How do I fix a messed up BIOS on an XP PC?

If someone messes up their bios why don't you just tell them to pull the battery ? Power off. If they know what a watch battery looks like, they release the clip on it, set it down somewhere for 5 minutes then reinstall it, right side up. Power up and the bios should be back to the origional bios from the factory

Great tip, Charles! Thanks for adding it.

That will only reset the CMOS memory - not the BIOS. And that's if you're lucky. I've seen CMOS hold it's data for days without a battery before...

Nonetheless, resetting the CMOS isn't the problem here and it's certainly not the fix. It's the BIOS ROM that needs to be reflashed back to spec.

Pulling the battery out wont really fix the BIOS, but it might help. I did it and it cleared my CMOS, which was actually what was causing (part of) the trouble. Now at least I get a screen and can work with the BIOS configurations. Give it a try before you call the BIOS dead

yeah, sounds like you got in some big trouble with your wife. I have the same problem and have tried many different things from my (computer skills) and my KN8 motherboard booklet and it seems that I need to take the battery out for a minute (cmos) and also maybe switch the ccmos from 1-3 to 1-2 for a minute also(both located on the motherboard. So I hope you fixed your problem and wish my luck! Happy New Year everyone!

Tyvm Charles your tip worked like a treat^^.

I have a HP Windows XP, and God love my boys, but the got on and somehow I have lost the ability to us my desktop display properties. The screen saver works and Color schemes work but the desktop will only allow me to change colors and not background. Please help as I love a good picture on my computor. Thanks for your web site
it is great.

I have a HP Windows XP, and God love my boys, but the got on and somehow I have lost the ability to us my desktop display properties. The screen saver works and Color schemes work but the desktop will only allow me to change colors and not background. Please help as I love a good picture on my computor. Thanks for your web site
it is great.

im using a desktop hp intel viiv m7360n and i get the blue screen of death, the system boots but wont let me install a new operating system, thats when the screen of death comes. please help me.

Hi , I have a Gateway 500s- E3600 machine. I took out my two cd drives to clean and when I rehooked I've might of messed up.
My p/c s running horrible,but is running,I think It is from playing around with the jumpers on the back of the drives.Also I do not know if I put the audio cable on the right one.

I am getting ready to check out the bios. Any help ? Thanks, Jack

I had an HP desktop crash and when I went thru restore it now comes up with an .netframework 1.1 error. When you go to admin there is nothing there. How do I fix this?

the way to reflash a corrupt bios is to either replace it if it is detachable or wire is with solder from an identical board to boot from the other boads good bios. after it boots just detach the cables and reflash normally.

How do i get to the BIOS on a HP Centrino laptop? I have clicked on F10. and it prompts me to setup, but i cant find any BIOS. please help.
Dave

dead bios pleas help i tried every flashing method nothing tell me some

advice dont buy emachines=garbage build your own

as for hp f2

hey ren reinstall your video drivers

oops sorry dell is f2 hp is f1

Hello, I guess there were a couple viruses on my computer, one of which was called killwin. I formatted the hard drive, reinstalled, and reset bios to factory settings, but still get random freezes almost everytime and sometimes a restart. By freeze I do not mean a program froze I mean the mouse and keyboard do nothing with the screen and ctrl alt del give me nothing of course too. The only other thing i saw wrong was that when compaq sign comes up on boot, and says esc F1 or F10 keys for options, it goes VERY fast past that part where as before it gave you maybe 2,3 seconds. After a random restart I notice the time is back to normal but does not load the xp os just restarts and its back to flipping by that screen very fast and windows will work if you hold F5 and select Use last known working settings. Safe mode does not work and I have tried taking out the cmos battery for a couple hours and putting it back in. ANY ADVICE PLEASE?

Oh yeah, and all my scans on all kinds of software come up negative, and I have also tried 3 diferent kinds of registry cleaners.. I am pretty much out of ideas...Wayne

Hi can anyone help please/ My daughter was given a laptop by her genorous uncle (not). Its an Advent 6417 I am not sure what operating system it is running as I get the following error message on startup:
Do you want to run setup?
After I receive this error message, I am prompted to wait,
F1 to resume
If I then press F1, I receive the following BIOS error message:
boot failure in drive a
boot record from floppy not found
boot record from CD-ROM not found
boot record from SCSI not found
Its asking for a boot diskette to be inserted which her uncle doesnt have. I have gone into the bios and re-set default settings and that hasnt helped. I have heard that you can download a boot disc, but i am not sure which one i need as there are hundreds to choose from... oh and before i get lots of crazy responses back... yes i am very green when it comes to pc use!

I have a compaq presario that I use on a network for
internet only. I tried to download a driver for my printer fax and got a message that this might damage my computer. Like a dummy I loaded it anyway and now the compter is dead. Tried reloading xp and keep getting blue screen errors like irql_not_less then or equal and other errors,
errors say that bios is messed up. Can I get a disk to reset this or is the comuter trash now.

Thanks for any help
ps when I turn on the computer I dont get the beep that you would normally get.

Thanks again Jim

hey im having such trouble with msn i keep getting an error code of 80072efd

now each time i try to download or sign in i cant what is going on?

-Simon

my computer desk top keep going back to black screen whenevar i restart it how do i get desktop picture to stay on

i have a compaq ms-7184 ver 1:0 mothreboard i updated the bios now when i start pc it first says boot checksum error then detectind ide controler..pass then after that all these mad noises and colours now if i swap the ide cable for the hard drive and cd rom around it will start to boot from xp disc but gets stuck straight away on press f6 for third party sics/raid controler any ideas or help would be fantastic

when i turn on my computer i get colour bars and color screens before it boots up i have a widows xp intel

Hi Dave

I have a desktop pc thats been giving me some hell. i recently put the computer on and just went balnk. i assumed the Video card to be the problem so i swopped over to the built in graphics on the motherboard. switched the pc on and i had it working. once i turned the pc of and on again it went back to blank. please advise me on how i can sort this problem out.

thanks

Hi Dave, My problem may be a lot easier than all this but Im just not that computer saavy. As soon as I start my computer XP, it brings up a blue screen, (not the screen of death), but it shows a menu, Win BIOS CMOS and I am able to move the arrow to all selections up and down but thats as far as itll go, it wont go past that blue screen even if I send the boot priority to CD Rom and try to reinstall windows from the original CD. By the way, the features in there include Health Features, just so that you get a better picture of which page Im talking about. Please help

I recently installed an Hp 550 bios version, on my Hp 530 and well now all I get is a black screen and a spinning fan, with the power LED. My notebook is out of warranty but days.

Is there anybody who can help me?

thanks,

L0vej0y

I have an advent 3312, when i switch on its says checksum error either keyboard faulty or not present. Im told the BIOS is nackered and I must buy a new system.........I that right

Hey Dave this one is a doozey. How can I fix my HP Pavlion A6437C mini tower? I have no video, sound, mouse or keyboard funtions. Lites on the keyboard flash on for a split second then go out. All other plug & play devices have power to them. The dvd/rw drive tray opens & closes at my command also. The Hatachi Deskstar 500 gb Sata hdd spins up ok. The cpu hsf fan spins up as well. Has power from the psu & the power lite stays blue also when I press it.Tried clearing cmos. Have been Googling for 3 weeks now at no avail. Suspecting a bad mobo. Tackle this one.

David, I have to say that it sounds like you have a fried computer. I'd look into replacing the motherboard or just getting a new computer entirely. Sounds like hardware issues, not a BIOS problem. Good luck!

Thanks for you expertise. Trying one more thing. Purchasing a PCI diagnostic card & see what happens.Then if it doesn't then I will purchase a mobo. If it fixes it then I will buy you a very large cup of java.

hi,my questions are:can bios be infected with viruses? because mine is realy mixt up..and where i can find one for my computer?...from biosagent it sais...
BIOS Type: Phoenix-Award
BIOS Date: September 10th 2003
BIOS ID: 09/10/2003-KT266A+8235-C-00-None
BIOS OEM: M811 Release 09/10/2003 - 6.00 PG
Chipset: VIA 82C3099 rev 0
SuperIO: ITE 8705/SiS 950 rev 2 at port 002E
Manufacturer: VIA Technologies, Inc.
Motherboard: VT8367-8235

Here again Dave!! Installed a Celeron 450 2.20 GHz single core cpu which is one of the capatible cpu's for my HP A6437C. Well it didn't fix a thing by all means. I guess the last thing I need to check is the rom chip for being corrupt. It makes no sense cause all the hardware is powering up like it should. Does not have a onboard video card & cannot find it anywhere on the board or I would just install another one in the pci slot to see if its a vga concern. If replacing the rom chip & that doesn't fix it then the mobo will be replaced. I have no other options. Will be buying you a chai(what ever that is) Coffee I persume. Thanks for any other ideas. David

i have a gateway desktop and i need to erase everything and starting over like when i first bought it but i lost my disk i tryed tapping the f8 button but it wont work can some one pleas help me

my problem is that my hard drive and cd Rom can't be seen in the bios.
when i try to boot from the hard drive it tell me that there is an error in the bios code.
please i need a help.
machine:asus laptop
o.s:xp

I had a Bios update failure happen on my dv9000 recently, and it's not as easy as you think to recover. the newer bios chips are not remove-able, if the crisis recovery don't work, you need to replace the motehrboard or at least that what HP tells you. I did a tremendous amount of reserach over several weeks, and found these guys: aqstech.com they did the repair for about $100 a 1/3 of teh rppice HP wanted. nice going HP

I have a Dell XPS710 which recently decided not to boot up. The fans and lights come up for a second and then turn off. If I take out all the RAM it will come on, but of course I can't do anything without the RAM. So I purchased new RAM and it doesn't help. Then I decided to buy a power supply tester which states that all cables are working properly except the P2 that goes to the motherboard. Do you think buying a new PS will fix my problem? Is it possible that there is something wrong with my motherboard? If that is the case I might as well chuck it because a replacement board from Dell is looking to be very expensive and time consuming to install.

I have a Acer aspire one ZG5,after a failed or wrong bios update there is no sign power therefor wont boot.The Netbook is only 3 months old and Acer say the warrenty does not cover BIOS update failure and they will charge me atleast £84.00 to repair.

Does anyone know how I can recover my netbook.

Please HELP

When i restart my PC it directly goes to bios settings. The bios settings icon do not appear on the bios screen it appears when i move my mouse and after srating XP my mouse do not work.

I have an HP g120em laptop. with windows 7installed. yesterday when switched it on The system suddenly reverted to a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left corner.IT doesn't boot-up I have since tried to access the BIOS by pressing F10, but I can't get into it too.

If you didn't solve yet problem here is an fix.You need an XP CD.Just boot from XP CD and press R=Repair in setup.I had the same problem on windows 7 while activating it.The problem is that windows won't boot up from HDD.... So i was repairing startup problems and there you go!

I have a Gateway 500s desk top running WinXP, and after moving about a month and a half ago, I set it up and plugged it in as usual, as I have after moving before. Now this time I get a black screen with errors, something about BIOS being outdated, a WIN file either missing or corrupt, and being directed to insert the OS cd and pressing R for repair. Maybe not in that order. Well I did all that, and now I can at least access all of my information, and get online just fine. But all of the graphics are crazy. The font and icons are huge, and the colors are not what they used to be at all. I do see an error (!) in the Device Manager on the Intel (R) GRaphics Controller, and have tried updating it with the original cd, have done all of the Windows updates as well, and still nothing is helping. Please, I am in need of some suggestions, if you can help...?

The motherboard in my E-machines desktop died.
The board is an Intel D845GVSR.
I am purchasing the identical motherboard, but it's from a Gateway desktop.

Will they compatible and could I use the same recovery CD or can I swap BIOS chip from the bad board to the new ?

remove your ram, clean it up,insert it back, make sure other cards in the PCI are inserted well.play with the bios jumper.

my computer won't let me get online its saying i got 12 virse's then security shield keeps poping up.. how can i fix it? can u help me please.

I am working on my grand daughters laptop. She set a cmos pasword and has how for got it. I could not get into the operating system which is Vista Home Preiumn. So I pulled the jumper on the cmos and the put it back to clear the password. I also removed the so-dimms and reseeded them. Now the pc has power but can't find the bootable operating system so I can't get it to bootup. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Dan

I accessed my BIOS setting which is on "always off".
When power is restored after an outage the desktop powers up.

my pc is not starting its givin error msg of win32 file missing when i tried 2 install xp again the setup is stopin in middle pls help me out

to run linux from cd, i changed my bios settings to give CD-ROM as the first preference.
now my windows is not running even after restoring the factory defaults.. plz help. its urgent.

Unfortunately i made some video configuration in bios and now i could not see any sign in monitor. Even bios setting does not display in screen. What might be the solution. Plz make it fast. Cpu runs but there is nothing in the monitor. Simply dark.

I turned on my Sony Vaio VPCF121GX laptop (windows 7), and the Vaio logo appeared then there was a black screen with a flashing underscore. I pressed alt+ctrl+del, but task manager didn't come up. So force-turn off my laptop and restarted it. It came up the same with black screen and flashing underscore. I tried pressing f8 to get into safe mode but it won't work, neither does f2. Removing the battery and rebooting doesn't help either, and i don't have a recovery disc. Can anyone help me?

"microcode failur, visit HP web site to update your BIOS" this massage is view mycomputer open.ineed update the bios version.but i not understand bios update.please can you help me?( bios-AMI motherboard-hp)

Situation: Two (2) different laptops, two (2) different manufacturers (Dell and Gateway) are now exhibiting the same "extremely darkened" display. the icons/mouse can be seen on the display (just barely), but can be seen perfectly via
HDMI/serial cable to secondary display(s) such as lcd tv's. Newer Dell running W7, Gateway running XP Pro. Older son's friend was given access to wireless network password, and ironically 24hrs later Dell's display went dark. computer diagnostician could not figure the problem, as it stopped when at his shop. picked up Dell, brought it home, and it started again that very same day. week or so later, the older Gateway started the same thing. I reset the WEP/WPA2 key via router, to ward off the possibility of hacking, and ran AVG (free version) on both. Nothing remarkable discovered. Help.

hello everyone,
ive got d same problem which Mr.Hempo has been facing..i couldnt find any answers here. It'll b vry helpful if someone could solve d prob.
Mr.Hempo if u hav solved d prob pls do post d solution

hi sir i have asus mother board 845 chipset, i'm trying installed winxp service pack2 not getting installed , if i install windows xp service pack1 , installing , sir please suggest what could the problelm,hard disk , everything is k, but getting installed service pack2

i have HP Pavilion g6 1131sx laptop, i was doing updating the BIOS the computer freezes , when i restart the computer, now on boot blank screen and caps lignt blink and nothing happened. please i want help. its my new laptop just use for 3 months. i am very sad. i am new to bios.