strange boot (error L 99 99)... pc wont boot

[Bumstedmans]

Hi,

In just got back from vacation to find that my computer won't boot. when I start it up, the dell logo boot screen shows, and then just before the Linux boot loader comes up (to ask me if i want to use linux or windoze) it gives me this error:
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L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 (and so on for about 9 lines)

Press F1 to Retry Boot, Strike F2 to enter setup

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When i press F1, the same thing pops up again, and F2 brings me to my BIOS setup. There is no way to get out of this using my BIOS config as far as I know because I have changed just about every relavent option around.

I am running A Dell Dimesnion 4550, BIOS revision A08 (newly updated), 60 gig western digital Linux/Windoze Xp Pro SP2, 768 MB RAM (extra 512 two months ago), P4 2.53GHZ.

The boot loader I was using was called LILO (if that helps).

PLEASE HELP!!!
-The Bumstedman

[pave_spectre]

I am assuming LILO was installed in the MBR?

Would anyhting have changed while you were away to cause a BIOS configuration change?

LiLo Error Codes (http://www.wlug.org.nz/LiloErrorCodes)
The first stage boot loader has been loaded and started, but it can't load the second stage boot loader. The two-digit error codes indicate the type of problem. This condition usually indicates a media failure or bad disk parameters in the PC's BIOS.

If you have a live CD or your distro comes with a rescue disk, you could try booting with that and looking at your current lilo.conf file and reinstalling lilo.

You can also boot from a win98 floppy and run fdisk /mbr to get you windows booting again. It won't help with the linux side of things.

There's also a load of results about the L99 error on Google Linux (http://www.google.com/linux?q=L99&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&start=0&sa=N) though most of them seem to be in foreign languages.

[Bumstedmans]

Thanks for the help,

I went in with my linux install disc and using the rescue option, installed the boot-loader back onto the home partition. Easy fix considering what could have been wrong. I was thinking there was something wrong with my BIOS chip, since upgrading it was the last thing i did before I shut down.

Thanks,

-The Bumstedman