Gettting into BIOS?

  • Thread starter Thread starter geezer
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geezer

I have an inherited emachines and I cannot get very far in the bootup.

Is it necessary to have a floppy drive or for that matter a hard drive
or cd drive connected just to get into the BIOS? Should I be able to
get into the BIOS even without drives connected?

Thanks
 
geezer said:
I have an inherited emachines and I cannot get very far in the bootup.

Is it necessary to have a floppy drive or for that matter a hard drive
or cd drive connected just to get into the BIOS? Should I be able to
get into the BIOS even without drives connected?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Why do you want/need to get into the BIOS setup screens and what have you
tried? Also what are the full machine details - there are lots of inherited
machines out there and they do differ ;-)

Paul
 
geezer said:
I have an inherited emachines and I cannot get very far in the bootup.

Is it necessary to have a floppy drive or for that matter a hard drive
or cd drive connected just to get into the BIOS? Should I be able to
get into the BIOS even without drives connected?

Thanks
Click to expand...


At the end of the POST (power-on self-test), you probably see a table of
found drives followed by a list of interrupts assigned (what screen you
see depends on the BIOS you have). Just before loading the operating
system, there should be a note, usually at the bottom of the screen as
to which key to hit to enter BIOS setup. Could be F8, F1, Esc, Del, or
whatever key that version of the BIOS wants to use. You get about 2
seconds to hit that key before the BIOS then begins to look for the
bootstrap program in the MBR (sector 0) of the drives.
 
geezer said:
I have an inherited emachines and I cannot get very far in the bootup.

Is it necessary to have a floppy drive or for that matter a hard drive
or cd drive connected just to get into the BIOS? Should I be able to
get into the BIOS even without drives connected?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Try the most used keys one at a time tapping from power on with ½ second
intervals.
F1, F2, F10, Del
In other words from power on tap the F1 key twice per second. If that
doesn't work power down and turn back on tapping the F2 key. Etc, etc.
I think Emachine is either F1 or Del.
 
The best thing you can do for yourself is to get to the manufacturer's
website and find a manual for each of your machines. Some computer makers
made machines that you needed a floppy drive to access the bios (Zenith,
Compaq, among others) for their 486 machines.
 
Alceryes said:
Try the most used keys one at a time tapping from power on with ½ second
intervals.
F1, F2, F10, Del
In other words from power on tap the F1 key twice per second. If that
doesn't work power down and turn back on tapping the F2 key. Etc, etc.
I think Emachine is either F1 or Del.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to add: The interval in which the boot will look for this
keypress can be quite short. I recently had a Gateway machine that was
configured so that I only had a fraction of a second to make that
keystroke -- it took me nearly twenty reboots before I got lucky.
 
Alceryes said:
Try the most used keys one at a time tapping from power on
with ½ second intervals. F1, F2, F10, Del
In other words from power on tap the F1 key twice per second.
If that doesn't work power down and turn back on tapping the
F2 key. Etc, etc. I think Emachine is either F1 or Del.
Click to expand...


With my Dell, once the POST is done (evidenced by the
completion of the memory test) pressing Del anytime during
the following 8 t0 10 seconds will cause the BIOS menu to
appear after the hard drives are found. IOW, the "Del"
keypress is remembered, and repeated keypresses are
unnecessary.

*TimDaiels*
 
I have an inherited emachines and I cannot get very far in the bootup.

Is it necessary to have a floppy drive or for that matter a hard drive
or cd drive connected just to get into the BIOS? Should I be able to
get into the BIOS even without drives connected?

Thanks
Click to expand...


Which eMachine? Or rather, what mobo is in it?

No you do not need any drives to access the bios.
Often the PSU gets flaky/fails on eMachines, or maybe a fan
failure... end result is system is too instable to get into
bios? That isn't as common as complete failure to POST but
not so uncommon either, I've seen it several times.
 
Which eMachine? Or rather, what mobo is in it?

No you do not need any drives to access the bios.
Often the PSU gets flaky/fails on eMachines, or maybe a fan
failure... end result is system is too instable to get into
bios? That isn't as common as complete failure to POST but
not so uncommon either, I've seen it several times.
Click to expand...



emachines etower 400i3

Motherboard - MEW-VM, Rev. 2.03, Baby ATX
Apparently an HP pull

Processor - Celeron 400, Socket 370

Memory - 2 256 PC 133 SDRAMs

Drives - A:FDD not original; may be bad
C:Western Digital 20G
D:CD-ROM
E:CD-RW, 24X Plextor

Power Supply - 145W

Thanks
 
emachines etower 400i3

Motherboard - MEW-VM, Rev. 2.03, Baby ATX
Apparently an HP pull
Click to expand...

System has been rebuilt once already?
Just uncommon to find one OEM board it a not-so-much-older
OEM system. Regardless, MEW-VM is an Asus board and
generally used <DEL> to get into bios, but HP BIOS would
probably change that to <F1>

There is nothing in particular you need connected to get
into bios, merely having the parts needed to post, which
would be 1 memory module, CPU, heatsink/fan, and the
(integrated) video.

Machine is getting that age where you might want to check
the battery too.



Processor - Celeron 400, Socket 370

Memory - 2 256 PC 133 SDRAMs

Drives - A:FDD not original; may be bad
C:Western Digital 20G
D:CD-ROM
E:CD-RW, 24X Plextor

Power Supply - 145W
Click to expand...

As mentioned previously, check power supply, try another
one. Examine board for failed caps too.
 
System has been rebuilt once already?
Just uncommon to find one OEM board it a not-so-much-older
OEM system. Regardless, MEW-VM is an Asus board and
generally used <DEL> to get into bios, but HP BIOS would
probably change that to <F1>

There is nothing in particular you need connected to get
into bios, merely having the parts needed to post, which
would be 1 memory module, CPU, heatsink/fan, and the
(integrated) video.

Machine is getting that age where you might want to check
the battery too.
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
geezer said:
I have an inherited emachines and I cannot get very far in the bootup.

Is it necessary to have a floppy drive or for that matter a hard drive
or cd drive connected just to get into the BIOS? Should I be able to
get into the BIOS even without drives connected?

Thanks
Click to expand...
I once had to work on a machine which I wasn't able to find the
correct BIOS entry key for.

A technician gave me a hint which worked for that machine.

He told me to disconnect the floppy drive, then reboot.

When I did this, the machine complained that the floppy drive was
missing or faulty and said "press the X key to enter BIOS setup"
(can't remember now which key was the X key).

MIght be worth a shot?

Cheers,

John S
 
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