starting yesterday my computer just restarts itself and then comes up with " No boot device detected. Insert system disk and the F1 to continue." What does this mean and how can I fix it? Or can I? TIA Brenda

hmm. out of the blue you get this message? no other clues as to why? does anyone else use your computer that might have an idea? if not then your CMOS battery might be bad. what sort of system is it?

yes it started yesterday I was sitting here and all the sudden my computer just restarted on its own. When it came back up instead of your normal windows screen I got a black screen with " No boot device detected" so I turned it off let it sit about a minute and then turned back on and it was fine. Well awhile later it done it again. Noone else would have a clue that uses it. It is me and my husband basically. Im not sure what CMOS is. And it is a dell xp home edition intel celeron. BRENDA

Enter the BIOS and look for an 'auto-detect' hard drives setting. As suggested, it may be a good idea to change the mobo battery; about $4 in most local drug stores. sLLs

no boot device detected... this means that when your BIOS scans your IDE devices according to your settings (usually: floppy->hard drive->cd-rom), it cant find any of them. in the case that it finds something, but there is no boot image, it will say something like 'invalid system disk', or 'ntldr missing'. try this. look at the documentation that came with your computer and look for something that shows you the schematics of the motherboard. it should show you where the CMOS memory jumper is. reset this (this requires moving the jumper over for a couple of seconds and then returning it to its original position) and restart the computer. let us know if the computer does anything different.

The message basically means the BIOS (that's the inbuilt basic software thet tells the computer what it is and how to start up) cannot detect your harddrive. The possibilities are: 1. Corrupt BIOS (unlikely but the CMOS Reset mentioned by others will eliminate this possibility) 2. Faulty powersupply causing intermittant loss of power on the 12V rail that supplies power to drives. (possibility) 3. Loose or faulty power/data cable on the harddrive. With power off unplug the power connector and ribon cable from the drive and re-connect them ensuring they are fully inserted. Re-boot and see if that makes a difference. If you have two ribon cables try swapping them. 4. Failing harddrive. Download a diagnostic tool from the harddrive manufacturer. To test you need a blank formatted floppy in your A drive. Run the downloaded file. It will create a bootfloppy. reboot from the floppy and run the diagnostic. Be careful which tests you run as some will wipe your drive. Just carefully read the warnings before you hit the Enter key. 5. Faulty IDE controller on motherboard. Last resort and if this turns out to be the case then a replacement motherboard is indicated. My money would be on a faulty drive or poor connection on either power or data cable. These are only some of the possibilities. Post back after trying a few things and let us know if any of this worked or not. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and his wife will never forgive you.