Re:also, I might buy another SATA cable and switch it with the one in the computer to see if that is the problem since you mentioned that could be a possibility. He didn't switch the cable out to my knowledge.
Re:Penguin,
I had installed the chipset drivers off the resource CD a few days ago, well after the drivers for the audio/video/etc were installed. Do you mean I should re-install those other drivers off the CD again? Bit confused at that process, as in do I need to uninstall those drivers first and then install again, or can I simply pop the resource CD in and install over top of the drivers that I already have.
I'm starting to wonder if I should just erase and format the whole drive, and install XP again from scratch……and make sure I load the drivers in the right order this time. Not sure if that will fix the errors though.
Re:You absolutely HAVE TO install the chipset driver. It should have been the first driver installed. After installing it I would recommend re-installing the other major drivers.
I don't think your problem is related to the chipset drivers, but try it. If you still have problems I'd get them back out there. As I said before, it's possible you have a problem with the controller or you may have a bad power supply that's killing your hard drives (I've seen that many times and it happened to me on my own rig).
The techs that Dell sends out work for a local company and are sub-contracted. If they're in a hurry to go to another job they'll start the process like that one did and walk away if you let them.
I personally think that's bad form since the average non-techie could run into problems installing the drivers afterwards, but a Windows install does mean sitting around for at least 45 minutes twiddling your fingers.
Re:I may call Dell back to fix it like you suggested, guess I'm just nervous since they didn't do it right the first time. By the mobo drivers, do you mean chipset drivers? Dell support told me to install certain drivers after installing the OS (using their resource CD), and had me install video/audio/etc. But even though I saw an option to install chipset drivers, she told me I didn't have to do that.
Guess she was wrong. uhoh.
Re:Depending on the controller SATA drives can show up as either an IDE device or a SCSI device.
Did you install the drivers after installing the OS? You MUST install the Intel Mobo drivers first before anything. Just pop the driver CD in the computer. If you don't have one, you can download the drivers from Dell's website after entering your service tag.
If it's under warranty I'd insist they come back out and finish the job and install the OS clean for you. There might be other hardware issues. Maybe you have a bad mobo (possibly a bad controller) and there was nothing wrong with the drive.
Did he swap out the drive data cable? He should have. Half the time it's a bad cable or corrosion on the contacts,
Re:Wow, that sounds like one confusing problem. My brother has a Dell 8400 just like you and when I reformatted his computer I had to download some SATA drivers on a floppy and do the whole F6 deal. But, the only reason I did that is because the Windows XP Pro (SP2) installer did not recognize his HD initially. Yours did so I'm a little confused about that. Honestly, I have no clue about the errors.
Dell motherboards are proprietary, but you can find out what chipset (and a bunch of other stuff about your computer) you have by using this program: PC Wizard (http://www.cpuid.org/download/pcw2005_v165.exe). Are there any performance issues associated with these errors? Do programs lag or the computer crash and that is why you are concerned? I'm sorry I'm not much help, but I'm pretty clueless too.
0 Comments.