system modular bay not recognized

customplayarz · 07-03-2004, 02:05 PM

I have a dell lattitude laptop pretty new. Lots of times when i boot it up before it can even get to the windows xp loading part it comes up with a screen that says something about the device in the system modular bay is not found/recognized.then it gives me 3 "simple" steps to fix the problem.
1. press the device firmly in
2.press the esc key to turn off computer.
3. when computer is fully switched off try again and turn it back on

yeah, something like that. then i open the cd tray and close it tightly again and then reboot it...usually it will come up with that screen again and ill just do the same thing about 10 times and finally it will load....

ALSO, when i put in a cd in the cd tray sometimes my computer doesnt recognize that a cd is in and when i try to click on the link to the cd it says "please insert the cd"

I dont know what a system modular bay is so i dont know what is wrong with my laptop. PLEASE HELP ME.

07-13-2004, 05:50 AM

Looks like no has encountered this problem before.

You say your Dell is pretty new! Why not call them and see if they have a solution for you.

**johnwill** · 07-13-2004, 06:57 AM

Obviously, you have a machine with a swappable CD and floppy, and I believe some also accept a secondary battery for longer battery life. It sounds like the hardware for the modular bay (which is what these devices plug into) is faulty to me. I second the advice to contact Dell, I doubt we'll be able to fix this in ASCII. :)

rondafleck · 08-21-2007, 01:02 PM

I have the same problem. Will call Dell and see if can help.

swapnilgaur · 12-04-2007, 01:10 AM

i to have the same problem. if you find a solution, please post it in this thread.

madscientist305 · 12-08-2007, 08:23 PM

I had the same problem on my Inspiron 1200, and seeing that after ignoring the message my cd drive would not read any cd's or show up on My Computer, I decided to remove the case and inspect the drive. I then firmly placed the drive in, and the message went away. So in my case, the drive was slightly loose(prob due to all the throwing around i do to it).

sophie99 · 10-15-2008, 12:16 AM

Same problem again. My Dell inspiron 1520 is only about four months old, it keeps coming up with that error message and overnight the disk drive stopped working completley.

giallo · 05-25-2009, 07:46 AM

Yeah, if it makes you feel any better, I have a Dell Inspiron 1521 and have the same problem (and get the same message). The CD/DVD drive does not show up in BIOS or Device Manager, and obviously does not appear in Computer next to the hard drive. Occasionally the drive will make an appearance and be fully functional; but that's rare. I've noticed that it shows up after I've been searching the internet for a while, but not when I just start and restart the computer over and over again.

If someone has a solution to this, that would be great to hear.

nanderv · 06-18-2009, 12:52 PM

I had this problem too, but on a very old laptop. I solved it this way (exactly what it says to do):
I push the modular battery and the modular CD drive into their place and ensure that they are pushed as far as possible. They might seem to be positioned rightly, but they must be pushed as far as possible. Otherwise the electrical contact is not made and he'll error for an empty modular bay

sam_ha-man · 10-19-2009, 05:23 PM

my vostro 1700 is playing up exactly the same way. Ime going to have to get in touch with dell. This thread has been extremely helpfull thanks