Hey you all, I'm a new member here but certainly not new to computers. I've got a problem that has stumped me hard, and major props go to anybody inventive enough to suggest a fix for it...
What I need to do is reset the CMOS (BIOS) from Inside windows. Now here's the story.
I came across a gateway 7330 laptop (XP) with some pretty bad infections. I naturally installed malwarebytes to nuke the stuff (not in safe mode, stupidly..) and the virus was smart enough to kill it. I go to reboot into safe mode.
I discover that in the BIOS (and in windows too, but I didn't test it till then) that the enter and a few of the arrow keys don't work. The arrow keys aren't an issue, there are fn keys to get around it, but enter is a big deal.
No big deal, I say, and plug in my USB keyboard. Everything works fine.
I go to safe mode, and it bluescreens. Every boot option bluescreens almost immediately. My thoughts go to chkdsk, I run chkdsk off the windows CD and everthing checks out.
I google my error and get some results about bios settings. Ok, I'll try disabling everything and see if that works. Then I can slowly enable them until I find the problem, right?
Unfortunately, "legacy USB" was one of the settings I disabled.
goodbye, USB keyboard.
goodbye, enter key.
I need the enter key to change the bios settings. both for enabling and resetting to defaults, I've tried every combination. And for re-installing XP.
That's my goal now, to reinstall XP. I nearly threw it out the window when it booted from the xp cd and it said "To install windows, press ENTER now." I've managed to install windows vista (mouse-friendly installer, after making a partition for it with a linux livecd), and can get the USB keyboard working from there. But as much as I love 7, I need xp on this machine.
What can I do? it's a catch-22.
I figure I can reset the CMOS to re-enable legacy USB, but the only ways I have found are through DOS (needs enter key), through the BIOS itself (needs enter key), or by physically removing the battery. (it's a laptop, and if I could find the battery, there's no guarantee it would be removable).
How can I reset the CMOS from inside Windows, or find another way of inputting keystrokes?
Normally I can solve just about any computer problem, but this one blows my mind.
Any ideas would be unprecedentedly appreciated.
What I need to do is reset the CMOS (BIOS) from Inside windows. Now here's the story.
I came across a gateway 7330 laptop (XP) with some pretty bad infections. I naturally installed malwarebytes to nuke the stuff (not in safe mode, stupidly..) and the virus was smart enough to kill it. I go to reboot into safe mode.
I discover that in the BIOS (and in windows too, but I didn't test it till then) that the enter and a few of the arrow keys don't work. The arrow keys aren't an issue, there are fn keys to get around it, but enter is a big deal.
No big deal, I say, and plug in my USB keyboard. Everything works fine.
I go to safe mode, and it bluescreens. Every boot option bluescreens almost immediately. My thoughts go to chkdsk, I run chkdsk off the windows CD and everthing checks out.
I google my error and get some results about bios settings. Ok, I'll try disabling everything and see if that works. Then I can slowly enable them until I find the problem, right?
Unfortunately, "legacy USB" was one of the settings I disabled.
goodbye, USB keyboard.
goodbye, enter key.
I need the enter key to change the bios settings. both for enabling and resetting to defaults, I've tried every combination. And for re-installing XP.
That's my goal now, to reinstall XP. I nearly threw it out the window when it booted from the xp cd and it said "To install windows, press ENTER now." I've managed to install windows vista (mouse-friendly installer, after making a partition for it with a linux livecd), and can get the USB keyboard working from there. But as much as I love 7, I need xp on this machine.
What can I do? it's a catch-22.
I figure I can reset the CMOS to re-enable legacy USB, but the only ways I have found are through DOS (needs enter key), through the BIOS itself (needs enter key), or by physically removing the battery. (it's a laptop, and if I could find the battery, there's no guarantee it would be removable).
How can I reset the CMOS from inside Windows, or find another way of inputting keystrokes?
Normally I can solve just about any computer problem, but this one blows my mind.
Any ideas would be unprecedentedly appreciated.
