DELL BIOS Screen Hangs Up, Requiring <DEL> to move to Windows XP Welcome

[bill33707]

DELL Dimension 4100, XP with SP2, Pentium III, 933 MHz, 256 RAM
Recently my Start Up process hangs at the Dell BIOS screen, which says to click on DEL to resume.  However, doing so does not take me to the BIOS setup screen, but instead takes me right along to the Windows XP (Home) welcome screen (my objective of course.)  This issue is that the start up process used to go straight to the Windows XP screen without hanging up at the BIOS screen and requiring me to click on DEL.  Don't think I even used to see the BIOS screen in the normal start up process.
I can only get into the BIOS setup by holding DEL even earlier in the start process -- while the screen is still momentarily black before BIOS appears.  All the BIOS settings are as various tutorials say they should be.   I tried resetting to default also.  Made no difference.
I ran my Norton Cleanup Utility recently.  Not sure if that deleted something that caused this.  Also, seems like some time ago maybe this symptom occurred and "healed itself." 

[quaxo]

Before pushing DEL, check everything on the screen and make sure there are no error messages.

[bill33707]

quaxo-
The screen never showed any error messages.  Just BIOS type of information and the DELL Computer logo in blue. 
I said that some time ago this same problem just "healed itself."  At boot up this morning it does not hang up and goes right straight to Windows XP Welcome and then the desktop.  I have no idea why the problem went away, since my several successful attempts to modify the BIOS data appeared to make no difference upon later boot ups.  I had not changed anything for the past several boot ups, and suddenly it is working fine again.  Strange, but wonderful.
Thanks for your reply.  If you have a theory, I'd still like to know what you think it was. 
bill33707

[quaxo]

According to Dell, the back of your system has 4 status lights. The next time this happens, before pushing delete, check the back of your system and see what color the four lights are then check the link below to see what might be wrong.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dzuul/codemess.htm

As to what the actual problem might be, with the lack of information (this not being your fault since the system isn't telling you much) it's hard to say. A few things can cause different errors during the POST (Power On Self Test). A low CMOS battery, a loose video card, a memory problem, a bad processor... a great many things.

Since it's working again, I guess that's good for now. Next time it happens, check those lights on the back and check that chart, then come back and post here and we'll see if we can't track down what the system thinks is wrong with it.