Ok so yesterday my friend was installing some RAM on is XP system and when he started up the machine it goes in to a black screen that says "NO BOOT DEVICE DETECTED, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS F1 TO CONTINUE OR PRESS F2 TO SETUP MENU"

how can this be fixed? is it normal??What this means is that the computer can't find the hard drive or that the drive has gone bad.

I would try to check the cables to the hard drive. Make SURE they are seated all the way.

Let's start by removing the new ram and see what happens.I suspect incompatible RAM...

But you could try a few consecutive cold boots...the BIOS is easily confused.removing the new ram still causes the same error, but it NEVER HAPPENED before..and how do I cold boot?Complete shutdown...wait 3 minutes a na re-boot...nope none of that, could have something to do with IDE settings? like here http://www.windowsbbs.com/hardware/83889-no-boot-device-detected-insert-system-disk-press-f1-continue-2.htmlhe didnt IDE have anything in IDE either...just "No IDE settings, press any KEY to continue" (or something like that) which just goes back tothe orginal "No Boot Device Detected" screen.

I'm almost positive he accidently touched something he shouldnt have but idk. what if I get a pic of his harddrive or something??If he was messing around in the BIOS ALL bets are off as it could be 50 different things.
Remove all power from the wall socket...
Open the case and remove the CMOS battery on the MBoard....



Leave it out for 10 minutes and reverse the steps.
This will re-set the BIOS back to it's default settings.the battery is the one with + on it right? I'll tell himPart # CR2032...