Dell External drive inop

[07vette]

Thanks in advance for any help.

Newbie here -

Dell Latitude X1

After about 2 years of very little use of the model #PD01S EXTERNAL DRIVE its not functioning properly - You can hear the disc spin as normal and the drive light comes on as normal and then shuts off soon after..The icon does not show up either anymore.

I see there are a few threads on simiar problems, but was wondering if I could get help as well...I was not cool with deleting drivers just in case that created more problems...

In one thread, a guy got help by removing a driver from the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers...under main heading, I have Intel(r) 82801FB/FBM Ultra storage contollers - 266F
AND
Primary IDE controllers

So, I didnt want to just start deleting without knowing what I was doing..
Any thoughts, is it normally the drive?
Dan

 

[kimsland]

Only way to confirm this is to run a Drive Diagnostics on your HardDrive

By the way this link will take you to all information on your system, including downloads: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic100658.html

 

[07vette]

any of this information helpful?
Here are the scan Results
Latitude X1
General
Family Name Latitude
Family Model X1
Windows Version Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
BIOS
Version A05
Vendor Dell Inc.
Date 2005-12-25
Processor
Model Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.10GHz
Speed 1.1 Ghz
Cache Size 2048 Kb
Hard Drive
Drive Size Free Space Utilized
C: 27.9 Gb 4.08 Gb 85 %

Sound Card
Model SigmaTel C-Major Audio
Card Slots
Slot ID Designation Usage
System Slot 0 PCMCIA 0 Available
System Slot 1 MiniPCI Available

USB Controlers
Name Version
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2658 USB
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2659 USB
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265A USB
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265B USB
Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 265C USB2

Video Adapters
Model Memory
Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family 128 Mb

Memory
Total 1280 Mb
Available 46 %

Slot Size Speed Type
Slot 1 256 Mb 400 Mhz Unknown
Slot 2 1024 Mb 533 Mhz Unknown

Available Slots 0

 

[kimsland]

any of this information helpful?

Well not really !

Except I noticed that you should remove Slot 1 256 Mb 400 Mhz
And then put your 1024 Mb 533 Mhz Ram card into Slot 1 (ie move it from Slot 2)
Then, just leave the 256Meg card out. Seeming it's likely slowing your computer down!

Anyway, you need to run the Diagnostics on the HardDrive (ideally mounted inside a PC as the diagnostics run much better from there)

 

[07vette]

Dell...Support?

Well, it looks as if the drive and (or cable) is in-op after all, I am having them
send me a new one after updated drivers didnt work. I was still covered surprisingly enough!

But, I went to Dell support...Staying in the Halloween spirit - it was a nightmare!!
I gave the ok for a tech to remotely connect and work on the unit, I was watching him as he was deleting driver after driver in the ROOT HUB, im thinking, Im no tech, but my research tells me this aint right..IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers more likely thanks to you Kimsland and further googling. He rebooted once and tried a second time, of course it would not boot again,he almost wiped out my harddrive, (as per what the second tech told me anyway) He did not even have the courtesy to call me when he killed my puter', it took another hour to connect to Salt Lake city, YES! someone I can understand, thank you!!..Now its 4 and a half hours later after, I was able to get back in the system and ran a very cool little sfcscannow recovery and I was able to save the information on my harddrive...

What a day, looks like my drive situation is handled, but not before I had a nice little Dell scare..
Thanks Varun1_145032 at Dell for killing my puter and not giving a crap!

And thanks for helping me on this forum, I wanted to update you as you were very helpful to me..Mahalo, from Maui..Dan

 

[kimsland]

By the way this link will take you to all information on your system, including downloads: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic100658.html

I didn't want them to take over support for you!

Very sorry to hear the sad and slow support process of this sales company
Originally it would have looked promising I'm sure

Maybe TechSpot could have a remote assistance help service But not sure if that would be free though.

 

[07vette]

Lets do it!

With connectivity software and the clients permission, this site could make a fortune..I'll split it with ya, Dan