns the machine had a problem
> with the dvd player stopped working after playing an audio cd.She
> uninstalled/re-installed the software & drivers to no avail.My said
> friend took a look and suggested he do a wipe of the hard drive and
> re-install Vista(ugh). He could not do the re-install, apparently,there
> is(was) Dell firmware on the hard drive.
> I now have the laptop in front of me with the Dell supplied recovery
> Disk. I get the following message on screen: "No boot sector on internal
> hard drive" "No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot,F2 for setup
> utility Press F5 to run on board diagnostics."
> When I pressed F5, the following comes up: "Error Code 0147
> Msg: Error Code 2000-0147
> Msg: Unit 0: Optical drive BIST -- Spindle test failed."
> Would anyone have any suggestions.This machine is the lady's
> livelihood, and I would really like to help her out. Thanks in advance.
> Thom
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