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

Dave, my wife's pitching a fit... help me please! We have separate 'putes ,and which one do I mess up? Hers.... I was updating the BIOS from emachines. That worked without a problem. Rebooted, and had an HP logo on my screen. I pressed F1 and F10, then the screen went black. All that was showing was a blinking "-" in the top left hand corner of screen. I can control-alt-del to get into the BIOS. The machine is running Windows XP... emachines wants it for about three weeks roundtrip to fix it. I'm going to keep it. Any ideas how I can fix it?

Dave's Answer:

First off, run, don't walk, and get your wife some flowers. Give them to her contritely and apologize for monkeying with her computer. Promise that you'll do whatever it takes to fix it. Okay, that should buy us a some time to fix things!

Some basics to ensure we're talking about the same thing: The Basic Input / Output System -- the BIOS -- is the part of your computer that runs the basic power-on tests, searches for - and hopefully finds - a bootable operating system, and hands off control of the hardware to that operating system, all in the first few seconds after the power has been turned on. The BIOS is typically stored in firmware on the computer, but can be updated through "flashing", overwriting an existing BIOS with a newer version of the BIOS.

Now, on to your specific problem. If you can get into the BIOS configuration area, you should be able to find a setting in the BIOS called "reset to factory options" or "reset to factory defaults". I surmise that's all you need to do for things to be working properly.

I also have an eMachines PC running WinXP and I don't see any HP logos upon bootup, so I'm wondering if you somehow tried to apply a BIOS update for eMachines with some HP hardware within on a computer that doesn't actually have any HP parts?

If that doesn't help you proceed because you can't get into the BIOS in the first place, well, bad news. It's darn tricky, and often impossible to fix a bad BIOS without simply replacing the BIOS chip. If that's the case, well, you might be doing the dishes and laundry for a few weeks while your wife tries not to retaliate by destroying your computer since hers will have to go back to eMachines for the fix after all.

Before you call a divorce lawyer, though, it's worth checking out some of the different online BIOS sources because some of them offer a "flash recovery" utility for damaged BIOS systems. Not sure about Emachines, but exploring Freebyte is good place to start.

If all else fails, you might pop over to Ask Leo and read his article on Flashing my BIOS failed, how can I recover?. Pay particular attention to the comments from other readers with their different suggestions for how to resolve the problem.

And good luck! Let us know how it all went...

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Comments

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

Posted by: Charles White at December 8, 2004 6:27 PM

Great tip, Charles! Thanks for adding it.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at December 8, 2004 6:30 PM

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.

Posted by: Joe Otto at December 9, 2004 6:00 PM

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

Posted by: FcoJ at December 20, 2005 10:22 AM

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!

Posted by: Zach at January 6, 2006 3:08 PM

Tyvm Charles your tip worked like a treat^^.

Posted by: exite at January 29, 2006 4:20 AM

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.

Posted by: Ren at August 7, 2006 4:00 PM

Posted by: Ren at August 7, 2006 4:01 PM

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.

Posted by: Jane at February 7, 2007 7:47 PM

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

Posted by: jack at March 4, 2007 8:10 AM

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?

Posted by: JW at March 17, 2007 3:21 PM

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.

Posted by: spydercanopus at April 9, 2007 9:06 PM

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

Posted by: dave at October 19, 2007 10:18 AM

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

Posted by: Bitta at March 6, 2008 9:46 AM

advice dont buy emachines=garbage build your own

Posted by: mboi at March 15, 2008 11:45 PM

as for hp f2

Posted by: mboi at March 15, 2008 11:48 PM

hey ren reinstall your video drivers

Posted by: mboi at March 15, 2008 11:51 PM

oops sorry dell is f2 hp is f1

Posted by: mboi at March 16, 2008 8:29 AM

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?

Posted by: wAYNE at June 8, 2008 3:48 PM

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

Posted by: Wayne at June 8, 2008 3:55 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!