Can't get past BIOS flash

kakashi_12

New Member
I got this computer from my aunt. She told me it doesn't work and gave it to me to have and fix. Well, it was working decent for awhile, but NOW, I can't even get past the BIOS screen. It won't boot up. Which means I can't even reformat or safe mode or anything. What shall I do?
 
Im guessing but if the computer is old it might be the battery on the motherboard. its cheap enough.
 
Battery? ... as in CMOS battery?
It's a Toshiba Satellite. What else do you want to know? 1.7 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, new hard drive (from what I was told by the person that gave it to me), fresh install.
 
go into the bios and make sure 1. the hard drive is detected and 2. the hard drive is the first boot device, when in the bios if the date and time are a few years back you need a cmos batteryas suggested above....also make sure there are no cd's in the cd drive.
 
well. it finally boots now, after leaving it alone for a day.
But now... The screen flickers every now and then (on startup and screensaver), plus it will automatically out of nowhere, change resolution to 4 bit and a low pixel setting (huge icons). It won't let me change back to 32 bit color or a different resolution. The only way to fix is to reboot. I tried plugging it into another monitor and it does the same. So I know it's not the screen itself. What should I test next?
 
That does sound like a video problem. My dad's laptop had an FX 5600 card and with certain drivers it would do the same thing.
 
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