Computer problems?!?!?!

[CEET400ex]

OK heres the deal...i just bought a new Dell computer 2 weeks ago and like the 3rd day i had it it turned on and beeps twice adn comes up this black screen that says "primary drive 0 could not be found"...so i call dell and sit with them adn trouble shoot for like an hour and unplug the thinck cables that run from the hard drive to the motherboard and the cd rom to the motherboard....its reads the cd rom but it will not pick up the hard drive....and when i open the service thing and look at what it says for the primary drive it says "unknown device"...Dell told me it might be a loose connection and to try unplugging and plugging back in the cables.... and sometimes i can get it to work.... but now i cant get it to work anymore... and its makin me mad cuz its only like 2 weeks old.....could it be that the cable or the plug ins on the motherboard and hard drive is messed up and i could just get a new cable......or is it the hard drive messed...i hope not cuz its not old at all....and they wont take it back because its a refurbished system??....anyone have any clue??

[LTandRaptorider]

First of all, even though it's a refurbished unit, doesn't it have a warranty? Check to make sure you don't have an in house service warranty... if so, make them send someone out to fix it. Usually refurbished have some kind of warranty, even if it's only six months. If no warranty... you've already unplugged and plugged back in the cable, a good place to start. It sounds like you have a faulty hard drive. Before going any further, make sure they shouldn't be fixing it! Good luck.:(

[MOFO]

I'm gonna bet your hard drive is done.... if the CD-ROM drive works on the same cables, then its your hard drive.... go pick one up for under $50...

[gojk]

If it is new, I would make dell pay for it. Sounds deff like a Hard Drive. Make sure the Cd-Rom works on the same IDE channel and that would def make it the hard drive. Then try changing the power plug on the Hard Drive and make sure it isn't a powersupply(which it doesn't sound like).

But I would make Dell pay for it first. Most of the refurbs are like 90 day warrenties.

[CEET400ex]

hey when i plug the cord from the hard drive into the secondary drive port on the motherboard and the cdrom cable to the primary port on the motherboard and turn it on it says that the primary drive is the cd rom....so i know its not the cd rom....but it has to be either the cord from the hard drive or the hard drive itself...im gettin one of those cords today or tomorrow so then i will know if thats it.....but if it turns out to be a defective hard drive im going to have Dell pay for it or just exchange the whole desktop...does any oof this info help diagnose my problem??...thanks for the help......AT

[hondafox440]

Try switching the ribbon cables. Unplug the CDROM drive completely, and use the ribbon cable from that to plug the hard drive into the primary IDE drive. Also, check the jumpers on the back of the hard drive and make sure it is set to "Master" or "Single Drive".

[CEET400ex]

the cables i switched were the ribbon cables.....ill try using the cd rom ribbon cable for the hard drive ....will that tell me if its the cable??......i cant try it till later cuz the dell is at my dads and im on my moms HP

[LTandRaptorider]

Since you've already switched the cables and the system read the cd-rom as the primary or master, then the board is ok. I'd say Dell forgot to refurbish the hard drive. Do you have any Dell outlets near where you live? By the way, if you call Dell after 5:00pm central time, I hear calls are routed to India to "techs" that aren't very helpful. This is what I've heard from a couple of people that have had problems with their Dell. I wouldn't screw aroound with it any more, make Dell take care of the problem.

[cool 300ex]

Hey man that stinks i sure hope you get it worked out.