CARDBUS NIC boot failed. On starting my laptop there was a funny whirring noise, then error message "No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for set up facility". On pressing F1 I then get "Cardbus NIC boot failed" Primary hard disk drive 0 not found. I'm hoping that this can be recovered as I wasn't able to back up any photos etc... Pls can anyone help? Many thanks in advance. MS

It kinda sounds like your hard disk might have died. If you have the Dell CDs with software to check the hard drive, run that. Otherwise, If you know (or can determine) the manufacturer of the hard disk, I would suggest that you go to the following site and download the diagnostics. http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm... If the hard drive 'is' dead, you will probably need to go to the Dell web site and get instructions on installing a new drive. You will also probably need some Dell software to prepare the new drive for restoring the system. I believe the "CARDBUS NIC boot failed" is a secondary failure, most likely caused by the "No bootable devices" problem.

I agree that something needs to be looked at with the hard drive, connectors or ide chain. Before I went playing with reloading stuff, you might want to try a repair shop. Big name places might be a good start. They can diag your hard drive/system and determine if you can get your files back. If you start playing with the restore disk you might over-write your data. The second issue is of no importance. It just says that it can't boot from a network. (since you don't have a pxe server at home) "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

Yeah there's definitely a problem with your hard drive. Try the above suggestions. WinSimple Software