Pending OP Response PC's keep stating no drive found

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J

jay73

PCHF Member
Sep 12, 2024
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51
Hello Everyone,

First post here and hoping I can get some assistance.

So I have a few Dell Optiplex PC's (3060, 3090 and similar).

They had not being used in a while and now when I am trying to use them, they start beeping stating no drive found.

Drives are WD SSD Drives.

I refuse to believe that all of a sudden all these drives have just gone bad.

On one of the PC's, I decided I would update the BIOS and so I have a flash drive ready with the latest BIOS and I can't even seem to boot to the flash drive, it doesn't come up as an option.

So, I wanted to reach out to see if others have had similar issues with similar Dell PC's?

Thanks
 
USB sticks that have a BIOS firmware update on them are not bootable unless specifically done so by yourself.
The process of saving the BIOS update doesn't do that for you, that I'm aware of.

The usual process is you save the new update to your stick, then boot the PC into BIOS and tell BIOS where to get the new firmware update from.

So, getting the Dell to boot first is your first goal.
How long have they been sitting for?
Maybe the motherboard button cell batteries are flat.
But that shouldn't stop them from physically starting.

I would be guessing that maybe some components have become undetectable through oxidisation.
Easily checked by removing the memory sticks and graphics card (if used) and wiping their contact points, their circuit boards, and their motherboard slots with a soft bristled brush, then reseating them.

While you have the side cover removed, also give everything a general once-over, and clean-up.
 

Flashing the BIOS​

About this task​

It is recommended to flash the BIOS when an update is available or when you replace the system board. To flash the BIOS:

Steps​

  1. Turn on your computer.
  2. Go to www.dell.com/support.
  3. Click Product support, enter the Service Tag of your computer, and then click Search.
    NOTE If you do not have the Service Tag, use the product ID or manually browse for your computer model.
  4. Click Drivers & downloads > Find drivers.
  5. Select the operating system installed on your computer.
  6. Scroll down the page and expand BIOS.
  7. Click Download to download the latest version of the BIOS for your computer.
  8. After the download is complete, navigate to the folder where you saved the BIOS update file.
  9. Double-click the BIOS update file icon and follow the instructions on the screen.
 
Hello,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't have any updates just yet, as I haven't had time to get back to this particular issue.

These are work computers that I am dealing with and been a little busy since I posted with some other stuff.

As soon I get a chance to get to this, I will update.
 
I work at a University.

We do have a Central IT Department for the whole campus.

And I am actually the IT Specialist for my department.

But these PC's were purchased by our department directly and Central IT won't really assist in fixing these issue.

My problem is I don't deal with tech issues like this on a daily basis, it's been a while since I have done such tech work and even though I have plenty experience from the past, I'm just a bit rusty at a few things but this forum and some other YT video's have helped me in my troubleshooting skills again.

I appreciate all the feedback so far.
 
How many Dell's are we talking about, and how many have this beeping issue?

Outstanding points from post #2 - how old are they, and have you removed the memory sticks, and graphics cards (if they have them) and cleaned them?
 
Well, I tried reseating the memory chip and left the motherboard battery sitting out over 24 hours. I looked over other components and all looked ok to me.

Same issue.

These PC's have integrated graphics and they are about 3 to 4 years old, so not that old.

What I tried today is, I took out the Hard Drive (a WD SSD) and popped it into another similar Dell PC and same result. Hard Drive not found.

I took the drive from that Dell PC (a older style drive - platter) and popped it into the PC that is having issues and it booted just fine.

So, obviously, it's the drive. Really sux cuz it's a SSD drive.

Well I took the SSD and put it back in it's original place and put that PC aside.

Fortunately, it's not a PC that needs to be used right now.

I am going to assume the couple other PC's that are having similar issues also have drives that are the issue.

I will need to mess around with these a little later.

I need to now move on and image PC's that are actually in use to Win 11.

I appreciate the feedback.

If I come across any other updates, I will certainly post.
 
Weird that it is all the Dell PC's, and all the SSD's.

In BIOS check the drive boot type is set to AHCI.
And also try installing Windows from scratch onto one of those SSD's, in one of those Dell's, using a bootable USB stick created from the Windows Media Creation Tool.
When prompted, delete all current partitions on the drive, and the install process will set it up correctly, automatically for you.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion, have tried that.

Problem is, at least on this particular PC that I was trying to troubleshoot, the drive did was not recognized at all and so couldn't even try to install Windows from boot because the drive did not appear as option.

Will see if is an option on other ones.

One other PC on which I did install Win 11 just fine, all of a sudden started beeping one morning with same error, drive not found.

It was working fine.

Haven't got to that one yet.

Maybe a bad batch of drives?
 
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