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    Dell Inspiron 8000-trying to resurrect

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by shokan, Oct 15, 2008.

  1. shokan

    shokan Notebook Enthusiast

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    Someone gave me his old Inspiron 8000. The logon PW is lost so I can't get into W2K. I replaced the old hard drive with a new one with nothing on it. I also replaced the broken CD-ROM with a new one, except it had to go in the slot where the floppy drive was before. So, there is no floppy drive now and the original slot where the broken CD-ROM was is now empty.

    When I start this machine, there is the Dell splash screen and then black with "Fixed optical drive not found. Remove discs or other media and press any key to restart". Pressing any key only duplicates the "Remove disc and restart" message. I tried pressing F1 and also ESC after pressing the start button hoping to get the BIOS, but it didn't happen.

    If possible, I want to get this thing going again. How do I get Windows onto this empty HD?.... or, not. If it's real complicated I'm skee-rewed.

    Thanks.
     
    shokan, Oct 15, 2008
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  2. atbnet

    atbnet Notebook Prophet

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    How did you fit a CD-ROW drive into the floppy slot and why couldn't you just put it in where you removed the old broken CD-ROM?
     
    atbnet, Oct 19, 2008
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  3. shokan

    shokan Notebook Enthusiast

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    The new CD-ROM only fits in the front slot where the floppy unit was. It's thicker than the previous one.
     
    shokan, Oct 19, 2008
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