I need your help.

Computer has crapped out on us, probably my fault as usual.


It's a Dell Optiplex ...(I believe) a GX110.

It will not load past the "DELL" splashscreen. After it loads, it states the following;

"Alert! Cover was previously removed
strike F1 to retry boot, F2 to setup utility"

F1 will do nothing but repeat the line. I've already tried disabling chassis intrusion and disabling Diskette 1, no dice.

I'm not sure how the computer even managed to lock itself down like this; I shut down one night as it always does "Start > Shutdown. 'There are other users logged on -yadadada- yes, I'd like to continue' /shutdown"

But that night it managed to start back up and beep, saying Diskette 1 was operating out of (frequency?) range. Call Dell Tech and have someone replace <something>. Press F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup utility.
To my understanding, Diskette 1 is the floppy drive, no? That never worked to begin with.

Anywhoo, at that time, I never noticed my keyboard is 1 out of a million that doesn't auto-enable F-Lock. (Doesn't let me use the F# keys without pressing that button)

Frusterated, I went to bed. The next morning it remained locked down and continuosuly stated "F1 to rety boot, F2 setup utility"

Again, F1 does nothing but repeat that line.


Any help might be lovely.
I could care less about trying to access Recovery Console- at this point, my Resume/CoverLetter/ReferenceSheet and RKp documents is all gone. System says it has 256KB or MB in it.


What I have done;

Tried to remove the CMOS battery and reboot
Tried to access Recovery Console through Windows XP cd
Tried to reinstall windows xp- through the cd.

it all just glitches and restarts.


In the past I redownloaded Windows XP rather than Professional 2000-- that's likely the problem, right :/

anyways. I don't really have high hopes.

We can't afford to buy anything or have someone come in to 'fix' this.. so don't tell me to go grab a new hard drive.