[hulud]

while troubleshooting a cd-rom drive that isnt working i tried to uninstall it in device manager and accidentally did the disk drive instead! now my pc keeps booting into windows setup and not the OS. can anyone help me get back into windows?

thanks

[Advertisements]

Hi, welcome to this site
remember we are working blind so bare with us
to help others reply to your question
if you haven't mentioned it yet:
- what model of computer
- what os, XPpro or home
- how old is it

to topic then, how about
- set boot to cd, repair with xpcd of same flavor

or

- see if you can download drivers form net
do you have the cd that goes with the motherboard(is it desktop)

Edited by fleamailman, 20 November 2006 - 11:03 AM.

[fleamailman]

Hi, welcome to this site
remember we are working blind so bare with us
to help others reply to your question
if you haven't mentioned it yet:
- what model of computer
- what os, XPpro or home
- how old is it

to topic then, how about
- set boot to cd, repair with xpcd of same flavor

or

- see if you can download drivers form net
do you have the cd that goes with the motherboard(is it desktop)

Edited by fleamailman, 20 November 2006 - 11:03 AM.

[hulud]

hi, thanks for your reply.

the pc is a dell precision 330 workstation, about 5 years old.

i cant boot to cd because the cd rom drive is not working.. in fact it will not even open if i push the button. i am fairly sure it is dead, because it is hooked up and has power connected. i do have the xp cd... just cant do anything with it.

do you mean download drivers from the net on another machine? i have the correct cd, and yes its a desktop... but i cant boot the machine to xp regardless.

[Retired Tech]

What happens if you boot the PC and keep tapping F8

[-OCM770-]

open the CD drive with an opened paper clip, there should be a small hole on the drive, insert the paper clip there, push and the drive will manually open. There is a little rubber belt between to plastic gears, check if it's adjusted properly, if not just adjust it yourself, its pretty easy, if its broken you'll have to get a new one. Usually if that belt is not in place the computer wont see the drive, ive fixed drives this way before.


-OCM770-

good luck

[hulud]

What happens if you boot the PC and keep tapping F8

keyboard failure

[hulud]

open the CD drive with an opened paper clip, there should be a small hole on the drive, insert the paper clip there, push and the drive will manually open. There is a little rubber belt between to plastic gears, check if it's adjusted properly, if not just adjust it yourself, its pretty easy, if its broken you'll have to get a new one. Usually if that belt is not in place the computer wont see the drive, ive fixed drives this way before.


-OCM770-

good luck

yup appears to be okay... thanks though

[wannabe1]

Can you boot to the BIOS setup by pressing the F2 key at the first splash screen? If you can, is your HDD listed there?

[hulud]

^yes, and yes

[wannabe1]

See if you can find an option to set the BIOS default settings...some times called "Fail Safe Default". On some machines, pressing the F5 key will set this. Save your settings (F10) if you make any and see if it will boot.

Does your machine have a floppy drive aboard?

[hulud]

i dont see a way to reset the BIOS settings, f5 doesnt appear to do anything.

yes, i have a floppy drive

[hulud]

ok, i guess it did do something, because i exited bios and it booted into XP..

thanks very much!

[wannabe1]

Great!

Wanna take on the cd-rom problem?

[hulud]

it appears to be working right now.. i plugged it into a different plug, so i guess that one was dead...

thanks!

[wannabe1]

Glad to help!