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I installed W7 from the DVD on Dell Latitude C840. I restarted the machine and "Press any key to boot from DVD . . . " was displayed(the DVD still left in), and then W7 booted from the hard drive. I installed the drivers, changed the settings for W7 for my liking, removed the DVD from the drive and attempted to restart the machine. The W7 failed to boot and error messages displayed were something to the effect that "Hard drive is not detected" and "Optical drive is not detected". If I remember correct the messages did not include "Floppy drive is not detected" (a Floppy drive was present). I re-inserted the DVD ROM and the W7 booted fine from the hard drive.
I wonder why the machine needs the DVD ROM to detect the hard drive. Any suggestion is appreciated.

Sounds like the BIOS is seriously confused about the boot order. Check the boot settings in the BIOS.

I thought about that so that the boot priority order was changed to 1)Hard Drive, 2)CD Drive, 3) Floppy Drive. Originally the boot order was 1)Floppy Drive, 2)CD Drive, 3)Hard Drive.
I saw the same error messages after changing the boot order: The problem symptom is unchanged.
Maybe resetting the BIOS which I hate to do?

Hey, there wouldn't happen to be a thumbdrive or external hard drive plugged in, would there? I've seen some systems where having an external storage device connected during boot will cause boot failures.

Also, which SATA port is the hard drive plugged into? Some motherboards can only boot from certain ports (typically the first four).

just brew it! wrote:

Hey, there wouldn't happen to be a thumbdrive or external hard drive plugged in, would there? I've seen some systems where having an external storage device connected during boot will cause boot failures.

Also, which SATA port is the hard drive plugged into? Some motherboards can only boot from certain ports (typically the first four).

I've seen the same issue with a smartphone or a music player plugged in as well.

Resetting the BIOS on a Dell laptop should be fairly low consequence - there's not much they let you configure. I assume you have the latest version flashed?

There is no SATA in this machine. There is only one external device connected to this machine which is a USB mouse connected to one of the two USB mouse. Disconnecting the USB mouse did not cure the problem.

The problem is the machine is not mine. I will ask the owner of the machine if he wants me to try that.

Correction of my thread starter post: Exact wording of the error message is "No bootable devices --- strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility".

The machine is back at my place now. I reviewed the BIOS configuration and found that the internal hard drive was NOT enabled. I enabled it and the problem was resolved. I do not know how the system could ever boot from the disabled hard drive.

A new problem has just popped up: Now every time when the machine restarts, the screen resolution ends with 1024x768 which is supposed to be 1600x1200. The screen resolution while the Windows is booting, the resolution appears 1600x1200 but after the password is entered it reverts back to 1024x768. This appears to be Windows' problem not BIOS's. Any suggestion?

churin wrote:

Correction of my thread starter post: Exact wording of the error message is "No bootable devices --- strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility".

The machine is back at my place now. I reviewed the BIOS configuration and found that the internal hard drive was NOT enabled. I enabled it and the problem was resolved. I do not know how the system could ever boot from the disabled hard drive.

A new problem has just popped up: Now every time when the machine restarts, the screen resolution ends with 1024x768 which is supposed to be 1600x1200. The screen resolution while the Windows is booting, the resolution appears 1600x1200 but after the password is entered it reverts back to 1024x768. This appears to be Windows' problem not BIOS's. Any suggestion?

Install the correct video drivers.

I tried going through the safe mode and the problem is gone.
Thanks for your reply anyway.

I thought that fixed the problem but did not.
I re-installed the video drivers which was previously downloaded from Dell but to no avail.
There was no such problem initially. What were done since are installing Windows updates, installing anti-virus softwares, removing a lot of malwares and virus.

My previous description of the problem may be incorrect:
The Windows occupies the entire screen whose resolution appears 1200x1600 up until "Welcome" is displayed and right after entering password. Then Command prompt is briefly displayed within the Windows and then the Windows area is shrunk leaving black area around the Windows. At this point the Windows resolution is back to 1024x768.

churin wrote:

I thought that fixed the problem but did not.
I re-installed the video drivers which was previously downloaded from Dell but to no avail.
There was no such problem initially. What were done since are installing Windows updates, installing anti-virus softwares, removing a lot of malwares and virus.

I thought this was a fresh install? How did it get infested with malware and viruses already?

I removed the hard drive and gave this laptop pc to one of my neighbor. He got a hard drive and attempted to install OS and failed. I installed W7(at this point this thread started) for him and he used several days and told me that internet connection is slow. He brought it back to me and I found a bunch of malwares and viruses. I uninstalled the malwares by Revounintall. I installed MS Essentials, Malwarebyte and CCleaner and cleaned the system. Also done was installing a ton of Windows Updates.
The present problem happened somewhere after he brought the laptop back to me the second time.

Given that it was infested with malware, and is still misbehaving even after the attempted malware removal, I suggest reformatting and reinstalling the OS again. Chances are good that you're experiencing lingering effects of the malware infection.

I am in the process of doing just that. Thank you for reinforcing my thinking.

Reinstalling the OS took care of the problem.
Thanks everyone.