Unable to access bios?

[Pat]

The hard drive in my neighbors eMachines PC (etower 466id) recently died. I
was going to replace it for him, but before doing that I wanted to look at
the bios settings. For some reason though, I am unable to access the bios.
Although the eMachines logo appears when the machine is first turned on,
hitting the del key (which according to the manual should bring up the bios
monitor) doesn't work. I tried other key combinations (F2, tab, etc) and at
various times and with repeated key strokes but all to no avail. I did
discover that the battery on the motherboard was dead, and replaced that,
but still no luck. I'm now wondering if something else may be damaged, but
before telling him to scrap it, I thought I would post here in case someone
had some other suggestions of things to try. This is my first experience
with an eMachines PC, and I've never run into this sort of problem on other
systems.

Thanks for any help. I appreciate it.

Pat

 

[kony]

The hard drive in my neighbors eMachines PC (etower 466id) recently died. I
was going to replace it for him, but before doing that I wanted to look at
the bios settings. For some reason though, I am unable to access the bios.
Although the eMachines logo appears when the machine is first turned on,
hitting the del key (which according to the manual should bring up the bios
monitor) doesn't work. I tried other key combinations (F2, tab, etc) and at
various times and with repeated key strokes but all to no avail.

Sometimes you have to be really quick pressing the key,
almost simultaneously pressing it while turning the system
on. On that system, I don't know.

I did
discover that the battery on the motherboard was dead, and replaced that,
but still no luck.

Did you unplug the AC power then clear CMOS? Do so if not.
Did you unplug the suspect drive from the data and power
cables? Do that too.

I'm now wondering if something else may be damaged, but
before telling him to scrap it, I thought I would post here in case someone
had some other suggestions of things to try. This is my first experience
with an eMachines PC, and I've never run into this sort of problem on other
systems.

Check to see if all fans are spinning. If you have a
multimeter, take power supply voltage readings at the
connectors.

Inspect the system (especially if it had been previously
fiddled with inside) for loose cables, connectors, cards,
memory, etc. Removing a HDD in a cramped case can dislodge
other parts fairly easily.

Inspect the motherboard for failed capacitors- swollen leaky
tops or residue on tops or bottoms, especially the larger
capacitors around the CPU, AGP slot and memory.

Try disconnecting all accessories including the drives and
cards, leaving only the CPU, heatsink/fan, video and 1
memory module installed. Clear CMOS again, plug AC power
back in and try it again.

Power supply failure was pretty common on eMachines but not
clearly indicated in this case... if you had a spare PSU it
might be worth swapping it in the old one's place.

 

[Clark]

"Hard Drive Died"
Why did you believe this to be the case?

Before you changed the battery and were booting to the logo screen, how did
the boot end up. If it wouldn't boot, did you try a CD or Boot Disk to
boot? If you hit the escape key during the logo, do you see anything--maybe
hit pause to stop the boot.

I assume you are not using one of those Microsoft MultiMedia keyboards where
the function keys have to be switched on?

I don't know about eMachines, but some manufacturers use a special utility
to get to the bios.

Clark

 

[Elle]

Try holding the del key down steadily, before and after the prompt appears.

 

[Pat]

Thanks for all the replies, and sorry for the delay in responding. I just
now got a chance to try the suggestions. Unfortunately, none of them
worked. One time I thought I saw a message flash on the screen before
getting the eMachine logo, but with successive starts there was nothing but
the logo (and then a blank screen after that). I even tried connecting
another hard drive to it, and then starting with a Windows XP CD in the DVD
drive, but to no avail. The drive starts to spin but then just stops.

I guess it's not to be. I'll suggest to my neighbor that he keep it around
for spare parts, but it looks like he'll need a replacement.

Thanks again for the help. I appreciated it.

Pat

 

[Clark]

Disconnect all the hard drives and just try to boot from a CD.

Clark

 

[J. Yazel]

Thanks for all the replies, and sorry for the delay in responding. I just
now got a chance to try the suggestions. Unfortunately, none of them
worked. One time I thought I saw a message flash on the screen before
getting the eMachine logo, but with successive starts there was nothing but
the logo (and then a blank screen after that). I even tried connecting
another hard drive to it, and then starting with a Windows XP CD in the DVD
drive, but to no avail. The drive starts to spin but then just stops.

I guess it's not to be. I'll suggest to my neighbor that he keep it around
for spare parts, but it looks like he'll need a replacement.

Thanks again for the help. I appreciated it.

Pat
======================

My eMachine boots from the Del key.

However, I have to start pressing it once a second the minute I boot.

Jack

 

[Pat]

I tried that also, and it didn't work.

Thanks, -Pat

 

[Pat]

My eMachine boots from the Del key.

However, I have to start pressing it once a second the minute I boot.

Jack

I tried repeated pressing of both the delete key as well as the Del key on
the key pad (even though I think they're the same) from the time I turned on
the computer and neither worked. I tried holding down the Del key, and that
didn't work either. So I'm not sure what's going on, but I've probably
spent way more time than it's worth it this point.

Thanks for the reply. -Pat

 

[J. Yazel]

I tried repeated pressing of both the delete key as well as the Del key on
the key pad (even though I think they're the same) from the time I turned on
the computer and neither worked. I tried holding down the Del key, and that
didn't work either. So I'm not sure what's going on, but I've probably
spent way more time than it's worth it this point.

Thanks for the reply. -Pat
===================================

I've never tried this but I have seen it mentioned a few times for
this problem.

Disconnect the keyboard and boot the machine. Supposedly, this
will cause the setup to appear.

Jack