System memory has changed, press F1 to continue, F2 to enter Setup

it usually means one of your ram chips was not detected.  it could be because the ram is not seated correctly or it could be a bad ram module, or it could be a bad motherboard/ram socket.  the first thing to do would be to ensure that the ram is in the slot correctly.  open a panel on the bottom to find it

Thanks for your help. Whatever the problem was it was short lived and I am no longer receiving the error message.

gr8 ... just make sure that your total memory is still what you think it is (right click 'my computer' and click properties).  if the system memory changes and a stick 'disappears' you only see the message once

It seems that my memory is still intact. However I have noticed that the message has come back. It seems to come on at random times. I hit continue and then it seems to be okay. I usually shut down the computer and leave it alone for awhile and it wont come back on once i start the computer up.

what freaked me out is that I also received the blue screen of death two days ago. it said my bios was out of date and did a physical memory dump.

What does all this mean other than i want to throw my laptop out the window and never buy a Dell again. (This is the same computer that i already had to replace the hard drive on after its year warranty just expired.)

Thanks