I read the FAQ..Dell inspiron 1150 still dead

[carguy327]

Hello everyone.

I have a Dell inspiron 1150 that had a hardrive failure. I replaced the 30gb drive with a 120.
Everything is visible in the BIOS but the computer still says "no bootable device found..etc etc" The cd/dvd drive was also replaced..not working either.

I couldn't find a battery to remove to reset the cmos..so here I am. Any Idea what is dead?
controller, motherboard?? I haven't even finished paying this damned thing off..

Thanks for any help

Gerald

[sittas87]

It is most likely that your older hard drive and cd/dvd drive is still good

alternatively get a boot disk at http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
write it to a floppy disk>change your BIOS to boot from floppy first>at startup insert the disk> it will boot from the disk detecting your drives HD CD/DVD DRIVE etc.when done it will stop at a:/

from there perform a restart and see if it detects your drives.

when restarting remove the floppy and make your first boot your cd/dvd drive (in BIOS) insert your Operating disk cos you gonna need a operating system on new hard drive

[carguy327]

I don't have a floppy on my laptop..The original drive fried before the computer did. It was tested outside of the computer. The new disk supposedly has xp reinstalled on it but now can't be seen

thanks for the reply

Gerald

[sittas87]

create the above mentioned on a usb.it is advisable because the disk will detect all hardware

[coolraj003]

I dont think a preinstalled disk would work as the OS has to beinstalled again on your new HD. reason being the OS will be configured according to your mobo and other system specifications. It wont recognise your mobo if it was preinstalled in another machine. So the best thing to do is use a USb drive big enough to install windows again on to your Hard Disk.

Raj

[sittas87]

I dont think a preinstalled disk would work as the OS has to beinstalled again on your new HD. reason being the OS will be configured according to your mobo and other system specifications. It wont recognise your mobo if it was preinstalled in another machine. So the best thing to do is use a USb drive big enough to install windows again on to your Hard Disk.

Raj

you come to the same thing as what im trying to tell carguy(just in a shortcut). remember theres also no detection in cd/dvd drives.doing the boot startup will also detect the drive/s. I was using the longer way cos of assuming him not having a bigger flash

[coolraj003]

Well then i ll let you do the explaining. I ve wrapped it in a nutshell. You can crack it open and explain the whole procedure dude...lol

Raj

[Shadowsedge]

"no bootable device found..etc etc" - means that there is no OS (operating system, windows xp for example) located on the hard drive. Simply insert the Installation CD into the CD/DVD drive that came with your Inspiron 1150 and follow the instructions. Should take about an hour once you get started.

Hard drives generally DO NOT come with OS's installed and even if yours did (with windows xp) you would still have to activate it since microsoft only allows 1 OS per system and when there are major changes to the system it requires you to call microsoft to get it reactivated so that they know your not trying to install the same OS on 2 different systems.

Once your done installing the OS, your going to have to install the drivers for all the parts on your laptop...mainly the network interface card, video card, audio card and modem. After that you connect it to the internet and update your OS.

Then install your primary programs you use...office software, games, etc.

Then install your anti-virus software (AVG is a free example) and anti-spyware software (spybot is a free example)
Update them and run your first scans.