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WinXP Bios- How to access

Fern

Fern

Elite Member
My father has WinXP Home version and needs to get into his BIOS- How does one access into BIOS w/XP, Thanks
 
The BIOS has nothing to do with Windows or any other operating system. It's essentially part of your hardware. There should be some kind of message just after the machine boots telling you the proper key sequence to enter the BIOS. But the sequence varies depending on the manufacture. Del and F1 are popular. I've seen Ctl-Alt-Esc somewhere, and probably some others. If you don't see a message, check the manual or website for the motherboard or system vendor for info.
 
fyi: if you arent sure how to get into the bios
you probably dont have any business playing around in it, you can mess something up easily, be careful and dont touch anything just to "see what happens"

 
Thanks for your concern and it is a good point, but I am reasonably familiar with BIOS. It's just that I remain w/98se (personaly and at work) so have no idea, other than "del" etc. He has tried the commands one uses in 98se to access his BIOS and he has reported that it doesn't work in WinXP. If there are any commands specific to XP I would greatly appreciate hearing about it. (He bought an HP at BestBuy and it came with NO manuals, NO disks, no real support etc.). He's got what appears to extreme virus problems, his situation would probrably make a great diagnostic case in one of these forums, also one in any "bad support" type forum. Thanks for any help
 
Thanks, I'll have him try "F1" and "Cltl-Alt-Esc". Part of his problem is that its a crappy HP, it came with no manual, and no discs (not even XP). He bought it at BestBuy and had them put in a PCI graphics card (no AGP slot in the mobo!). Well now when it tries to boot the monitor stays black, although you can hear the hard drive kick in etc. I had him change the card to another PCI slot and that worked for a few times. I want get into BIOS to enable the onboard gfx to eliminate the PCI card as the problem. BTW, BB is has been no help, they refer him to HP who no longer provide support-its off warranty. Thanks for your help 🙂
 
as mentioned, the BIOS has nothing to do with the OS (windows, linux, etc)

does it not mention a key to press? maybe with the model of the pc you can contact HP for info on getting into it, if you cant do it on your own

and when are you pressing the keys? sometimes the opportunity goes by so fast you have to hold the proper key from power on until youre in the bios settings screen; my bro's ECS boad is like that, you have to _hold_ delete from power on or you wont get into the settings screen
 
Thanks xSauronx, when screen does work he says no info on which command to use. At this point I'll just have to work Saturday with all commands peeps recommend. Thanks again to all😀
 
How are you going to do anything in the BIOS when the screen's blank?

Sounds like either the vid-card or the monitor is dead. Does he see anything at all during bootup - i.e. is it just blank screen, or does the screen work until Win gets booted up? If he doesn't see the POST information, then going to the BIOS isn't going to do anything.

And to get to the BIOS, it's usually either DEL or F8 or F10... dunno that I've ever seen one that was F1 or CTL-ALT-ESC...

I know it's probably a stupid suggestion, but

1. Is the monitor turned on?
2. Is the monitor getting anything from the vid-card (power light on many modern monitors is orange when no input / green when receiving input)?
3. Have you tried a different monitor?
4. Have you tried a different vid-card?

 
Thanks NogginBoink, I'll post HP model # when I get it- s/b later today.
Thanks OZEE, to answer your ?s
1. yes
2. sometimes yes, sometimes no
3. monitor is ok, tried it with another computer
4. no, he doesn't have a spare PCI gfx card-mine are all AGP

Basically at this point I'm trying to re-enable his onboard gfx chip to confirm/eliminate his PCI card as the problem. On my system that's done in the bios. I'm asuming at this point on his too. He's also got a virus problem, last week I got it up and went to into Help looking for any bios info on XP and Norton kick'd in. Outlook Express is infected as well. Sounds a little like a virus problem posted at THG in "bad support" Forum (bashing Norton). That poor dude screwed up two mobos and HDs! Thanks again everyone 😀
 
Hit the power button and then smash down as many keys on the keyboard you can get you fingers, hands, elbows, etc. on. This will cause a buffer overflow and should bring up a short menu prompting you what to do. I had to do this on my old DELL once as I didn't know the proper key to hit to get into the BIOS. It works.
 
I think I recall one HP that used Alt+F2 to get in the BIOS, but I'm not sure about that. I will have a chance to check in a few days if necessary, as I will have access to that machine again.
 
According to my extensive, two-minute search of HP website, I found the key is, in fact, F1 to enter the system BIOS.

\Dan
 
Thanks all. F1 is indeed the key.

Cleverhandle, thanks I now understand the o/s has nothing to do w/bios.

EeyoreX, thanks for posting the site to the bios "manual". My "ineffective" search of HP site just refered me to Phoenix and the bios chip manufacter (can't remember name).

Please note that the reference to the key did not show up during boot. The original bios settings were such that this display was disabled (no POST display etc). I've noticed others posting similar ? to me, hence the reply to look for the key at startup may not always be helpful.

I suspect HP has a policy of trying to ensure customers cannot work on their own computers. It came w/no startup disk. No o/s disk, & the bios are extremely truncated. There are very few items. I suspect that it is a custom minimization for HP in furtherance of above policy. Curiously, in bios item where one can choose the memory allocted to PCI, the right hand side (help) indicated there was a choice to enable/disable onboard gfx, however it had been removed from bios. It's not just me being unable to access the submenu or something, my brother who works in the field (system aministrator/programer) could not get to it either.

Woe be unto those who purchase HP, for if you go on the internet or use email you will almost surely get a virus at some point (even if Norton etc is updated) and w/o startup or o/s disks you are screwed. That's just my amatur opinion!
 
So I presume that you have taken the PCI card out to force the
machine to use its onboard Gfx card? May be an auto detect thang.

Then run it in safe mode or repair mode or... no idea as I use Win98SE too 🙂
 
Nope, never got the onboard gfx to function! Since we could'nt find the option in the bios (only the reference to it in bios help), my father is still stuck with that part of the original problem. (But did get an o/s disk and reformated/reinstalled to take of virus problem.) Now, if he reboots within 10-15 minutes, monitor/graphics don't work. If he waits long enough it will reboot fine. So don't what that problem is ? (faulty card, heat problem etc.) He says card has lifetime warrenty, so he's sending it back.

BTW, as you suggest we tried removing card, and hooking monitor to mobo to see if would autodetect etc-did'nt work. I guess to install the card they may have physically modified the mobo (jumpers, conducted ink, whatever), as much as I w/h liked to experiment for edu purposes, it was his only computer so he wasn't enthusiatic shall we say 😀
 
He says card has lifetime warrenty, so he's sending it back.
Click to expand...
Good luck..Lifetime warrantee of a video card only really means "As long as it is on the shelfs at the store". Basically, If it's not being sold anymore, It's not gonna be warranted. Hopefully he will be able to get it replaced though.
Woe be unto those who purchase HP, for if you go on the internet or use email you will almost surely get a virus at some point (even if Norton etc is updated) and w/o startup or o/s disks you are screwed. That's just my amatur opinion!
Click to expand...
It should have came with a 2 or 3 disk set of system restore disks. At least my sisters' HP did. You could have done a re-install without formatting.
 
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