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my computer will not boot and it does not see the cd drives?

my computer will not boot I have tried everything to get it to boot and now some how or another i have turned the cd drives off so all i have is the floppy. it will not run windows or any programs at all. Please help
I have a dell computer with windows98 and 2 cd drives one being a burner as well.
Donna, May 2007
Open the case and just look for disconnected IDE cables or power cables, they can fall off if there is dstrain on them.

Hmm, well if the connector cables are on the drives incorrectly many older systems will not boot. So try it in stages... first disconnect all the drives. Usually these are ribbon cables that plug into the motherboard and to the drives. Then turn the computer on and see if it boots and where it gets to fail. If it gives an error about the floppy drive press F1 (or what it tells you to) to keep going. You should get an error about not finding a boot disk. This is ok as the drive is dosconnected. Reconnect the cables individually... floppy drive first then each drive in turn testing after each one.. The connectors have many pins and if the connector is guided gently over the pins it will push on without effort. Look for a locating plastic lump that sits on the connector and fits in a slot designed for it. Keep turning the machine on again after each cable is connected and watch the boot process. It will tell you when it is not right! Keep going with all drives!
Contact me if u get stuck!

Mart9012, June 2007
link Click here to see other fixes for Dell.