Chris L

This is a curious one. My PC has been fine - no changes or updates recently. I shut it down a few nights ago - no problem. Booted it up this afternoon and it goes straight to BIOS. PC is a standard Evesham device, about 3 years old, totally standard. The PC goes through its normal checks - the RAM appears OK, but then it just goes straight into the Phoenix BIOS setup page. It doesn't try to boot off any device.

I thinking that there might be a problem with the harddrive, but I'm not sure.

PC spec:

Evesham PC, 2.4Ghz, 512Mb RAM. Maxtor 120Gb harddrive, Plextor CD / DVD Writer - all standard

BIOS checks don't show anything unusual - all temps and voltages are normal.

Before I go pulling my PC apart. Is there anything else I can do or check to try and find the problem?

Chris

boomer

Stuck F2/F10/Delete key?

I have never heard of a PC going straight to BIOS setup should a problem arise!

Do you have a floppy drive and a bootable floppy (or a bootable CD) to see if something can load?

mb

Chris L

I'll try the keyboard trick - you never know! I've got a floppy, but the PC doesn't appear to be getting to the stage of attempting to boot off a drive.

Cheers
Chris

fitzscoob

Chris have you tried the pc repair shoe? Put it on and give it a kick, should solve all your problems.

Chris L

That will be following shortly this evening

Scooby-Doo

Did you save changes (although there are none) and restart ? Does it go back again ? and have you had a power cut at all ? Only other thing is that the mb battery backup has died. Try disconnecting all drives then booting and if that fails try changing the replacing the small battrery. If all that fails use the shoe.

Chris L

Very odd - took the PC apart - checked all the boards / cards etc. Cleaned it all up and then rebooted and it worked fine! Just have to keep an eye on things and see if it happens again. The PC repair shoe wasn't needed this time

Thanks for the replies

Cheers
Chris

GC8

Looks like Im too late; in future try resetting the BIOS. Also consider replacing the CR2032 lithium battery.

Simon

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Could have a Gigabyte Motherboard which would mean it has a dual-BIOS. I know that the Gigabyte board has a fail safe. If the primary BIOS fails for some reason the secondary BIOS kicks in to help sort out the primary. But it may be the CMOS battery as described earlier causing this.