BIOS boot order problem

[Bozz]

I have somehow managed to loose my HDD in the Boot Device Priority section of the PhoenixBIOS while trying to change the boot priority to floppy. Restoring setup defaults doesn't help, they're still gone. I've disconnected to CMOS
battery and it's still missing. I now can't boot the PC. Ugh!! Help!!!

Ian Boys



Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[Bozz]

Covered in plastic so I can't look. It is holding everything else so loosing data generally is not a problem. I'm gonna kick myself when I finally solve this one. I have put a query into the Phoenix people, you never know...

Trouble is, I'm off to St Lucia on Sunday to do a bit of charity work on a hospital over there, and I must have a PC. I have just ordered a new £800 notebook. Expensive day methinks.

Garebo, thanks for taking the time and brain cells to try to help, Cheers

Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[garebo]

We need to know the original voltage for the battery, to rule the battery out as a source of the problem. Personally, i think the battery is ok as taking it out seems to actually affect the bios settings, from what you have stated, right?

That being the case, then what the heck happened?
Can you go over that again?
Sorry, and i do believe you, but it SOUNDS like you dont know what you are doing or talking about. But I DONT think that is true. I believe you DO know what you are talking about but the bios is really messed up!
So i have to go by that and suggest we need to get into the manual for this mobo and go to the website of the mfgr and see if maybe the problem is addressed in a FAQ section, something like that.






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[garebo]

While at the website we could also look for a bios update as well. Thats providing that you can access the floppy.
Damn puters!

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[garebo]

Sorry, didnt see that post of yours!

Take care, have a good trip, see you next fall!


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[Bozz]

I couldn't boot on floppy, that had gone too. But, I found a utility to make a bootable CD, even a "clean" version for updating the BIOS. Still no joy. It didn't change that bit of the BIOS. This rather leads me to belive that the info is not stored there in the same way as other data.

The Samsung site is not very helpful, it's OK for PDF's and drivers but so far that's about all. If it was a normal PC I'd just swap the motherboard, but notebooks are a different matter. Although it's only a PIII mobile 1200Mhz it performs well and has a great 1400x1024 screen, so it's not ready for the dump yet.

I do know what I'm doing, I've built more computer than most people's hot dinners and I support 20 or so small LANs out there running my pathology software. Normally people ask me questions and it's rare that things out fox me. This is that occasion though. I really don't think it's an obvious thing, I've tried most of them.

Thanks again.

Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[garebo]

Thats one problem here. Some guys know more than others and some, well, dont know too much. Some know some stuff well and suffer in other areas, like me, lol.
I did point out i knew you know your stuff. Still, its just hard to think of someone being in a bios and not being able to press enter and get a result! Sounds fishy.

Your bios somehow corrupted. Thats why i was thinking of the battery possibly.

I think what happened is that a power issue of some sort happened just while you were in the bios or the power issue simply happened and it affected the bios.
I dont know what else to do here, stumped.



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[garebo]

But if you have a bios and you were in it, it would work for you. So it must be corrupted?


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[franklin97355]

Have you tried hitting the escape key as soon as you turn the computer on? On my dell (with Pheonix BIOS) it brings up a boot priority menu. I know what you are talking about, I did the same thing you did but a "reset defaults" at the exit menu and a restart fixed it for me.

 

[garebo]

Thats what i am trying to get at, there must be a way. Unless the bios is totally corrupted.


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[garebo]

I think i'm as frustrated as bozz!


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[Bozz]

Franklin97355,

I tried the Escape thing (that's how it appears! I've only seen it happen once) and you get the list but there is still a + next to the items:
1 +Removable Devices
2 +Hard Drives
3 CD-ROM Drive

Selecting an item doesn't work. Is this what you'd expect on a working system or are the headings expanded?

Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[G0AOZ]

After having removed the CMOS battery, does the date go back to a default setting like Jan 1st etc etc? If not, then I'd suggest you aren't leaving the battery disconnected for long enough. Also try taking out the main battery.

In the good ol' days, pressing the <Ins> key whilst powering up the computer, often brought up default settings in the BIOS. However, no idea if this works today...

What happens if you disconnect the hard drive and then switch on the computer? Does this provoke it into requesting a boot floppy disk? Does the floppy drive "grunt" as it's initialised during POST?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[jurgen36]

Takeboth batteries out and leave them out for at least 30 minutes. If this does not help it could be that some of your bios is on the hard drive, some manufactures have the nasty habit of doing this to save may be 10 cents on the smaller bios chip. If that is the case I dont know what you can do. Good luck.

Jurgen

 

[Bozz]

I have disconnected the CMOS battery, mains and battery, for a long time. The time goes back to 00:00:00 and it has obviously all been reset to defaults.

I re-installed a perfectly good HDD that I swapped out about 2 weeks ago, just in case it's stored on the disk - silly really as how could you install a new disk? - no joy.

The floppy is also absent from the boot list. I even upgraded the BIOS via a bootable CD, still no change.

Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[Bozz]

Joy of Joys! Solved.

I had to set the HDD from Auto to None, save the settings, re-boot, set it back to auto, save the settings, re-boot, then when you go back in it's there.

Many many thanks for all who tried to help.

Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[garebo]

I knew it, thats why we kept posting, figured we would keep bugging you, lol.

Good!!


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