Hi everyone,i have this Dell machine that's running win xp professional and it's really driving me to the wall.When it's booting it comes up with some funny looking words and doesn't completely boot.
Removed the hard disk and used another machine on it and it works just fine.
What could be the problem?Was suspecting the BIOS could be the culprit but am not sure.
When i press F2 takes me to the setup but with the same funny language.Please help urgently

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Tell us more about the "Funny looking words."

Remove your main board battery for 5 mins and replace, re-boot and see how it is with the BIOS reset.
If not, can you start in safe mode? If so, what do you get then?
Have you tried a XP repair using your XP CD?

call Dell support. you probably need a bios update

i did xp repair using another machine and it worked just fine.The problem with the dell machine is that i can't make out anything it says because of the funny words on the screen.If anything,i was expecting since the hard disk is working on another machine fine,that it could just work fine once i hook it up on the dell machine. i have tried going in to safe mode but to no avail.The thing is, it tries opening windows ofcourse with the funny words and then just hangs after some point.The dell machine model is DCP.

I think you might have inadvertantly changed the language...you can try to change the language of the machine that works...don't actually do the change, just note what you have to enter/do to get to that point and try and duplicate those steps on the "alien"

What steps do i need to take to be able to change the language of the machine back to english as am not sure how to go about it.

I realise that this may not at all be possible-
But if so go into the Control Panel.
Icon is a small board with a tic and pencil.
Choose Region and language Options.
Icon Globe on square plate.
Scroll down to English -27th UK or 28th -US on list.
Select and install.

The4 proceeding is for changing the language in windows and as you said, your HD worked well in another PC, so it is not the windows setup.
But could the "FUNNY WORDS" be another language??
Have you reset your BIOS as advised earlier??
Have you contacted Dell?

i tried reseting Bios and it didn't work.I'am yet to contact Dell about the issue.
Even tried booting from an XP disc and run setup but couldn't advance any further due to the language.Will contact dell and see what they have to say.

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