# Dell Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for Setup utility error



## redlover

OK folks, i'm about to get a shotgun and blow this machine up. I have exhausted every resource on Google (went 5 pages deep) and still have no solution to this problem. I have a Dell OptiPlex GX240 machine that will not work no matter what I try. I am getting the annoying Strike F1 to retry boot message OVER and OVER. I have tried configuring the VERY LIMITED BIOS settings, pulled all power and IDE Connectors except JUST the Hard Drive, used three different IDE Cables, switched IDE ports, pulled every PCI card out except the video card, bought a NEW CMOS battery, pulled the CMOS jumper and bought a NEW 80GB Maxtor Hard Drive to replace a 6 year old 20 GB Maxtor Drive. I tried Saving the BIOS settings, Hitting Alt-Tab-F, Alt-Tab-E, and Alt-Tab-B. Trust me, short of putting in the new hard drive into a working computer, I have exhausted all my options. Does anyone else know what this could friggin be???

Motherboard gone bad? Hard Drive Controller gone bad?

NOTE: On doing the Dell System Diagnostic test, the Hard Drive Seek Test always hangs. Surface and Read Tests are fine and pass but the Seek hangs and I have to stop the diagnostic. This happened with BOTH the Old drive and the New one.

PLEASE HELP! Short of buying a new motherboard (which I don't want to do unless that is the problem) I don't see any options.

Suggestions???


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## manic

Dells were pretty popular for being underpowered.


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## redlover

I agree that a Dell stock 250 Watt Power Supply from Thailand is underpowered but the Multimeter shows it is giving ample power to just 1 Hard Drive and Video Card attached at the moment (yes RAM, CPU, Etc is on). I do not think it is the PSU.


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## craigwatanabe

You indicated you changed out the IDE cables but didn't remove the hard drive from the mobo right? Did you swap out the IDE cable for the hard drive? 

Another thing to consider is the hard drive settings. If this is a master with no slave try either setting the hard drive that way or try using the CS setting. Sometimes BIOS' don't like the way hard drives can be set up. Dell is notorious for that. You may want to disable your shadow cache in your SETUP.


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## redlover

Thanks for the reply Craig. Yes the hard drive was removed for a new one and the EIDE cables were changed 3 times to make sure that I didnt have any defective ones. The jumper settings were left on cable select (old hard drive AND new).

UPDATE!!!

I hate problems I can't solve so I used my other computer that I KNOW works. I installed the NEW hard drive in my other computer and installed Windows XP Professional just to see if I purchased a bad hard drive. It detected it, formated it, and I test installed it. Less than an hour later, Windows XP was running on it NO PROBLEM. I removed the hard drive and installed it BACK IN THE PROBLEM COMPUTER. Still got the error message but I did the Alt-Tab-F to let it detect the IDE Configuration again. I also went into the BIOS settings and configured it in there as well.

WOO HOO! It detected it and it went to the Windows XP slash screen. Then I got the Blue Screen of Death and I was NEVER SO HAPPY TO SEE IT!!!!! That meant that the drive was finally friggin being recognized by the system BIOS/Motherboard. If any of you didn't know, you typically get a BSoD if you don't do a reapir install of XP or a clean install if you have a hard drive that had a prior install from another computer.

I then started putting back the components one by one (2nd stick of RAM, CD Drive, Floppy Drive, PCI Cards, etc.) and configured the BIOS for each of it. IT ultimately ended up working and I got to the XP Desktop.

FYI: I honestly think that the BIOS "Hard Locked" and was stuck in that crazy loop. It probably happened when the first drive died while it was trying to boot. I took a chance and tried to get a fully formatted hard disk into it to break the cycle and luckily it worked!

If any of you techs ever get into this situation, try the procedures that I did and it may help you.

Devin


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## Victory Geek

Hello Devin, just out of curiosity, is your machine running fine now? One of the options I would have tried (I worked for Dell tech supp) is reset the mobo's bios by clearing the NV ram - there is a jumper that you can use to do this - it's called RTCST jumper on Dell boards.


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## redlover

Hi Victory,

Yes the machine "seems" to be working now and I let it do a Memtest86+ overnight and it still booted up fine. I cleared the NVRAM and removed the jumper, battery (got a new battery as well as the machine is over 6 years old), and did the Dell alt-tab-E (F,B). The crazy thing is it all started after I reinstalled Windows XP Pro, downloaded all the patches, drivers, application programs, etc. I was literally 5 minutes from being done when after I installed the wireless optical keyboard/mouse drivers, I restarted the machine and BAM, Strike F1 error. What a waste of 3 hours than the whole day after that. 

Devin


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## manic

What Ive done in the past when in a situation such as yours. The last
ditch effort is to remove the cpu and reseat, this more times then
not will wake up the bios.
Kudos for thinking outside of the box, like you have to do with these
things from time to time....


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## craigwatanabe

Oh man you installed a wireless keyboard eh? On some BIOS' you need to keep a PS/2 keyboard attached so the BIOS will detect it despite using a wireless USB setup. Having two keyboards set up this way won't affect the operation of the computer.


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## dawilliams

I have had a similar problem with my Dell's... I have a couple workstations 220's.
I take them outside, remove the cover and blow all the dust out (I do have a nice vaccum for this that can push air), then check to make sure everything is seated (cables, etc) and reboot. It has worked everytime. It's something simple to try before all the more complicated troubleshooting steps. These units seem to be sensitive to dust.


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