E
Enkidu
Flightless Bird
Allen wrote:
>>> As I have said, I CANNOT open BIOS.I've tried all the various keys and
>>> combinations, and all I get is the same old, same old "no boot device".
>>> I would be very surprised if the BIOS battery is shot, as the machine is
>>> 21 months old; I have changed a BIOS battery only once, on a CompuAdd
>>> machine bought about 22 years ago. I was the PC guru (I couldn't get out
>>> of it) from the first PCs until I retired in 1993 and nne of those
>>> machines ever had a battery problem.
>>
>> I would be surprised to learn that a dead battery on the MB caused you
>> to not be able to access the BIOS. There somply has to be a keyboard
>> combination to access the BIOS, but you'd have to enter that key or
>> combination repreatedly as you booted up, and it should enter the BIOS
>> setup scree before it tried to boot frm the hard drive. If it doesn't,
>> your MB or youe BIOS is just dead.
>>
>> One other idea - you aren't using a wireless keyboard, are you? If you
>> are, get a different wired keyboard and try that. If you're using a USB
>> keyboard, try an old PS2 keyboard . . . perhaps your keyboard isn't
>> being recognized by the BIOS but by the OS which isn't booting. If that
>> were the case, you the computer never sees what you type.
>>
> No, I'm using a USB KB, but I might try another. just in case.
It's cheap and easy to check, even if it's unlikely to be the problem.
> Further
> comments: you mentioned pressing F keys multiple times--my rule is to
> press them at least 60 times, unless something happens sooner.
Yeah . . . by the time you see the prompt, it's too late to hit the
right key. But every system I have tells me what key combo to hit during
the boot process to enter the BIOS set up. Yours doesn't? If not, you've
got to find the manual.
One other thing you could try if you can get to the BIOS is to change
the boot device to USB or DVD, and have something bootable there. You
can create a bootable Linux USB thumb drive using a different system
with UNetbootin. Versions for Windows or Linux. Then you could see if
you can boot at all. You can use the Linux OS to at least look at your
hard drive and see if it will even mount. If you don't want to use Linux
to look at your drive, you could pull it from the system and place it in
a USB drive housing (under $25) and try to read it with any other
system, Windows, Linux or Mac. If the drive is damaged, you might need
to do this to salvage as much as possible of your files from the disk.
You might need to do this anyway if you trace the problem to a bad
mother board, because you'll have to reinstall Win7 after you replace
the MB and you'll lose whatever is on the drive.
One last idea is fixmbr, a utility that came with XP to fix a damaged
master boot record. If you've a damaged MBR, you wouldn't be able to
boot, of course. The Win7 DVD must have something like this utility,
because the problem still occurs. This would require booting from your
Win7 DVD, and that requires changing the boot device in your BIOS. If
you can't access your BIOS, you are truly hosed, and it's likely time
for a new mother board. That would suck.
> And about
> BIOS batteries--my computer is never off for extended periods, except
> for opening the case or when bad weather indicates chances for damage; I
> have had very, very few hardware problems over the years, going back to
> analog days starting in 1954.
I've only had one battery go out, and that was a truly ancient system I
was using as a file server. But I don't see how that would kill access
to your bios, because it has power it it's trying to boot. You might
lose settings, you might lose the time, but you should still be able to
access the BIOS.
I think you can fix everything if you can access the BIOS, and you can't
fix anything if you can't.
--
Enkidu
>>> As I have said, I CANNOT open BIOS.I've tried all the various keys and
>>> combinations, and all I get is the same old, same old "no boot device".
>>> I would be very surprised if the BIOS battery is shot, as the machine is
>>> 21 months old; I have changed a BIOS battery only once, on a CompuAdd
>>> machine bought about 22 years ago. I was the PC guru (I couldn't get out
>>> of it) from the first PCs until I retired in 1993 and nne of those
>>> machines ever had a battery problem.
>>
>> I would be surprised to learn that a dead battery on the MB caused you
>> to not be able to access the BIOS. There somply has to be a keyboard
>> combination to access the BIOS, but you'd have to enter that key or
>> combination repreatedly as you booted up, and it should enter the BIOS
>> setup scree before it tried to boot frm the hard drive. If it doesn't,
>> your MB or youe BIOS is just dead.
>>
>> One other idea - you aren't using a wireless keyboard, are you? If you
>> are, get a different wired keyboard and try that. If you're using a USB
>> keyboard, try an old PS2 keyboard . . . perhaps your keyboard isn't
>> being recognized by the BIOS but by the OS which isn't booting. If that
>> were the case, you the computer never sees what you type.
>>
> No, I'm using a USB KB, but I might try another. just in case.
It's cheap and easy to check, even if it's unlikely to be the problem.
> Further
> comments: you mentioned pressing F keys multiple times--my rule is to
> press them at least 60 times, unless something happens sooner.
Yeah . . . by the time you see the prompt, it's too late to hit the
right key. But every system I have tells me what key combo to hit during
the boot process to enter the BIOS set up. Yours doesn't? If not, you've
got to find the manual.
One other thing you could try if you can get to the BIOS is to change
the boot device to USB or DVD, and have something bootable there. You
can create a bootable Linux USB thumb drive using a different system
with UNetbootin. Versions for Windows or Linux. Then you could see if
you can boot at all. You can use the Linux OS to at least look at your
hard drive and see if it will even mount. If you don't want to use Linux
to look at your drive, you could pull it from the system and place it in
a USB drive housing (under $25) and try to read it with any other
system, Windows, Linux or Mac. If the drive is damaged, you might need
to do this to salvage as much as possible of your files from the disk.
You might need to do this anyway if you trace the problem to a bad
mother board, because you'll have to reinstall Win7 after you replace
the MB and you'll lose whatever is on the drive.
One last idea is fixmbr, a utility that came with XP to fix a damaged
master boot record. If you've a damaged MBR, you wouldn't be able to
boot, of course. The Win7 DVD must have something like this utility,
because the problem still occurs. This would require booting from your
Win7 DVD, and that requires changing the boot device in your BIOS. If
you can't access your BIOS, you are truly hosed, and it's likely time
for a new mother board. That would suck.
> And about
> BIOS batteries--my computer is never off for extended periods, except
> for opening the case or when bad weather indicates chances for damage; I
> have had very, very few hardware problems over the years, going back to
> analog days starting in 1954.
I've only had one battery go out, and that was a truly ancient system I
was using as a file server. But I don't see how that would kill access
to your bios, because it has power it it's trying to boot. You might
lose settings, you might lose the time, but you should still be able to
access the BIOS.
I think you can fix everything if you can access the BIOS, and you can't
fix anything if you can't.
--
Enkidu
