The last three times I have started my computer, the following message appears. Please explain, and advise me?

Question

As soon as I turn my computer on, this page now appears (it never did this before). For completeness, I am including everything on the page:

American Megatrends Released 05/15/02
AMBIOS (c) 2001 American Megatrends, Inc.
P4VMM2 Release 05/15/2002

Intel (R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU, 2 GHz
DEL: Setup F8: Boot Menu F12: Network Boot

Pri Slave- Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace

Press F1 to Resume

(c) American Megatrends, Inc.,
62-0515-0011331-00101111-040201-VIA_P6-P4VMM2

The computer completely stops here until I hit the F1 key, and then Windows XP Pro, which I am running, starts up as it always has, and runs pretty normally. But this looks like a BIOS problem to me, not a Windows problem. Can you explain to me what is going on and what might have caused it, tell me whether or not I might be facing a total computer catastrophe, and advise me what, if anything, I can or should do about it. Thank you very much for any information you can offer.

Answer 1

It means your hard drive is failing. S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. When it sensing something is failing, it warns you. The "Backup and Replace" part means EXACTLY that. Backup any data you need, then replace the hard drive.

Answer 2

It looks like American Megatrends is your BIOS,Reading down your Q. Pri slave-hard disk.....status bad,it looks like it is finding a problem with your hard drive. When BIOS goes through its start-up.To me ( I am no pro ). The hard drive should be what the BIOS boots first. Try these,When you start your computer,hit the # key that takes you in to your BIOS. At the bottom Push the F key that say's "restore defaults",yes should already be highlighted.Push the F key that say's "save changes". Remember,in BIOS,you have no mouse-press enter after each. Go into windows system tool's and run scan disk to see if it finds an error on your drive-both standard an through options.check the box that say's automatically fix errors before you start.

Answer 3

seems like ur hard drive has just started to run into some problem, so its better to backup important files and check if ur warranty is still valid.
and as a preventive measure, hard disk problems mainly occur due to voltage fluctuations which damages the sectors. so, its better to have a ups and check the earth connection to ur plug point by an electrician.

ps:and last , i shld say, u ve framed ur question really well, using the most apt words. say, are u a lawyer ,or, u working for some concern dealing with legal issues???

Answer 4

I had this problem before. Your hard drive is still usable but not in too good shape. The best thing to do there is to do a backup of your documents and all important data and get your hard drive replaced. You may still have your hard drive under warranty, either under your manufacturer or under the hard drive company itself, if you bought it less that three years ago.

Answer 5

Never seen that before,but seem's like your system is doing somekind of check.i have had some like it but not that one.I only got it once.It was just a system test of some kind.Check with dell support if it continues.