Getting the error message “The amount of system memory has changed. Press F1 to continue or F2 to load default values”?
Its nothing critical or to worry about.
This happens on Dell laptops.
If you wondering how do you fix it, its not something you fix. This is just a warning message only. What you need to do is Press the F1 key and your computer will continue to boot as normal.
What causes the error, the amount of system memory has changed
You get this error message in Dell computers BIOS menu. This happens when you have changed the amount of RAM on you computer.
Lets say for example you had 4 GB of RAM in you computer. Then you decide to upgrade and add another 4GB RAM on the second RAM slot. When you turn on your dell computer for the first time after changing the RAM you will get the error message.
Doesn’t matter if its an Inspiron, alienware or a latitude computer. They all do not turn on immediately after changing RAM.
The error message will be coupled with instructions to Press F1 to continue or F2 to enter Set up. To boot to windows press the F1 key. Alternatively if you want to go to the BIOS settings then you press the F2 key to configure BIOS settings.
F1 Key does not work
For some reason we are still investigating the F1 key sometimes doesn’t boot to windows. The computer does nothing it just shows the error.
Before you blame the RAM stick you added here are a few things we have observed. First the fact that the computer is displaying the error message means that the RAM is working fine. Second, the error also happens when you reduce the amount RAM, meaning if there are two RAM sticks you remove one you will get the same warning
What did we do
A couple of the computers that had this problem seemed to resolve the issue on their own.
We just shut down the computers and tried booting again after about 10 minutes and the F1 key was able to get past the error messages. Then the problem was fixed.
Also there might be an external device that might be causing the computer to hang for example a DVD ROM or USD drive. If it continues to fail to boot remove any connected peripherals like USB drives, external hard drives or CD drives etc.
A hard reset will also fix a lot of the temporary issues as we discussed here on flea power issues. Simply press and hold the power button for about 20 seconds until the computer shuts down.
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