Inspiron 2650; can't install new hard drive

Does the new hard drive have any jumpers on it? I think the problem lies in weather the new drive is set to Master, Slave, or Cable Select. Most Laptops prefer their drives to be Cable Select rather than specify Master or Slave.

Are you sure the Inspiron can support the 120GB hard drive?

You'd be surprised. My Inspiron 8200 put the Optical Drive and Hard disk on the same IDE channel. I had considerable difficulty upgrading to an AOpen DVD-RW drive in that system. Found out it was due to the drive not wanting to play nice with the Samsung hard drive. Switched to a Pioneer and it worked flawlessly. In fact the AOpen gave me the same "Fixed disk error" and sometimes "Fixed Optical Disk failure" It's worth double-checking rather than assuming things.

I also have an Inspiron 2650 with the most current BIOS (revision A13). It had no trouble using 60 and 80 gig EIDE hard drives. It couldn't handle a 250 gig drive upgrade, though. It's a BIOS problem.

I also have a Compal ACY13 computer which is almost identical to the 2650 (the main difference being the BIOS), and it works just fine with 250 gig hard drives. I've gotten the Dell 2650 to run with the 250 gig hard drive by flashing it with a Compal BIOS. There are very serious problems with doing that, but that's how I know it's a BIOS issue. The 2650 is a very excellent computer overall, and it would be nice if Dell updated the BIOS. I doubt that's in the cards, though.

Hey guys!

Does any one got an idea up to which HD capacity the A13 bios version supports?

Could you all please attach the exact models of your hard drive? I'd like to upgrade mine also, but i'm affraid it might not work.. so i prefer to purchase a model already tested.

splugi,

I had success with the A13 BIOS and a Samsung MP0804H 80 G hard drive with Linux. (I don't think the exact model of the hard drive would matter very much as long as it's EIDE.)

I think a lot of older computers have a drive capacity limit of around 137 G built into the BIOS. This 137 G limit seems to show up as a BIOS hang when the computer tries to boot, even if you're trying to boot from floppy or CD.

I had two other ideas. I haven't tried either of them:

1 - Try an external USB hard drive. If that works it would be simpler, because you wouldn't need to move the operating system to a new disk.

A USB hard drive would be slow with the 2650's version 1 USB ports. You'd want to add some USB 2.0 ports to the Inspiron. There are PCMCIA / Cardbus cards to do that (they plug into the expansion slot on the left hand side of the Inspiron 2650).

I've read that some of those USB 2.0 expansion cards don't supply enough power to run an external hard drive. So you might need either a USB 2.0 card that has a power cord, or a powered USB 2.0 hub. Note: Best Buy sells a Dynex powered USB 2.0 card but they don't include the 5V power adapter, and they don't say where to get one, what kind of power plug it has to have, or whether the center contact is supposed to be positive or negative.

If you already have a wireless card in the PCMCIA / Cardbus slot, you could replace it with a USB wireless stick.

2 - The other idea is to try a BIOS upgrade from an outfit called eSupport. eSupport seems to have access to Award and Phoenix BIOSes for all the old computers and their business is creating BIOS upgrades. What you have to do is download their program and run it. The program scans your BIOS and tells you if there's an upgrade available. All I can do is point you to their web page:

http://esupport.com/

I haven't tried either of these ideas.

I wish it were simpler.

David,

Thank you so so much for your detailed reply!! I really appreciate it!

I have used esupport to scan the machine and it says that I have a PhoenixBIOS 4 release 6. Apparantly this BIOS version supports up to 128-137 GB hard drives. Thus it seems it should support 120Gb hard drives and it explains why the 250Gb HD didn't work.

Anyways, I think I'm just gonna purchase a new WD 120GB IDE HD and try it with the lap-top..

Did you have any special problems when mounting your new HD?

Thanks again!!

The 2650 has very easy access to the hard drive, it's described in the owner manual that Dell has online. The only delicate operation is to move the little adapter connector from the old drive to the new one without bending the pins. Moving Windows from the old drive to the new one is a bit complicated. I can't help much with that but the procedure is easily googled. Since the 2650 doesn't have a second hard drive you may need to clone your old hard drive on a desktop system using desktop-to-laptop hard drive adapter cables. Best of luck!

I would recommend Acronis True Image. The trial version should allow you to make an exact copy of the current drive onto the new one, via an external USB housing, then just install it.

cheers ...

I just installed a Western Digital 160 GB Scorpion in my Inspiron 2650 with bios version A13 -- NO PROBLEMS!

I think the key might be to make sure you unplug the 43 pin adapter from the old drive and place it over the pins on the new hard drive. Easily overlooked. If you don't install this pin adapter, there's no way the computer is even going to see the drive

2650 hard drive replacement

I HAVE A DELL 2650 AND MY HARD DRIVE CRASHED AND I NEED TO REPLACE IT. I BOUGHT A USED HD THAT WAS COMPATABLE THE 2650, ONLY 30 G. THE BIOS RECOGNIZED IT BUT WHEN I WENT TO INSTALL XP OS IT GAVE ME A SYSTEM DISC FAILURE. WANT TO REPLACE THE HD BUT WHAT HD AND WILL I HAVE TO UPGRADE MY BIOS?

Get yourself a simple 60/80GB IDE/ATA 2,5" drive and you are set. No need for BIOS update. And stay away from used HDD.

cheers ...