I have a Vostro 400 running XP SP2 and ran into this problem 3 times.
AHCI Option ROM BIOS Revsion 01.03.50 Date 04-26-2007
Copyright(c) 2006 – 2008 Phoenix Technologies, LTD
ACHI BIOS NOT INSTALLED!
First time – I called Dell and they could not fix it on the phone, so since it was under warranty they sent out a technician. The tech shows up, turns my computer on and everything works fine.
Second time – Now I am out of warranty and try every solution I could find on the web. changed the HD boot to RAID or something like that, take out the battery, and I rebooted several times over an hour and nothing. So I go out and come back in 3 hours and turn it on and everything is fine once again.
Third time- so last night the computer freezes and I shut it down holding the power button. Once i boot back up everything is frozen. I shut down and turn it back on and bam, AHCI BIOS not installed (split second message) and then nothing but a blank screen.
A solution I read is to turn on the computer and let it “sort itself out” which can take up to an hour and then the computer will work. I will try this tonight and let you know what happens.
This error is prevalent with Dell and will never buy another Dell anymore. I also read that it is a Dell specific problem due to a fault HD. whatever the case, each time it happens I am worried I will lose everything on my computer. Again, over time, it will probably start working again but never buy Dell again.
Please let me know what else people have tried to fix and what you have learned while googling this common Dell problem.