[bubbad]

I have an older Dell dimension L1000R Pentium III. It is running ok but is kind of slow. I am fairly knowledgeble with restoring computers but this opne is driving me nuts.

I am currently running XP and am trying to restore to XP.

When restarted and the Dell splash screen pops up i hit ESC and then delete to enter BIOS setup

The desktops uses BIOS Version A11

I have attempted to move the ATAPI CD Rom to the top of the Boot Device list, move floppy to last and even remove floppy completely but on startup instead of information to delete old partition and install new OS it pops up " Invalid Boot Diskette" Insert boot diskette into drive A.

I have the disk in the cd drive and i know it works as a boot disk as i have used it just yesterday on a different pc.

I have even attempted to make the computer recognize the cd rom as the primary IDE Master under IDE controllers.

All this and I still recieve the same message of invalid boot diskette in drive A

Any help at all or ides would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

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Please don not duplicate post. This makes it hard to help you.
Topic 1

Topic 2
I have closed the other two since this issue seems to be hardware related.

[rshaffer61]

Please don not duplicate post. This makes it hard to help you.
Topic 1

Topic 2
I have closed the other two since this issue seems to be hardware related.

[bubbad]

my apologies with the duplicate threads. no harm intended

[rshaffer61]

First you need to disable floppy drive seek in the bios.
Second the cdrom does not need to be primary ide master
In the bios you need to disable floppy drive not just move it
Then find the above mentioned entry and disable it.
Make sure to save before you exit.
Let me know the results

[bubbad]

Went to BIOS again today.. first off i disabled the floppy drive from the boot list. moved atapi cd-rom to top again. was unable to find floppy drive seek in the bios anywhere..bios is version A11....i thought about updating bios to maybe be able to have that feature but even with that i would need to save bios files to a disk to boot and i obviously cant do that..and i havent seen a floppy disk around my home for a long time so thats out of the question too. sorry if its something i am missing. i appreciate your help already and any other ideas you are able to give me

Thanks ;-)

[rshaffer61]

And the result of all this changing is?

[bubbad]

sorry i thought i would be understood. after disabling floppy drive from boot and moving cd-rom to top it still went write to desktop. i also tryed to go into diskette config and disabled floppy there but then on restart it gave me an error wishing me to start windows from an earlier best known config.

[rshaffer61]

i also tryed to go into diskette config and disabled floppy there

I take it you mean you did this in the BIOS?

[bubbad]

yes i did that in BIOS

[rshaffer61]

So from post 7 I don't understand if the system is booting into windows or is it stopping?
If not try this to see if there is a recovery partition on your system.

The key combination is CRTL + F11 pushing the keys at the same time at the the dell screen during post. Once you push them then you want to release them. It should go into the recovery partition so you can do a system restore.

IS the disk you are trying to boot with a recovery disk or a XP disk?
Did it come with the system originally?
If not is it a full version or a upgrade?

[bubbad]

Ok...the system will boot fine into windows..

the disk i have is an xp disk. its a friends pc and he doesnt remember whether it had it or not already.

i owe him a favor and he wants to start on a clean slate so i said i would delete old partitions of xp and reinstall.

like i said when i attempt to use the xp as a boot disk it wants a boot diskette in floppy drive A:. when disabled in boot list in BIOS, nothing happens. when i disable the floppy drive in BIOS under diskette config. i get an error and system continues into windows. i have used this disk on a ton of computers before for reinstall with no problem. like i said this pc does have an older vers. of BIOS. It is Vers. A11

I am at a loss here.

[rshaffer61]

Well it took some researching but I think I found the answer.
Go to the Dell Support Page and get the following Bios update.

Version A14 Dated 10\15\2001

If you are comfortable with flashing your bios then this should fix the issue by adding the Floppy Drive Seek option.
Please do not proceed if you are not comfortable with flashing a bios.

[bubbad]

im sure i could handle but i have never heard of 'flashing the bios' if you could direct me to a page with directions or give me steps i would greatly appreciate it

[bubbad]

i found http://freepctech.com/pc/001/006.shtml with instructions on how to flash the bios....

is this what i will need to do?

i will await your answer before i do anything else

Thanks Again

[bubbad]

or do you kbnow of a better way or a site with more detailed instructions