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need help restarting my computer please

16 years ago

Dell Dimension 4500 Series, Windows XP, IE6.

It froze up I tried to do (Alt Ctrl Delete) that did nothing.So the only way I could shut it down was by pushing the button. When I tried to start it back up it will not start. I get the first screen that starts with

Copyright 1996-2002 Intel Corp.

and ends with

Primary Master Hard Disk Error

Press to Run SETUP

well when I do that I get

Dell Dimension 4500 Series SETUP page and I have no ideal what to do next. Please can someone help this old unlearned GGGrandma with very simple instructions. thanks so much Darlene

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Comments (7)

zep516
16 years ago
Does not sound good, sounds like your hard drive has failed,
Are you getting an Error # if so please post it.
darlene32008
Original Author
16 years ago
No Error # Nothing at all. thanks
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mikie_gw
16 years ago
hard drive failure... I might want to look in bios and try to assertain if the hard drive parameters are set correctly or maybe set it to automatic detect.

If that's not it, probably open the case and unplug the cables to the hard drive and reinsert them, both on the hard drive and the motherboard.

Something to start with anyhow.

Could be something as simple as the time is set incorrectly or the cmos battery on the motherboard is old and needs replacing.
PKponder TX Z7B
16 years ago
wow, off topic, but is anyone else seeing lines through the text in Mikie's post? Also see it in the last 4 lines of Darlene's first post.

Pam
owbist
16 years ago
Yes the strike throughs are there Pam. I thought in Mikie's case it was his sense of humour :-) but there is nothing in the html coding to suggest strikethrough is called for in either post.
mikie_gw
16 years ago
Original poster had apparently written;
Press <DEL> to Run SETUP ...

I experimented and meant to delete that strike method but previewed and shugged.
PKponder TX Z7B
16 years ago
That's a relief, I thought there were gremlins in my puter ;-) A lil tech support humor.

Pam

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