Problem Upgrading HDD on Presario M700

Anyone know what two flashing lights at the front means on installing a
blank HDD on an Armada M700? (Nothing else, not on pressing the power
button or on pressing sideways the other button)

There is nothing on the drive and I wanted to install an OS. It wont even
think about looking at the floppy to see to start off it.

I cant get anything more than these two flashing lights and a POWER button
light lit on the top panel

Taking the battery out doesnt seem to do anything nor does holding the
buttons dwon for a few minutes (although it DOES send the power light on
the top panel off until you take your finger off one of them)

In article , Maria Ripanykhazova
news.rnc.com@?.? writes
Anyone know what two flashing lights at the front means on installing a
blank HDD on an Armada M700? (Nothing else, not on pressing the power
button or on pressing sideways the other button)

There is nothing on the drive and I wanted to install an OS. It wont even
think about looking at the floppy to see to start off it.

I cant get anything more than these two flashing lights and a POWER button
light lit on the top panel

Taking the battery out doesnt seem to do anything nor does holding the
buttons dwon for a few minutes (although it DOES send the power light on
the top panel off until you take your finger off one of them)



I cannot pretend I know the answers, however some pointers follow.

Do you mean that you have the lights are flashing before you attempt to
power on and when you attempt to power on, nothing happens. No lights
flash, nothing on the screen and no beeps?

Is this the primary hard drive or a drive in the multi-bay adapter?

Reseat the new hard drive. Make sure it is fully home and none of the
pins are bent.

Can you get into the BIOS settings (F10 while the logo is on the screen
during the power up) and make sure that your new drive is recognised.

Why are attempting an upgrade, it may be significant. Where did you get
your new drive from? Is it designed as an upgrade to the Armada M700?

Was there a jumper (cable select/master/slave) on the old drive, have
replicated this on the new drive?

It may be worth replacing the RTC battery, on a machine this old. This
battery is a button battery underneath the Modem/combo card. Remove the
main battery and the external power supply before you attempt to change
this. Allow 5 minutes between removing the old battery and inserting
the new battery. This will reset the BIOS settings.

I hope this helps.

--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

Many thanks for your advice: I have a sneaking suspicion it was 'all of the
above' (except for the battery which I haven't tried yet) but suddenly the
unit sprang to life again

Now I can try out my slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 install disc to see how well
the creation process went.

In article , Maria Ripanykhazova
news.rnc.com@?.? writes
Many thanks for your advice: I have a sneaking suspicion it was 'all of the
above' (except for the battery which I haven't tried yet) but suddenly the
unit sprang to life again

Now I can try out my slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 install disc to see how well
the creation process went.



Good luck.

Let me know how the install goes.

The version I have for my Compaq laptop is pre SP1 and it takes me the
best part of a day to install the updates.
--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

nbg

It stopped when the install couldn't find its own hard drive: which is odd
as this computer wont start if there is no hard drive there!!

"Nicholas D Richards" wrote in message
...
In article , Maria Ripanykhazova
news.rnc.com@?.? writes
Many thanks for your advice: I have a sneaking suspicion it was 'all of
the
above' (except for the battery which I haven't tried yet) but suddenly
the
unit sprang to life again

Now I can try out my slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 install disc to see how well
the creation process went.



Good luck.

Let me know how the install goes.

The version I have for my Compaq laptop is pre SP1 and it takes me the
best part of a day to install the updates.
--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

Maria,

See my posting in this WG regarding installing on a Compaq 7461. Sounds
like you've wired up the hard-drive to the wrong drive connector.

Paul DS.

No, it is a laptop: I thought it might be something to do with the drive
coming off a Mac laptop but as I am formating the drive, it should at least
be SEEN? (or doesnt a full install of XP Pro format the drive?)

In article , Paul
D.Smith writes
Maria,

See my posting in this WG regarding installing on a Compaq 7461. Sounds
like you've wired up the hard-drive to the wrong drive connector.

Paul DS.



This would certainly explain the problem but I am not sure that this is
the case this time. In the body of the original posting the PC is
referred to as an Armada M700. I am not aware of a Presario M700, so I
assume that we are dealing with an Armada, can you confirm this Maria?
The Armada M700 is a laptop and the manual for this laptop shows that
you slide the old drive out and the new drive in. However....

Unless the drive is being inserted in the multi-bay. The drive for the
operating system should be the primary drive which is in the drive bay,
located on the side of the laptop.

If there are jumper settings on the drive that are not set correctly,
then you will have problems. The jumpers are on the back, next to the
data plug. They determine if the drive is being connected as a master,
slave or the master/slave arrangement is determined by its position on
the IDE cable (cable select). On my Compaq laptop the arrangement is
Cable Select and the hard drive just slots in.


Questions


If you look at the back of your old drive is there a jumper shorting out
two pins? If there is replicate this on your new drive and try to
install again.

What operating system do you have on the old drive?

Why are you replacing the old drive? (eg it is too small or it does not
work)?

Why is the Mac drive now being taken out of the Mac? (eg the Mac was to
receive a new drive or the Mac does not work)?

What is the ex-MAC drive (manufacturer and model/part number)

Do you have an original version of XP that you could load?

I suggest that we go one step at a time.

1 Establish that the components are compatible

2 Establish that the components all work.

3 Partition the drive

4 Install an operating system from an original disk.

5 Try to install from the slipstreamed XP.
--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

or the Mac does not work)?
Good point: There generally arent any jumpers on these laptop drives as
they arent designed to be put in with other drives. (this may not be the
case with that side-bay drive on the Armada but I didnt think you could load
an OS on it?) I did put another empty drive unjumpered into the Armada and
it loaded Windows 2000 succesfully so I thought I could load an OS onto an
unformatted drive this easily.
What is the ex-MAC drive (manufacturer and model/part number)
The drive is a Toshiba 15 gig and running PowerMax.exe (I can't find a
Toshiba test) shows it passes quick format tests and in the last stages
fails the full advanced format test on some arcane point

I may try to Partition the drive (Fdisk) on a desktop as you suggest

In article , Maria Ripanykhazova
news.rnc.com@?.? writes

or the Mac does not work)?
Good point: There generally arent any jumpers on these laptop drives as
they arent designed to be put in with other drives.

I did wonder whether there are any jumpers, the manual for the M700 does
not show any jumper settings.

(this may not be the
case with that side-bay drive on the Armada but I didnt think you could load
an OS on it?)

I assume not, only on the primary drive.

I did put another empty drive unjumpered into the Armada and
it loaded Windows 2000 succesfully so I thought I could load an OS onto an
unformatted drive this easily.

Windows 2000 and XP do include everything required to partition and
format a drive, and my experience has been that they are easy to use.

What is the ex-MAC drive (manufacturer and model/part number)
The drive is a Toshiba 15 gig

I was hoping that you would find a model number. On the Toshiba's they
begin MK followed by 4 digits and then 2 or three alpha characters. It
probably does not matter now.

and running PowerMax.exe (I can't find a
Toshiba test)

Nor could I

shows it passes quick format tests and in the last stages
fails the full advanced format test on some arcane point

I am surprised you got that far; PowerMax is supposed to check that the
drive is a Maxtor or a Quantum drive.


I may try to Partition the drive (Fdisk) on a desktop as you suggest



I meant you to do it in the M700, in the multibay or the primary
position.

I am running out of ideas now and am wondering if the drive is faulty.
The trouble is, replacement parts for laptops are so expensive.

--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"