Author: DerekDerek
Date: Sep 9, 2008 04:08
Dear Group,
I am trying to fix a laptop for a friend. It's a DELL Inspiron 4000 with a
10GB hard drive. Date of latop is 2001, Intel P3 700MHz, 128MB RAM,
original OS is Windows ME.
This HD failed completely, making rattling noises and a "phutttt" type sound
at boot. BIOS doesn't see it. I tried it in another laptop, that also
didn't see the hard drive. So bought a new hard drive of 120GB, smallest
size in pcworld.
I fitted the new 120GB and it doesn't show up in BIOS of the laptop. I
tried the new 120GB in another laptop just to make sure it works, it worked
fine in other laptop. I made an 8GB partition in the hope that the Dell
laptop might see the hard drive, but it still doesn't see it.
80GB hard drive, I also tried one of these. It didn't see this either.
I've looked on the dell forum and it's possible that the laptop might not
support 120GB drive, but dell won't say what hard drive it will support, or
where the limit is. So without a response from DELL I'm stuck.
I'm guessing it's a BIOS or motherboard limit.
BIOS version 15, the newest is in 2002 and it's ver 23. I'm going to flash
this and see if it helps.
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