PCA Forums

I have a Dell desktop that freezes at the Dell logo. I can't access BIOS or do anything for that matter so I'm assuming I can rule out a hard drive failure?

Anyway, I'll be opening it up soon. Anything to look out for?

I wouldn't rule out the Hard Drive. Unplug it and see if you can access the Bios. If you still can't, I bet you have a bad stick of RAM. Good Lick

I disconnected the hard drive and there's no freezing anymore. It says no hard drive detected. The keyboard responds now so it looks like it was a hard drive problem afterall.

I don't know anything about replacing hard drives. I have a spare HD around which is a Maxtor D540X-4K. Is it by any chance compatible with a Dell Inspiron 530? The data cable for the mobo is not compatible though so I don't think it's possible to set it up to work with an Inspiron 530.

Yup, seen it before. It is why I hate those logo boot screens. Sometimes you can hit Esc to see what it is doing.

Sounds like a bad drive and BIOS is waiting for it to initialize. Might just be a dirty or bad drive cable. Unplug both ends and plug it back in to clean it. If that doesn't work, try another cable.

Otherwise you need a replacement drive. That PC needs a modern SATA interface drive. I'm guessing that old drive you have lying around is IDE. You will also need a Dell OEM operating system install CD. I have them all if you need one. Drivers you can get from Dell's website.