no boot device available

brutus99

Hi guys. I hope someone can help. my uncle has a dell xps710 tower pc and everytime he turned it on he was getting error messages that the time and date were not set. I told him it was the CMOS battery that was dying. so of course he bought one and opened up the pc and swapped it out. and now all that comes up when you turn it on is.
"No boot device available.
strike f1 to retry boot, f2 for setup utility"
i have a keyboard and mouse plugged in but both are unresponsive. is there anything i can do. please help, cheers guys

SterlingArcher

brutus99 wrote: »

Hi guys. I hope someone can help. my uncle has a dell xps710 tower pc and everytime he turned it on he was getting error messages that the time and date were not set. I told him it was the CMOS battery that was dying. so of course he bought one and opened up the pc and swapped it out. and now all that comes up when you turn it on is.
"No boot device available.
strike f1 to retry boot, f2 for setup utility"
i have a keyboard and mouse plugged in but both are unresponsive. is there anything i can do. please help, cheers guys

Perhaps Hardrive has come loose. Reseat it.

brutus99

no. hard drive is connected properly. i have just checked all components are seated properly

ForstalDave

brutus99 wrote: »

no. hard drive is connected properly. i have just checked all components are seated properly

Did you check both ends and power to?? other than the hard drive being disconnected or no power it looks like a dead drive or damaged cable

brutus99

i wanted to see if it would boot from a cd so i inserted a ubuntu cd i had. the load screen comes up but i still have no keyboard or mouse. so i still cant do anything

ForstalDave

brutus99 wrote: »

i wanted to see if it would boot from a cd so i inserted a ubuntu cd i had. the load screen comes up but i still have no keyboard or mouse. so i still cant do anything

keyboard and mosue plugged into front or back of the machine? i would check the cables connecting into the motherboard itself

ED E

You removed and replaced a dead CMOS battery. This wiped the bios and boot config most likely. So the drive might be there, but the board doesnt know to boot from it. Need to enter the bios and tell it to boot from the HDD as the first option.

Not all KB/Mice will work with a bios, especially on older dells. They can be quite picky. Cordless combo sets can be particularly incompatible. Get another keyboard, or even better a PS/2 keyboard, and use that to configure the bios.

seamus

It shouldn't, but replacing the CMOS battery can in some instances cause a BIOS reset.

So after ensuring that all cables on the board are firmly connected, check the BIOS settings - Order of boot discs, and whether the default input device is USB or PS/2. Some bios settings don't power on USB by default at startup, hence why the keyboard and mouse aren't working. Or on older boards they default to PS/2 input devices and ignore USB ones.

brutus99

its a usb mouse connected to a usb port at the back in the built in usb ports on the m/b and the keyboard is connected into the purple socket also on the back. these connections are soldered onto the m/b.

ForstalDave

brutus99 wrote: »

its a usb mouse connected to a usb port at the back in the built in usb ports on the m/b and the keyboard is connected into the purple socket also on the back. these connections are soldered onto the m/b.

Then the keyboard should work as seamus says check the bios, vif HDD is first check to see that it sees the hdd in connected devices

brutus99

but the keyboard doesnt work so i cant get into bios settings. this is the main obsticle so far.

ForstalDave

brutus99 wrote: »

but the keyboard doesnt work so i cant get into bios settings. this is the main obsticle so far.

Have you tried another keyboard?

brutus99

the only other one i have is a usb one. but i checked the ps/2 one on an other pc and it works fine

seamus

You could try the USB keyboard, you might get lucky.

ForstalDave

brutus99 wrote: »

the only other one i have is a usb one. but i checked the ps/2 one on an other pc and it works fine

It is worth trying the USB as its possible the ps2 port on the machine is damaged

ED E

Dell mobos are picky, PS/2 is most likely to work but you can definitely have one USB KB work while another doesnt, matter of trial and error.

Did your uncle do the replacement? Theres also the chance, if he's a novice, he damaged the board.

brutus99

i have already plugged it into every usb port. no joy. not my lucky day

brutus99

hey ed e. he did and he is. is there any way to check the mobo

ForstalDave

brutus99 wrote: »

hey ed e. he did and he is. is there any way to check the mobo

Look for damage is all really, Wehn you have the keyboards in do either get lights? Do you have any use drive with ligfht indicators you could plug in when the machine is powered up

brutus99

i dont have one. no. i might try and get a different keyboard and see if that works

brutus99

when i turn the pc on at the start the lights on the keyboard flash. but that is the only time they light up

ForstalDave

brutus99 wrote: »

when i turn the pc on at the start the lights on the keyboard flash. but that is the only time they light up

Have you tried pressing caps and numlock and seeing if the lights for them come on?

brutus99

just did no lights come on. this is frustrating

ED E

Yeah KB isnt active at all if CAPS/Num/Scroll dont toggle.

If a USB and PS/2 Keyboard are both independently not working then that hints at mobo trouble. ESD problems arent that common, but a novice wouldnt have grounded himself before opening her up.


1. Remove Mains Power
2. Remove CMOS battery
3. HOLD Power switch for 60s
4. Replace CMOS Batt
5. Replace Mains
6. Attempt boot

Unlikely to solve it, but a procedure worth trying all the same.

itsmepio

have u tryed to put that hdd into other pc to check is it a live,i had same problem with wd 500gb.sometimes just not recognized in win instalation witch was booted from cd or usb.but that issue was fixed by unstable overclock,when i set oc to auto it worked,instalation saw hdd an now working 18h/7

Johnboy1951

Did you check the battery is replaced properly?

Correct polarity and type?