ok i was on here asking about a laptop a while ago... this is a different one. it's an inspiron 4100 with 1.3ghrtz processor and 30 gig HD running windows XP home. my friend thought the hard drive was fried... i took it out and stuck it in my inspiron 3800 with 600mhrtz processor and was able to run the recovery disk (form his computer) and the hard drive seems perfectly fine. when i start his computer with the hard drive back in i get a 0x0000007b error and it won't go any further. when i go into setup the configure thing is locked so it will boot
floppy
hard drive
cd rom
and i can't figure out a way to switch it. anyone have any ideas? he swears he hadn't changed anything and it just stopped one day. any help is appreciated!
mark

 

Stop 7B is an inacessable boot device. Check BIOS, make sure it sees the drive. If it does, and it is a newer Dell, press F12 at the Dell splash screen, and run the hard drive diasgnostics. I bet it's either the hard drive or the IDE/SATA bus.

 

hard drive worked flawlessly when i swapped it into my older laptop... what is an IDE/SATA bus, is it replaceable and how expensive?

 

like I PASS GAS said check in the BIOS to make sure that the drive is seen

if it is the IDE or SATA bus...it's part of the motherboard and generally not replaceable unless you buy a new mother board.

 

i think that's what it is. the primary ram slot is malfunctioning... is there any way to make the secondary slot the primary slot? i am gonna try some of the canned air to make sure it's a nice tight connection. is there anything else i can do?

 

In a laptop, I would troubleshoot in the following order:
1) remove and reinstall RAM (one at a time if more than one module installed); try to fully discharge the battery (can develop an internal short and mess up CPU voltages).
2) scrutinize the bios to make sure it sees the HD
3) check the bios to see if the CPU is not overheating, if bios has the diagnostics section. This was the problem with mine, and with some Arctic Silver I put it back in service.
-P

 

my hp just did something like this too the RAM was fried, and was goofin everythin up!!

 

Micaiahfied - PMed you, see if it helps.
-P