BIOS Boot sequence

[Dudley Henriques]

Am I correct that if using XP on a system that has a CDRW on it, the boot
sequence in the BIOS should be
1> the CDRW
2> the HDD
3> the floppy disk?

Reason I ask is that I just noticed that in my BIOS the #1 was the floppy.
If I need to reinstall XP and have to boot to the XP CD, am I right to
change this BIOS setting to reflect the CDRW as #1 and the HDD as #2 and the
Floppy as the last in the sequence?
Many thanks
Dudley Henriques

 

[Brett I. Holcomb]

If there is nothing in the floppy drive it will move to the next in the
list. I normally do floppy, CD, then hard disk. That way on the rare
occasions (and there are some) that I need the floppy to boot I simply put
it in and the system boots off it without me having to set the BIOS.

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Thanks Brett. I have developed an issue coming out of standby lately and
think it might have been caused by a flash I tried from Asus on the BIOS. If
push comes to shove, if I go into the BIOS and hit reset to defaults then
F10 and exit, will this take out the flash I did and restore the bios to the
condition it was in initially?
Dudley

 

[LVTravel]

No. Clearing the bios only reverts it to its fail-safe mode but doesn't
revert to a previous bios version.

If you had a failed bios flash you probably wouldn't have a compute that
would boot.

Check the bios version that shows when you first turn on the computer. Is
it the one you expect? If not you can try the bios flash again, but if you
are not having problems, initially, why flash the bios.

It is always dangerous to do this procedure on a computer since if anything
goes wrong, the bios is junk. I only flash a bios if the update will fix a
known problem or give a feature that wasn't available on the old bios. A
proper way to flash the bios is to first plug in the computer to a properly
operating uninterruptible power supply (test it by pulling its plug from the
outlet, don't rely on its test button), back up all files that you can't
afford to lose and then prepare the flash floppy or other flash media. Boot
to the flash media, save the old bios if it is available and then flash the
new bios following instructions exactly. Reboot the computer after removing
the flash media and hope that the OS works without having to do a repair
install (normally not necessary.)

Thanks Brett. I have developed an issue coming out of standby lately and
think it might have been caused by a flash I tried from Asus on the BIOS.
If push comes to shove, if I go into the BIOS and hit reset to defaults
then F10 and exit, will this take out the flash I did and restore the bios
to the condition it was in initially?
Dudley

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Thanks much for the reply. Appreciate it. I learned something.
DH

No. Clearing the bios only reverts it to its fail-safe mode but doesn't
revert to a previous bios version.

If you had a failed bios flash you probably wouldn't have a compute that
would boot.

Check the bios version that shows when you first turn on the computer. Is
it the one you expect? If not you can try the bios flash again, but if
you are not having problems, initially, why flash the bios.

It is always dangerous to do this procedure on a computer since if
anything goes wrong, the bios is junk. I only flash a bios if the update
will fix a known problem or give a feature that wasn't available on the
old bios. A proper way to flash the bios is to first plug in the computer
to a properly operating uninterruptible power supply (test it by pulling
its plug from the outlet, don't rely on its test button), back up all
files that you can't afford to lose and then prepare the flash floppy or
other flash media. Boot to the flash media, save the old bios if it is
available and then flash the new bios following instructions exactly.
Reboot the computer after removing the flash media and hope that the OS
works without having to do a repair install (normally not necessary.)

 

[GHalleck]

Thanks Brett. I have developed an issue coming out of standby lately and
think it might have been caused by a flash I tried from Asus on the BIOS. If
push comes to shove, if I go into the BIOS and hit reset to defaults then
F10 and exit, will this take out the flash I did and restore the bios to the
condition it was in initially?
Dudley

If the ASUS is a late model motherboard and comes equipped
with the self-recovery bios, the proper technique to correct
a bad (or non-working) flash is to (a) turn off the computer,
and unplug the power cord, (b) remove the CMOS battery, (d)
jumper the CLRTC block for 5-10 seconds. Reverse the steps,
turn on the computer and hold down the DEL key to re-enter
BIOS setup and re-configure accordingly. (Follow along with
the instruction manual).

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Thank you. It's a P4C800-E Deluxe. I'll try resetting the CMOS .
DH

 

[Brett I. Holcomb]

As others have said if the flash did not go it probably won't boot - you
just reset to the default. Check with Asus and see if there is a recovery
option.

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Thanks.
D

As others have said if the flash did not go it probably won't boot - you
just reset to the default. Check with Asus and see if there is a recovery
option.

 

[Jonny]

If you're booting off the XP install CD, yes.

The HDD can be #1 after the XP installation is completed. The PC won't
bother looking for bootable CD media when turning it on.

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Thanks much.
D

If you're booting off the XP install CD, yes.

The HDD can be #1 after the XP installation is completed. The PC won't
bother looking for bootable CD media when turning it on.