I hope someone can help. My operating system is XP Pro. I am unable to boot.
Two days ago, upon start-up, a screen appeared saying something about "new
devices" were installed and also a setence that read "system memory being
dumped or deleted".
Since then, I can only get to the black start-up screen which says "to
attempt to reboot again, hit <F1>". Upon hitting <F1>, once again the screen
says "to attempt to reboot again, hit <F1>". What can I do to get my
computer running again?
"System memory being dumped or deleted" means that a fatal error was
encountered. Windows creates a "dump file" of everything that was in memory
at the time of the error. The contents of that dump file are most
meaningful to tech support and can help determine what exactly went wrong.
A user can look in Event Viewer (if and when they can get Windows to load)
and get a hint of what the problem was. Sometimes the mention of a driver
is made - replacing or updating the driver usually gets rid of the problem.
However....
The second paragraph of your post is referring to F1. This is not a key
that Windows will prompt you to press. This is the computer's base system
telling you that it cannot find a device to boot the computer. At startup,
a POST (power on self test) is performed and then the system passes the
boot process on to a bootable device. Your computer is not able to do that
so it repeats the F1 prompt to try again.
For whatever reason, the computer is not booting your hard drive. The
reasons for this could be mis-configuration in BIOS, loose or damaged
connections to the hard drive, a damaged or failed hard drive. There could
be other system problems but a problem with the hard drive is the most
logical based on the information provided and would be the first avenue to
check out.
When the system boots, do you see the POST screens? If yes, do you see the
hard drive listed as present? If you do not see the POST screens, you may
see a "DELL" or similar screen that is blocking the POST results. Instead,
enter the BIOS setup screens to see if the hard drive is listed as present.
Detection is typically "auto." If not, the numbers that describe the drive
to the system must be correct to match the drive's geometry.
While in the BIOS setup screens, check the boot order also. If not set to
"hard drive first" - change it to this. If all checked out okay, "save
changes and exit" - even if no changes were made.
If no luck, then check cables to drive. Not common but these can work loose
over time. Make sure they are fully seated on both ends. Try to start
again. If no luck, consider replacing the data cables (IDE or SATA) to the
hard drive. Not so unusual to find a crimped or worn cable that has become
damaged. The fine wires inside can easily break if crimped too tightly. Or
if the plastic on the cable is brittle - it can break and damage wires in
the process.
If you get this far and still get the F1 prompt, your drive is probably
dead and needs replacing. As a last ditch effort and since it's possible
only the boot sector of the drive is damaged, you could try booting from
your recovery CDs (change setting in BIOS to boot from CD first) and using
one of the offered repair/recover options. If the hard drive is truly dead,
you'll be notified of "no disk available" soon enough. If the contents of
the drive are damaged, the recovery may be able to bring the drive back up.
There is the issue of data. If there are things on that drive that you can
not live without and do not have backup to recover them, do not attempt the
recovery/restore if using an OEM customized CD. Many of these will erase
everything on the drive and return the system to "factory state."
You'll need to regroup if you reach this point. You could install a new
drive and install Windows to it. Then install the old drive as slave to
rescue data from it. If the drive is truly dead, it can still be brought to
a data recovery company (expensive!) to recover the lost data.
