BIO's missing

Skeng · 12 Jan 2010 at 23:01

Well basically I'm posting on behalf of a friend.

He has set up his old computer so he can install Linux and muck around with it etc. anyway he changed the boot order from Disk drive to Hard drive and his BIO's messages have dissapeard.

By BIO's messages I mean "Press del to enter bio etc" that message no longer appears. He can enter the operating system but cant seem to get into his BIOS even when he presses delete where the message should appear and nothing seems to happen.

All I know of his specs are:

Chipset: Intel 815
CPU: Pentium III : 933MHz

Thanks in advance.

benjo · 12 Jan 2010 at 23:02

Clear cmos/remove motherboard battery?

AMG · 12 Jan 2010 at 23:04

benjo said:
Clear cmos/remove motherboard battery?

that was going to be the first thing I said....next would be flash :|

Plec · 12 Jan 2010 at 23:06

As above and...

Has he tried a different keyboard just in case, by some strange twist of fate, his delete key has also stopped working?

Plus if it's using a USB interface try a PS/2 connector.

Skeng · 12 Jan 2010 at 23:44

Plec said:
As above and...

Has he tried a different keyboard just in case, by some strange twist of fate, his delete key has also stopped working?

Plus if it's using a USB interface try a PS/2 connector.

No its his normal Keyboard think its PS/2 was working fine for an hour before hand and his delete key deffinatly works. I've told him to try removing the battery will let you guys know when ever he does it

Thanks for your suggestions.

Skeng · 13 Jan 2010 at 17:59

ok removing the motherboard battery didnt work :/

Apparently it gets an error now when he enters the OS, it says CRC error system halted.

Plec · 13 Jan 2010 at 18:33

What's the complete spec?

If he has two sticks of memory ask him to remove one and if he still gets errors swap sticks and even slots. (inbetween slots and memory swaps clear the CMOS - but via the pins, the quick way)

EDIT: if you get into the BIOS try memtest - the reason you need to get into the BIOS is that idealy you need the CD/DVDto be the first bootable device to run the bootable ISO (but there is a windows version if you only have the option.)