Dell Inspiron 8100 won't boot properly

[der_lucey]

When I turned on my laptop, the usual blue Dell logo screen (with press F2 to enter setup) came up followed by a blank screen where the cursor is at the top left flashing, the hard disk light is permanently on and it stays like that indefinitely. When I press F2 for setup, it won't go to setup.

A friend removed the hard disk, memory and battery (individually) and the same happens.

Any ideas what the problem is??

[J_Search]

der_lucey,

Could be a peripheral device messing with the BIOS, an error with BIOS itself, or perhaps BIOS is configured incorrectly. Download the latest BIOS firmware from Dell's website and flash your BIOS.

I just said BIOS 5 times. That's 6.

J_

[jhartley]

Did you ever solve this issue? I have the exact same thing... Dell screen please hit F2.. then flashing curser and nothin else. I will rebuild bios, but not sure how to get to it with the system as it currently is.

Thanks,

Jon

When I turned on my laptop, the usual blue Dell logo screen (with press F2 to enter setup) came up followed by a blank screen where the cursor is at the top left flashing, the hard disk light is permanently on and it stays like that indefinitely. When I press F2 for setup, it won't go to setup.

A friend removed the hard disk, memory and battery (individually) and the same happens.

Any ideas what the problem is??

I am having the same problem because I installed XPSP2 and got the BSOD after restart. Now I try to boot from CD to uninstall SP2 but I can't change the boot device prioroity because I press F2 when the DEll logo appears and nothing happens. So my question would be how do you flash the bios when you can't access the OS?

Thanks, Ryan

[jhartley]

Here is what worked for me... I made a bootable floppy (right click on "A:" drive and choose format and check system disk. Next download and copy to this disk the latest BIOS rev. I8100A15.exe. Now remove everything from the laptop (CD/DVD, RAM, Battery, Floppy, Hard Drive, everything that can come out). Next plug in and try to boot. Boot will not work (no ram) put in one stick of ram and the floppy drive with the boot disk inserted and boot. You will get a list of errors ending in something like boot disk failure.... Then it will say to try again hit F1. It will then boot from the floppy and give you an A: prompt. Type the name of your bios file ie: I8100A15 and hit enter. It will then flash your bios. Once flashed, turn off put all drives back in and boot.

The above instructions worked for me. You may be able to eliminate some steps, but I wanted you to know my process. hope this helps. By the way, this is what a half hour chat session ended with from Dell:

Dell Chat Log

Agent (ASHUTOSH_01142660): "Jon now I understand the issue. It seems that motherboard is faulty."

Agent (ASHUTOSH_01142660): "Jon since the system's warranty has been expired. So I would request you to purchase the replacement parts from Dell sales."

[zmancommander]

Was that a permanent fix ?

Here is what worked for me... I made a bootable floppy (right click on "A:" drive and choose format and check system disk. Next download and copy to this disk the latest BIOS rev. I8100A15.exe. Now remove everything from the laptop (CD/DVD, RAM, Battery, Floppy, Hard Drive, everything that can come out). Next plug in and try to boot. Boot will not work (no ram) put in one stick of ram and the floppy drive with the boot disk inserted and boot. You will get a list of errors ending in something like boot disk failure.... Then it will say to try again hit F1. It will then boot from the floppy and give you an A: prompt. Type the name of your bios file ie: I8100A15 and hit enter. It will then flash your bios. Once flashed, turn off put all drives back in and boot.

The above instructions worked for me. You may be able to eliminate some steps, but I wanted you to know my process. hope this helps. By the way, this is what a half hour chat session ended with from Dell:

Dell Chat Log

Agent (ASHUTOSH_01142660): "Jon now I understand the issue. It seems that motherboard is faulty."

Agent (ASHUTOSH_01142660): "Jon since the system's warranty has been expired. So I would request you to purchase the replacement parts from Dell sales."

[PCTS4YOU]

I had the same problem with mine, but fortunately I was able to get into the BIOS and set to default/factory settings and didn't need to take any steps further past these: Now remove everything from the laptop (CD/DVD, RAM, Battery, Floppy, Hard Drive, everything that can come out). Next plug in and try to boot. Boot will not work (no ram) put in one stick of ram...
"The above instructions worked for me. You may be able to eliminate some steps, but I wanted you to know my process."
-So, yes, I was able to eliminate the steps. Will probably update the bios regardless.

Many Thanks,

Chris Schneider, Manager
PCTS4YOU

[Fyxx]

This morning I've just experience a similar problem with a Dell Lattitude 630: the usual blue Dell logo screen (with press F2 to enter setup) came up followed by a blank screen where the cursor is at the top left flashing, the hard disk light is off and it stays off. When I press F2 for setup, it won't go to setup.

I took it out of it's dock, let it cool down for a while as it had become very hot during my multiple attempts at booting. When I popped out the DVD drive then it booted fine. Whew!