bios stays locked...

theboy

theboy

New Member
computer specs:
AMD socket 939 3200 athlon 64-bit
300-watt psu
200gig ata seagate hd
gigabyte mobo.

I was on the computer the other day and my power went out & then when back on all of a sudden.

Now the probelm is I turn on the computer and bios shows on the screen ( I have no control over bios, keyboard shows a green F light??)
Well about 3 mins later it decides to do something and quickly shows bios & that it has detected IDE drives, etc, etc...

Then a blank screen for about another 3 mins. Then after 3 mins wa-lah the system is started.

Thought it was my HD so I went out and bought a New one. Installed a fresh windows install (windows Xp Pro) and loaded all of my drivers.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks In Advance!:D
 
would that explain the LONGG start up time...seems to be working just fine when the system is on and running....hmmm
 
what is a bios? sry im a newb just tryin to learn stuff
 
what I meant about having no control over BIOS is for example:

I Would press "F12" to chose where to boot from and nothing would happen.
The only thing that comes to mind is maybe it was a malfunction on my keyboard (USB) so I plugged in an older keyboard (PS2) and I am still getting the same problems.

mobo: socket 939 gigabyte i-dna GEforce. BIOS dated 10.22.05

Thanks for your time
 
theboy said:
what I meant about having no control over BIOS is for example:

I Would press "F12" to chose where to boot from and nothing would happen.
The only thing that comes to mind is maybe it was a malfunction on my keyboard (USB) so I plugged in an older keyboard (PS2) and I am still getting the same problems.

mobo: socket 939 gigabyte i-dna GEforce. BIOS dated 10.22.05

Thanks for your time
Click to expand...
hmmm... when did this started to happen, did u ever entered BIOS on that mobo

Computer or BIOS Keys to press .

Acer Ctrl-Alt-Esc

ALR PC Ctrl-Alt-Esc or F2
AMI BIOS Del or F1 or F2

Aptiva F1

AST, Advantage Ctrl-Alt-Esc
Award BIOS Del or Ctrl-Alt-Esc

Compaq F10 ( when the cursor is blinking in the top right corner of the screen)

Dell F1 or Del or Ctrl-Alt-Enter (Some require pressing reset twice )
DTK BIOS Esc

Gateway 2000 F1

Hewlett Packard F1

IBM Older models hold down both mouse buttons

IBM PS/1 late model Value Point and 330s F1

IBM PS/2 Ctrl-Alt-Ins

IBM PS/2 with reference partition Ins

IBM Some PS/2s, such as 75 and 90 Ctrl-Alt

IBM Some PS/2s when pointer at top right of screen Ctrl-Ins

Fortiva 5000 Ctrl-Alt-A

NEC F2

Packard Bell F1 or F2
Phoenix BIOS F1 or F2 or Ctrl-Alt-Esc or Ctrl-Alt-S or Ctrl-S or Ctrl-Alt-Ins

Sharp Laptop 9020 F2

Sony F3 while you are starting the PC, then F2 or F1

Tandon Ctrl-Shift-Esc or Ctrl-Alt-Esc

Toshiba Laptops Toshiba Utility

Toshiba Esc or F1

Olivetti PC Pro Shift-Ctrl-Alt + “NumericPadDel”

Miscellaneous PC's Ctrl-Esc or Ctrl-Alt and +

Zenith Ctrl-Alt-Ins



lol, sry, it was copy pasted from this site
 
whoa you kinda lost me there phip...

This computer I built myself so after I installed my hardware & then OS. I installed all of my drivers & utilites from the cd that was provided with my mobo.

Though Still having issues.

Today I bought HDD Cooler and another system fan. Booted it up with JUST the older (ps2) keyboard & the monitor (plug & play). Had the case all taken apart & wha-lah System booted up just fine, didnt take 5 mins in bios.

Now the only thing that can come to my mind is maybe since i've got a USB mouse & keyboard, BIOS isnt detecting anything????

Also I checked msconfig just a minute ago & it was on selective startup. So I checked it to "normal startup". After I post this im going to do a reboot & see if maybe that is the case.

Thanks guys
 
the power supply is what they call a switch mode or " switcher" as apposed to a linear power supply. A switchmode can sense it's load and increase or decrease the current. A linear supply can not. You might say a switch mode power supply has smarts and the power spike was the equivalent of you getting kicked in the head by a mule. My sister had a pent 3 that every once in a while it would hang half way through the bios, the cdrom would just keep flashing. If you turned the pc on and off after 5 - 10 tries it would boot, it only did this evert now and then, till it did it all the time. I replaced the power supply and it never happened again.
 
I was afraid of that. Well I do have another PSU handy But I think its a 325Watt PSU...Right now I have a 300 WAtt PSU. & I have HDD coolers & many Fans running. Would you say at least a 400-watt PSU would do the trick?

And when im at the computer store I think It would be a good Idea If I get a battery back-up for my system to prevent this in the future. Werid thing is/was that I was on a surge protector. Ah well shit happens.

Thanks to everyone with there help & knowledge.

& If anyone has any advice before I switch my PSU unit please let me know!:D
 
Yes get a UPS, I have a belkin 1200 va , it will keep my win 2003 server, and 2 xp work stations running for 10 - 15 minutes , with ac connected the 3 pc's and an LCD are only a 50% load.

surge protectors are almost no protection they are just an in line inductor and a parallel capacitor, or vice-versa, they will not protect in brown outs or surges, or power going on and off rapidly, like when a branch is on a wire. Make sure to get a ups that has a cat5 / phone line filter, theyreally work. Usually it is a female cat 5 connector in the back, either put in cat 5 or rj-11.
 
Hey thanks for your input Viking!

I took all your advice and im going to buy a UPS. But however I need to know the right one to buy. There is a used one with brand new batterys at a local computer store for 50 bucks. But I've been searching online for good prices just the S&H is up the roof because of the weight.

Anyone know of free S&H & a cheap but reliable UPS. If anyone finds a decent one send me the link let me know!

Thanks to everyone!
 
you might try newegg.com

or microcenter.com
compusa.com
online


there are no compusa or microcenter near you ? what about walmart or staples ?
did you say you had another power supply there, even if less wattage i would try that first, if pent 4 do not forget the second mainboard power connector.
APC power supplys are the best, if you get used make sure it is one that will connect by a usb cable, the com port ones are too old.
 
going to try the power supply right now & see if that does the trick. Luckily I can still boot the computer just takes a while.

Would taking the battery off the mobo for 10 mins then re-installing that do the trick?

And how the heck do I reset my BIOS???

Thanks again guys!
 
alright im back again...whoo hooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

cleared CMOS seemed to do the trick im back in action oh my!
 
this is a never ending battle...LOL.

I shutdown the system. Plugged in all my proper USB & audio devices booted the system back up and guess what?

It stays in BIOS for 5 mins!!!

So the only thing I can think of is getting a new CR2032 Battery.

Ideas...anyone?
is there a bad USB port or something I am using Or is my mobo dying?

I Just changed the PSU unit....GRR
 
I do not think it is the cmos battery.... the symptom of that would be incorrect time, settings in bios off ...etc.
Look in your bios settings and see if there is an option to boot from usb, if there is disable that.
 
this has been a bizarre one.....in BIOS no auto detect of a USB device. At least that I can find. But like I said eariler I took the CMOS battery out for about 10 mins and put it back in, then booted up just fine for two times....after I plugged in all my devices thats when I started having troubles again.

Its Really hard to detect what the probelm is. It can be very frustrating!!!

Thanks Viking For all your knowledge & help!:)
 
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