"no boot device available" on dell computer - help !

This means one of two things, either your HDD died, lost it's format, or your bios was reset with no hard drive enabled. The best way to determine if your hard drive is dead or not is to put a windows boot CD in the CD Drive and restart the computer, CTRL-ALT-DEL and watch the boot sequence. Dell computers have the F12 key to select an alternate boot device, other pc's may have CTL-ESC or some other key. Anyway just select the CD to boot from and try to install windows when it gets to the Target selection if the C: drive is available then the drive might still be viable, if not replace your HDD and try again. Google HDD Replacement on your pc's model number, it will help. Good Luck

Computer is not configured to boot from your hard disk drive (SATA 0),
you need to go into the BIOS (set-up) menu and make that drive the fisrt boot device.

That blinking cursor is the way in which the BIOS is telling you that Windows or any other OS is missing . Since you are getting it without even an hdd connected it means that the southbridge is defective. Which means that the motherboard is dead, replace it.

A boot device stores your operating system (i.e. Windows), and is usually your hard drive, but can be any storage medium such as a floppy, usb flash drive, or even a cd rom. When you turn your computer on, your motherboard looks for your OS on any of the storage devices specified in your bios, in the order specified to look first (Ex. Boot order: 1. CD-Rom, 2. Floppy, 3. Hard Drive, 4. Network). Your Dell is telling you that it can't find Windows on any of these devices. Most likely cause is that your hard drive stopped working, your Windows boot.ini file became corrupted, or you have a USB device plugged into your computer, and it needs to be unplugged before turning on your computer.

If there is no HDD or any other boot device the BIOS will always be present. This problem occurs if you haven't installed any Operating System on the HDD. So when the computer is booting it finds no booting device files and that's why showing error message. Format your HDD and install OS to boot smoothly. But if you have HDD with OS still this error happening then it might be a reason of corrupt system files which are required during booting or it may be the case that your HDD is damaged and cannot boot from there. If your HDD is damaged and still showing on the BIOS it may happen because it is detecting as a device but the as the device is damaged is cannot boot from it. Check these steps to solve your issue.

Generally an indication that the Hard Drive isn't detected
Things to check, go to BIOS F2, reset defaults and reboot, see if the HDD is seen. If it is, the battery on the motherboard is likely dead and needs replacement (Watch battery at Walmart, 3 dollars)
If the HDD doesn't detect after resetting the BIOS, then most likely a Hard Drive failure

Hi,
You have to go into bios and make the 1st boot order device your cd /dvd rom. (disable hd, other dvd's if you have them and floppy if you have one). Also you should disable boot from other devices if it's there. This will allow you to directly boot from the cd and reformat. Remember to enable HD and make this your first boot order after windows starts the first time. hank

No boot device means that the computer cannot find a drive that has a operating system files and therefore cannot boot up.
This usually means that the hard drive in the computer is faulty.
You need to get a new hard drive and install Windows on the hard drive, together with the drivers for the computer's installed devices and programs to get a working computer.

I had the same issue with my dell dimension 2400. The issue I was having resulted in the connection to the drive was loose. Try taking off the side of the case, find the drives in question and reseating the plugins. My pc was quite a bit older though and i don't know if this will be your solution, but its worth a shot. You can even try installing a different cable and swapping to another power supply plug.

Could be an overheating problem.

Power it off & disconnect the power. Open up the case, and use a vacuum cleaner, canned air, QTip, and be sure all dust is gone from the fans, vents, and other openings.

You may need to do this on a regular (monthly or so) basis, especially if you have pets, as I do. Also, consider getting the computer up off the floor if you can, and make sure it gets good airflow.

Something I've seen occasionally on Dell boxes is that they'll have problems booting up or shutting down if a USB device is attached to them (not the keyboard or mouse, but a flash drive, USB hub, or similar.)

If that applies to you, disconnect the devices to get it to boot. Then, add one device at a time, shutting down and starting up again. You might determine which is the offender, and see if there are new drivers available.

I had a Logitech device that cause a problem. I removed their drivers, and Windows loaded it's own, and the problem went away.

Hope that helps.