Boot Sequence Problem

[Adywebb]

I'm doing a full Windows XP re-install on my old PC, but I can't get into the bios to change the boot sequence - on start-up it says press DEL to enter set-up, but it doesn't and just carries on into Windows.

Anyone got an idea why, and is there any other way of changing the boot sequence?

Thanks, Ady

 

[muckshifter]

Try one of these ...

Acer: - Ctrl+Alt+Esc

ALR PC: (F2) or (Ctrl)(Alt)Esc)

AMI BIOS: (Del), (F1) or (F2)

AST, Advantage, Award, Tandon: - Ctrl + Alt + Esc

Award BIOS: (Del) or (Ctrl)(Alt)(Esc)

Compaq: (F10) (do this when the cursor is in the upper right corner of the screen blinking)

Dell: - F1 or Del.

Dell: - Some require pressing reset twice

Dell: - Ctrl + Alt + Enter

DTK BIOS: (Esc)

Gateway 2000: - F1

Hewlett Packard: - F1

IBM:

• Older Models - In order to get into the configuration of the IBM setup screen (CMOS) screen you need to hold down both mouse buttons during bootup.
• Aptiva - Press F1
• IBM PS/2: (Ctrl)(Alt)(Ins) after (Ctrl)(Alt)(Del)
• IBM PS/2 with reference partition: - Press Ins during boot
• Some PS/2s, such as 75 and 90: - Ctrl Alt ?
• Some PS/2s when pointer at top right of screen: - Ctrl + Ins

NEC: - F2

Packard Bell: - F1 or F2

Phoenix BIOS: (F1), (F2), or (Ctrl)(Alt)(Esc)

Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl Alt S

Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl S

Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl Alt Ins

Sharp Laptop 9020: - F2

Sony: (F3) while you are starting the PC, then (F2) or (F1)

Tandon computers: - Hold down the key after turning on power

Tandon: - Ctrl + Shift + Esc

Toshiba Laptops: - Toshiba Utility

Toshiba: - Press Esc during boot

Toshiba, Phoenix, late model PS/1 Value Point and 330s: - Press F1 during boot

Olivetti PC Pro: - Shift Ctrl Alt + Num Pad Del

Miscellaneous PC's: - Ctrl + Esc or Ctrl and Alt and +

Zenith: - Ctrl Alt Ins


I went to a 'customer' today who had an Aptiva ... the keyboard did not have the DEL key.

 

[Adywebb]

Thanks for the help Mucks

The only one that brings up anything is Ctrl + Alt + Esc, and that shows:

Searching for Boot Record from CDROM..Not Found
Searching for Boot Record from Floppy..Not Found
Searching for Boot Record From SCSI..Not Found

Drive Not Ready
Insert BOOT diskette in A
Press any key when ready_

When I press a key it just goes through it again, I then have to Ctrl + Alt + Del to get out of it - and it then carries on into windows.

Its a PCChips M810LR Socket A Motherboard, with AMI Bios if that helps?

 

[Techy]

Do cheap as PCCHIPS's mobo's have a BIOS as standard???

lol

 

[Alf]

I had that same problem once,Forgot to plug in the keyboard

otherwise i got the same message as you (could not find boot record.) hmm... i forgot what i did , but check you HDD in bios just to see if its recognized.

 

[Adywebb]

Do cheap as PCCHIPS's mobo's have a BIOS as standard???

lol

Wondered that myself Techy!! - its was just a cheap upgrade a couple of years ago from a old Pentium MMX. Was just going to clean it up a bit and give it to a mate.

 

[Adywebb]

I had that same problem once,Forgot to plug in the keyboard

otherwise i got the same message as you (could not find boot record.) hmm... i forgot what i did , but check you HDD in bios just to see if its recognized.

Keyboard plugged in at this end Alf!

Bit confused - how do I check my HDD in bios if I can't get into it?

 

[Alf]

Oh!..... so you cant get into bios?...uhh... you sure you keyboard works?

 

[Adywebb]

Oh!..... so you cant get into bios?...uhh... you sure you keyboard works?

Keyboards all fine and dandy Alf

 

[ChristopherP]

Is it a USB keyboard? if so try a PS2 one...

 

[Adywebb]

I think I've found the problem - the CD-ROM drive appears to be defective - not reading discs so it wont boot from the drive.

As its an old cr*ppy system I think I'll bin it - mmmmm, wonder if Flops is still flogging that 2GHz PC?

Thanks everyone for the help...

 

[Raje]

If your restoring/recovery why are you even worried about BIOS at this point. If its an older system that camne with like ME or something like that then just download the 6 disk xp startup from Microsoft. Or as I love to say, GOT AN OLD ACER DISK LYING AROUND?? I don't know how old you are or if you even remember Acer but whatever, clean reinstall, 6disk start up or a boot disk, FDISK and AUTOEXE. Insert the boot disk restart teh computer and it should start up automatically, if not and you come to a non system disk error see if you can acces the aprompt. If so run a DIR search and select the auto execute to get it starting.

 

[Adywebb]

Thanks for the Info Raje, but its an old cheap upgrade and the CD-Rom is kn*ckered so I'm going to nick a few bits off it and bin it