Cannot Boot to Windows: Black Screen after BIOS saved. System_error ApiLoadM.cpp

No drive found, or no bootable drive found?  If it is the second message you are getting, your drive may still be ok, but the operating system may need to be repaired or reinstalled.  When you executed the diagnostics, what device did you execute from?  The F12 menu, or did you boot the Dell Resource CD and run the diagnostics from the CD/DVD drive?  Whichever diagnostic you ran, did you execute the long version of the test for the hard drive?

If you have any USB devices plugged into the tower (other than keyboard and mouse) you should remove them to avoid confusing the diagnostic routines.

Hi Mydogissam,

It might be as simple as a dead motherboard battery. When you boot to the BIOS, does it report the correct day and time? If not, you just need a new motherboard battery.

No drives at all. Sata 0 not found. Sata 1 not found. It cannot find an IDE if I switch one with the CD ROM, yet they are right there in the DRIVES list in the CMOS or BIOS whatever the setup page is called.

No other devices are connected except kb and mouse. I even disconnected the mouse just to be sure it wasn't wonky.

You might be on to something there. I booted and got a flash of something small at the top, then a black screen. I took out the battery and booted and got the Low Battery message. Put the battery back in and have the same Low Battery message now. I never got that before so maybe it just realized it. 

Now to go hunt down a battery and try that. I'll post the results when I have some.

Okay, before I went battery hunting I tried again and the BIOS clock is correct. It still goes to a blank screen when I exit the BIOS.

On boot it stops and says it cannot find the 2 IDE drives (apparently it can find the SATA now)

I took out the two IDE drives and told the bios I have done so. Now, after the DELL flash screen, instead of saying it cannot find drives it just goes straight to the blank screen.

Still stumped.

How do I do the long test?

There are no USB devices connected aside from the keyboard. I even disconnected the mouse for a while in case that was the issue.

Generally when there is no boot device, the computer will say so. Is this different with a Dell?

My next step will be to reinstall a cd drive, disconnect the current HD and install a known working HD formatted to system. If that doesn't work? Screw it. It's off to the shop. :P

Try disconnecting the power plug, holding the power button pushed in for about thirty seconds, and try starting up again.  Your report that the system setup (BIOS setup) indicates that the drives are being found by the computer but that you might have some issues with the boot drive.  Reports of missing files can result from a damaged file system, but they can also mean that the hard drive is failing.  You need to run the long test on the hard drive to verify that it is ok.  The first test that gets run from the diagnostics page is a short test that doesn't check the surface of the drive.

If the drive is ok you may need to perform a complete reinstallation of Windows to get the computer going again.  Another thing that you should keep in mind; USB devices having memory can lead to black screens, usually with a flashing cursor in the upper left of the screen.  This is because the computer is attempting to find a device to boot from, and either does not see the hard drive first or the hard drive no longer has valid boot code.  All USB devices excepting the keyboard and mouse must be disconnected when you are attempting to troubleshoot to avoid reaching false conclusions.

The Dell diagnostics has a menu to configure specific tests.  Executing that mode for the hard drive usually runs the extended test, and you can add other things in order to check out multiple devices.

EDIT:  Yes, when the computer finds no boot code anywhere it usually reports that fact.  In your specific case the computer evidently begins to boot but gets lost along the way.  My own feeling on this is that you will wind up reinstalling the OS, or replacing the hard drive and reinstalling the OS.

The diagnostic I have gives 3 options:

Test Memory

Test Hard Drive

Exit

I took the HD out of my son's working computer. 

It booted farther, but as Windows was loading it went to the blue screen.

Back in my son's comp it booted no problem.

I'll give up and take it to the shop. 

Thanks for all the help. Cheers.

Is there a url I can go to to download a better diagnostic disk?

Deleted.

For me that is a confirmation that you have a problem with the hard drive.  The blue screen would be normal as the drivers loaded for your son's computer would naturally have trouble running the devices on the problem machine.

Dell's diagnostics must have gotten simpler with time.  It has been a while since I had the occasion to run mine so perhaps the menus don't cover as many things as they once did.  I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with other diagnostic packages that don't require a working Windows installation.

Best of luck to you!

Been there and done it. A few times. But thanks. It could well be just a simple thing I am overlooking, but I am leaning heavy towards an issue the boot sector on the HD. Good news is it will likely slave okay so she can get her stuff off of it, or perhaps the tech can repair the boot.

Any suggestions are still welcome, but come Monday I suspect it will be in the hands of lotuspc.

(I probably have the hard drive in backwards. :P)

Did you do as Osprey suggested and replace the motherboard battery? Or at least, reset bios to factory defaults?

Power off and unplug

Press/hold power button for ~15 sec

Open the case and remove the motherboard battery

Press/hold the power button again for ~30 sec

Reinstall the battery (right-side-up) and see if it boots now with only mouse, monitor and keyboard connected. You can use the old battery for this.

If resetting bios solves the problem, you probably want to replace the battery.

Ron

I don't know if this system has PC Restore on the hard drive or not.  PC Restore resets the hard drive to exactly the way Dell shipped it,  but all personal files and all software you installed are lost.  (Dell systems shipped after 14-July 2004 should have PC Restore.)

But if you're willing to lose all access to PC Restore,  you could try using the fixboot command.

Boot from the Windows XP Reinstallation CD and press R at first screen to launch Recovery Console.

At C:\ prompt, type in: fixboot c:

Press Enter

This will rewrite the boot sector on the hard drive, but it will removes access to PC Restore. So think about what you're doing...

Then remove the CD and see if it boots from the hard drive now.

Ron

JackShack

Thanks for solving my computer problem even though the problem was a little different. Can you explain the theory behind “disconnecting the power plug, holding the power button pushed in for thirty seconds”?

My problem began when I wanted to copy a video file from a scratched DVD. The whole thing froze, instead of stopping the process via Task Manager I forced the computer to restart. On restarting it was freezing on the “Dell Wellcome Screen”. The boot option F12 or even F2 was not responding. I tried restarting many times but still froze on the Wellcome Screen. This means reinstalling windows was not even going to work. The computer only booted after I did the “disconnecting the power plug, holding the power button pushed in for thirty seconds”.  Why did this method work?