Error While Booting Computer,

[LowLikeWhoaF150]

I've recently talked to someone who's encountered a message the appears when booting up their computer. The message tells them to press delete to continue loading their operating system which happens to be Win98.

Couple quick notes, i've tried resetting defaults in the system bios and clearing NVram and made sure there wasnt any disks in any of the drives, and also set the boot configuration so that the hd was one of the 2 devices to boot first. Any more ideas?

Please post all and any ideas and thoughts as to why this is occuring and any fixes for this problem. Thanks

[smurfy]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Let me qualify what I am about to say by noting that it takes a lot to piss me off...

I have a dilemna here, should I answer your question in the courteous helpful manner that is acceptable here or should I copy your technique of making disdainfully glib one-liners in response to every recent post you can find?

Hmmmmmm, tough one isn't it?

Strangely enough, this question reads suspiciously like an assignment topic.
I see you list your occupation as Dell Technician??

I see you have also managed to find our Jokes forum, good for you.
Most of us here take the help forums at this site very seriously. I suggest you think carefully about your next replies to any more topics here.
Yes, you can consider yourself warned.

[Dodge]

Format c: Fdisk-delete all partitions- at the very least Wipe out the Bios, that would solve all problems..... hmmmm, F9 thats the key to hit....

[LaoWombat]

I'm the person the techie from Dell was trying to help. Recently, when I start the computer, it quickly reads the DVD rom drive and then goes straight into a screen that (DOS text on the left, small Dell logo at the top right) list the legacy devices, keyboard, zip, etc.

and then at the end has "pres <Del> to Resume". Once I do that, I boots normally. I did a google groups search and found two references to this problem, both in bios. One said to clear the event log. The other, for a windows ME (I'm using Win 98 second edition) said to enable quiet boot.

I tried both, with no luck. The first tech I spoke to at Dell tried to tell me it was my A drive (!) but I still suspect it may be something simpler.

When I boot from a boot disk, the same screen comes up. When I "restart in DOS mode" the problem doesn't occur.

I hadn't installed any new software for about a week previously.

Any suggestions?

[Dodge]

That sounds like a problem with the boot priority. What is it set to in the Bios?

Are you running AMI bios? IF so then on the first screen set the boot priority to this

Floppy
Hard drive
then below that make sure that the option Check for other Bootable devices is third in the list....

That may help clear it up. Just an Idea here, but it may be that it has run out of things to look for in the Boot Order, so you have to hit delete to get it going.... I know this may have been suggested before. But make sure that when you exit, you choose Exit Saving Changes.....

[ 21 August 2001: Message edited by: Dodge ]

[LaoWombat]

Originally posted by Dodge:
<STRONG>Format c: Fdisk-delete all partitions- at the very least Wipe out the Bios, that would solve all problems..... hmmmm, F9 thats the key to hit....</STRONG>

Okay, after I format the c drive, what then? And how and why would I delete all partitions?

[smurfy]

Hi LaoWombat, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry to say that the post you have quoted above was NOT intended by Dodge to be helpful to YOU. It was directed at the Dell "Tech" who started the topic.

Dodge's subsequent post was intended to be helpful - we need to check the boot order of this system.
Also, could you please tell me exactly what the last item to appear BEFORE the press del to resume message comes up?

Is it practical for you to get a spare keyboard and mouse to plug into this system to test a theory I have?