I am having some problems with my Dell Dimension 8100. When the power button is pushed the computer comes on. Then the Dell splash screen comes on and stays on for about 2 mins. Then a black screen comes on and it tells me the Primary 1 and secondary Hard drive cannot be found. Then under that is says strike the F! key to continue and the F2 key to run setup utility. When I strike the F1 key the main desktop comes up and everything seems to be running fine, although a little slow. I would like to fix what ever is causing the black screen to appear, but I need advise on how to do that. I have also tried to run scandisk and it keeps restarting, then a window pops up and says, "Scandish has rstarted 10 times, becuase another program has been writing to this drive". Then it wants to know if I want to continue. The problem is I don't have any other programs running. What is causing this to happen?

The only specs I have is that it has a Pheonix Rom BIOS Plus Version 1.10 AO8

Thanks in advance for all your help.
R.R.

I suggest the following:
Windows ME has a restore feature you can go to and restore your computer back to a time when all was working okay. Click Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore. Chose a previous date and restore your settings. Also do following:
>Insert your startup floppy disk. At the A> prompt, change to C:\ and type in scandisk /all (notice the space between k and /)
>If you did not create a floppy startup disk, boot computer up and exit to DOS prompt then type in scandisk / all
>Next, click Start Run and type in scanreg /fix
>If you do not have following, go to CNet and download following. The software is free and works with all operating systems;
Download: Ad-Aware SE Personal and Spybot-Search &Destroy.
*The programs will search your harddrive for any spyware. DO NOT RUN BOTH PROGRAMS AT THE SAME TIME.
>Run a 'full and complete' virus scan under the "MyComputer" tab.
Post back and let us know how all is going.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.