[iammyid]

This may be in the wrong forum but my computer freezes at on the very first loading screen. There is a dell logo with a progress bar that ALMOST always fully makes it all the way. So my computer never even gets to loading Windows. This all happened after I merged my partitions and then installed Kaspersky.

When I push F2 to get into system info or F12 to get into the boot menu, nothing happens. It always freezes.

Windows problem? Hard drive problem? Kaspersky problem?

I'm running Windows XP on an Intel Dual chip with 1g memory and 250 HD.

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It's usually F8 you press and hold after powering on, in order to bring up what you call the "boot menu", which Microsoft refers to as the "Advanced Startup Menu". Unless Dell PCs are different of course, never used one. But try F8. There's an option on that menu to boot to "Last Known Good Configuration" so try that.

And it's hardly fair to criticise Dell if you've been messing about with partition merging.

[pip22]

It's usually F8 you press and hold after powering on, in order to bring up what you call the "boot menu", which Microsoft refers to as the "Advanced Startup Menu". Unless Dell PCs are different of course, never used one. But try F8. There's an option on that menu to boot to "Last Known Good Configuration" so try that.

And it's hardly fair to criticise Dell if you've been messing about with partition merging.

[ClickRight]

Hmmm this sounds like the BIOS is stopping when it's detecting something. My guess is you removed or corrupted the Dell backup partition (The Ctrl+ F11) access one.

If you're comfortable enough to be playing with partitions, are you comfortable with opening your case and disconnecting your hard drive (both cables) and see if the computer starts booting? (you'll get a n error about no boot devices or something similar.) If it boots past the Dell splash screen, it's something to do with the hard drive, either the partitions or there's some physical damage.

[Neil Jones]

Dells suck because they are Dells.

Anyway this issue can be caused by the computer looking for a hard drive/CD unit that isn't there. What most Dells do in this case is just hang. Why they still do this many years down the line is anybody's guess. The solution is to go into Bios via pressing F2, give it about three days (joke, about a minute should do it) and check in the IDE configuration section or any section that tells you about the drives. You often find that the computer's been told to look for a drive in a location that has nothing plugged into it. Usually you have a hard drive as Primary Master and a CD unit as Secondary Master. It's possible that the computer has been told to look for a drive at Primary Slave and Secondary Slave where there isn't one. Turn these off and save settings.