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Boot stops with Press Del to Resume
I have a Dell Dimension 4100 and a week or two ago I suddenly encountered a boot problem. I have made no hardware or software changes. I am running Win XP Home Ed.
Following POST the boot stops and the screen shows the following:
---------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1996-2002 Intel Corporation
EA81510A.10A.0038.P13.0206110923
Dell Dimension 4100
BIOS Version A11
Intel (R) Pentium III Processor, 866 MHz
512 MB System Ram
Legacy Keyboard....Detected
Legacy Mouse.......Detected
USB Legacy.........Enabled
Fixed Disk 0: Maxtor 5T060H6
(UDMA=100MHz)
Fixed Disk 1: WDC AC313000R
(UDMA=66MHz)
ATAPI CD-ROM SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-612
Press (left pointy bracket)Del(right pointy bracket) to Resume
---------------------------------------------------------
If I press the Delete key the boot resumes and the computer appears to boot normally and runs with no problems.
In an attempt to resolve this condition I have searched online with Google and have also checked the Dell Community. I have done the following:
1. Replaced the CMOS battery
2. Reset the NVRAM by using the Reset Config Data option in the BIOS settings.
3. Run disk diagnostics by entering Ctrl-Alt-D during boot. Fixed Disk 0 Passed and Disk 1 and the CD-ROM were not run.
None of these have fixed the condition.
There are millions of references to this problem in the Community and I have trouble finding which ones relate to my particular problem.
I appear to have the latest BIOS. Would you suggest I try to reinstall the A11 level?
What else should I do?
volcano11
28K Posts
0
October 23rd, 2003 19:00
Look at the back of your computer while the message is on the screen. You will see 4 diagnostic lights which may give a clue to what the problem is. Interpretation of these diagnostic lights can be found at:
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
Report back what you find.
Steve
crm38
5 Posts
0
October 23rd, 2003 20:00
Thank you for your input. I saw somewhere else that this could be a hard drive problem so I guess I better be prepared for that. When I get a chance I will try the card removal/replace procedure.
If anyone else has better news I'd appreciate your input.
Thank you Steve for your help.
Charlie
crm38
5 Posts
0
October 23rd, 2003 20:00
The lights left to right (A,B,C,D) are Y,G,Y,Y indicating PCI bus failure. I am not noticing any other problems after I boot and the Device Manager in Control Panel - System doesn't show any conflicts. The lights are all green after boot complete.
volcano11
28K Posts
0
October 23rd, 2003 20:00
Some have suggested that to solve this problem you need to open the case and remove all PCI cards (don't remove the video card). Then reboot and see if you get the message. If not, shut down and add one of the PCI cards back, then reboot. Continue this process until either you isloate the problem device or all cards are back in and the problem has gone away.
Others have suggested that replacing the hard drive solves this problem.
Steve
sledge1940
21 Posts
0
November 19th, 2003 15:00
I have a 4100 also. I am running ME. I have had the same problem and couldn't find anything to solve the problem. After about a month of this it suddenly corrected itself. This has happened three times and I am presently loading correctly. I might go months before it happens again.
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