Hello, Just joined this forum. I purchased a Dell GX110 desktop off of EBAY with Windows 2000 Pro Already loaded and it came with Reinstall CD W2K + SP1. Its a Dell CD. Computer is a 866mhz, 256ram, 10gig. My problem is after unboxing and hooking up, Start up windows, gets to logo screen with blue loading bar, Stops halfway and stays there. The OS will boot into safe mode. Tried last known good config. with no results. When it freezes during startup the three lights on the right hand side of durabrand keyboard light up at same time and screen blinks maybe once or twice and thats it. The loading bar sits in the middle. I have spent some hours checking previous threads from this site and other sites without finding a definitive fix for this. The computer is only hooked up to moniter,keyboard,and mouse. Tried reinstall disk booting from cdrom, end up with a flashing cursor on top left of screen. My cdrom is #1 on boot,harddrive id #2. If I've left anything out please let me know

Back for round 2, I have delved further into my problem and here are more results. I can boot into Windows Desktop using safe mode, Windows Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Loaded backup Dell CD while in safe and tried to reinstall Windows 2000 Pro from Add/Remove programs section. Error message I receive is Drive D is not accessible which is the CDROM drive. Whats confusing me is when I shut down and reboot from scratch with my bootable Windows Repair CD by PC Professor it boots up just fine, takes command prompts, moves me to next program on CD that I ask for although I am not knowlegeable enough to take advantage of all the programs offered as I am AFEARED of screwing up things worse than they already are. When I play a music CD I get the player and you can see the track its playing running but I hear no sound coming from internal Desktop speaker. Maybe I need to change out CDROM drive which may be the root cause of why windows wont load. I Just don't know. I also have a LIVE DSL O/S CD and a live Puppy Linux CD that I've tried to boot up but on the screen during boot I get a flashing cursor for about 10 seconds and it goes directly to Windows 2000 normal botting and freezes on the loading bar again. I will keep updating as I delve into further. Time to break down the living room for the new 52" LCD TV being delivered today.

Is the CD drive recognized in the BIOS Setup?

Is this the computer:

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...=us&l=en&s=gen

Bios reads Primary Drive 0-Hardrive, Secondary Drive 0- CD-ROM Reader. Boot sequence says, 1. IDE CD-Rom Device, 2. Hard Disk Drive C, 3. Diskette Drive. All items in Boot sequence have check marks next to numbers so they should be enabled. Went to Dell Support, (thanks for the link by the way), Went through the Menu going for Dell Optiplex GX110 running Dell Windows 2000 Pro and it sent me to Windows XP Troubleshooting. Decided to reply to your message first and try the Dell Website again later. Its 1:15 am in West Texas and I'm ready to call it a night. Happy Trails and keep the rubber side down.

Another thing I should mention is that this Dell computer is not hooked up to the net yet. I am doing all this troubleshooting offline and am using the wifes Acer Aspire to communicate.

Another forgotten thing to list is in Bios when I hit Enter on CD-ROM Reader, It lists it in Auto, Drive Capacity n/a.

Does the BIOS specifically ID your drives e.g. Sony DVD 54321 xyz ?

Another link:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx110/

This is an old computer circa '99 > yes?

Anyway just wanted to add the link.

Will be back tomorrow too.

No Jephree, No manufacturer details in Bios. Wouldn't I have to retrieve that info from Device Manager in Safe mode under Properties? If so it tells me device is working properly.Thanks for the other link. Yes its an older computer circa 1999. Have to figure out if its a plug in processor or slotted processor to retrieve manual now. Maybe I should just retrieve both.Merry Christmas Jephree and thanks for your help and info so far. Talk again tommorrow or day after. Wil update on what I will try later on. Respectfully HJ

Sorry to interrupt....

"on CD-ROM Reader, It lists it in Auto, Drive Capacity n/a"

This is normal for older bios's.

"No manufacturer details in Bios."

That information will usually be listed on the POST screen when you boot. Only some bios's (ie; newer) will list it within the bios program.

Dan, thanks for info. You can inturrupt and throw in your 2 cents any time. I am open to any suggestions on this problem. I am going to try another CD-Rom out of a IBM A-30 desktop that I know is working. Only thing that concerns me about the swap is having the drivers to run it after the swap. I guess you can't learn without experimenting. If this plan works I will post update on my results. Merry Christmas everyone. HJ