Strike F1 to reboot, F2 for setup utility error

Can Anyone help help help pls
I keep getting this error Strike F1 to reboot, F2 for setup utility error

I have tried : Replacing a New Cmos Battery
Switched HDD
Installed New Memory
Reset Bios by disconnecting the onboard jumper
Remove all connections to HDD, CD-Rom and all power cables

this is a dell dimension 4300s model
when the screen loads at the DELL LOGO there's strange funny letters and hearts.
Can anyone help me with this problem?

Are you sure it is "Strike F1 to restart" and not Strike F1 to continue? You probably have very limited bios, but is there an option to select the boot drive? If so, this option may not be set right

yes your right it is Strike F1 to continue my bad. The 1st boot is the cd-rom then the hdd. What can i do to be able to fix this problem ?

Set the hard drive first, CDROM second. The CDROM may be bad

keyboard failure strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility im getting that message also im so confused

strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

Hi,
I am having problems with my Dell Dimension 3000. I have had this message before and replaced the hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP and it worked for about a week. Went to turn on the computer and again received the message, strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Everything is hooked up the way it is supposed to be, i have set the boot sequence to CD and it won't load the windows XP start up, it keeps saying error with startup sequence. (or something like that, i haven't had that error in awhile so i can't quite remember and i didn't write it down).

Can someone please help me as i am going insane with solutions that aren't working. i'm ready to take a sledge hammer to it!!!

Thanks.

You have to be as accurate as you can with the messages. Do techalpha69 and heatherh really mean "strike F1 to retry boot" or do they really mean "strike F1 to continue"?
A had a Dell 2400 (quite old 10/2003) with the message "recent fan failure, press F1 to continue, F2 for setup"... This message comes up sometimes when the computer is started cold, but not all the time. The CPU fan was replaced last year. The original fan was burned out. This bad fan might have messed with the acient motherboard. After pressing F1 do your computers boot normally?

Did you remember to set the new IDE hard drive to CS or Cable Select?

how do i do that?

What did you do, just throw it in without checking jumper settings? If it is not a SATA drive, there is a jumber block on the IDE drive labeled M,S and CS near the power connector. The OEM Dell motherboards like the hard drive set to CS (Cable Select) Your computer has only one hard drive, right?

yes, it only has one hard drive, and i checked for the jumper block and it is all connected correctly and set to the right settings.

Ok, did you reset the boot sequence to hard drive then the CDROM? If you still can't boot into Windows, tell me what the error says

Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

The "new" hard drive may have gone bad... Make sure that the hard drive cable is connected properly to the motherboard and the drive

I did that already 4-5 times

So the hard drive is bad... Do you have another to try?

nope i'll have to go buy another one, might as well just go buy a new fricken computer, probably be cheaper... lol

What make and model is the bad hard drive? I'm sure it has a warranty

Western Digital 500gb, it only had a 30 day warranty. bought it at future shop on Aug. 11. cannot return it now.

No wonder it failed, was it used? I hope it didn't cost you too much... New Seagate drives have a 3 year warranty. Seagate drives are all i use