BIOS Startup Screen, help please.?

Question

i am having probelms here. i want to install windows vista. the problem is can you give me a rundown of how a windows xp system should start up when you press the power button?

is it:
press power button
you hear beeps
motherboard/processor logo appears
windows xp loading bars go up/down
arrow on black screen appears
windows log in menu appear
once logged in, windows theme is played, right?

can you confirm if the boot up sequence is correct?is when i turn the computer on, the motherbaord logo "MSI Platinum" appears and does not move onto the BIOS bit..

the spec is?
intel dual core e6600 2.4ghz
msi 975x platinum motherbaord
2gb ram
80gb hard disk
sapphire 512mb graphics card

what can i do. i cant even get into the BIOS, because has not shown up yet? any ideas what i can do? i have pressed "ESC, DEL and all the function keys" but nothing nothings happens.

i have removed the CMOS battery and RAM and both re-inserted it and still the same problem. any ideas?

Answer 1

Hello, this might be a few things, 1 of the jumpers on the MB might be set wrong, or the IDE cable might be in the wrong IDE slot OR there might be a bios fault and finallly, sometimes if you install a new device etc the bios says, bios failed to load press f1 to load defaults.

hope i could be of help

Edited:
Try hitting the tab key, it should make the MB splash screen disapear and you should be able 2 see any errors

Answer 2

The correct key for entering your BIOS setup is Del.

As soon as you switch on your computer, keep tapping the Del key.

If your computer begins POST (Power On Self Test) you should hear only one or two short beeps ... they will sound like "bip" (as fast as you can say it. It's that short.) Any more beeps indicates that your computer has failed POST. See the attached urls for a description of what the problem is likely to be. Actually, the first url gives you a breakdown of what happens during POST. It's worth reading to give yourself a clearer idea.

Basically, the Award BIOS, that your motherboard is furnished with, gives only a few POST failure codes. They are as follows:

1 Long Beep: Memory problem
1 Long, then 2 Short Beeps: Video error
1 Long, then 3 Short Beeps: Video error
Continuous Beeping: Memory or video problem

I'm not sure whether your motherboard came with a D-Bracket 2 or not (it contains 2 x USB 2 connectors with 4 x LEDs on the back). If it did, fit it in the following manner:

The USB lead connects to either JUSB1 or JUSB2 header, and the LED lead connects to JLED1. These are all situated near to where the connections to the front of the case are situated. (A breakdown of what the LEDs indicate begins on page 2-21 of your manual, just after the picture of the D-Bracket 2, with an elipse drawn around the four LEDs.)

If your motherboard didn't come with a D-Bracket 2, I would suggest removing the floppy drive (if you have one) and the hard drive. (Just disconnect them from the motherboard.)

Try to reboot your computer with just the CPU, the RAM, the video card, the keyboard and the mouse connected to the motherboard. Now try to enter BIOS setup by pressing Del ... just to see if you can get it to work.

If it does, all well and good. If it doesn't, the chances are you don't have your CPU, RAM, or the video card isn't seated properly ... or one of them is faulty.

If you are able to enter BIOS setup you can set the date and time. These will not change when you connect your hard drive, CD/DVD-ROM drive and your floppy drive.

Obviously, if your are able to enter BIOS setup but are not able to enter again when you connect your other drives, you're doing something wrong there. (You'd be surprised at the number of times I've been asked to sort out someone's computer when they've misaligned the power connector to the floppy drive.)

Hopefully, you'll have made some headway now.

Best of luck.

Answer 3

Firstly you shouldn't hear any beeps during the startup sequence, power on self test (POST). Beeps are bad.

You motherboard will use the beeps to alert you that there is problem with the motherboard such as a memory error. You won't be able to boot until you have rectified the issue.

The exact error depends on the computer but I'm just giving an example here, it might be 3 beeps is a memory error, 4 beeps for power supply etc.

These beeps are called "Beep Codes". You can read more about them at the Wikipedia site here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beep_codes


You'll need to find out the Beep Codes for your particular PC to find out what they mean. You might find them on the Manufacturers web site but you will probably be better looking on Google.

Here is an example which may or may not be relevant to your situation. As I said, you should check for the manufacturer of your computer as they can be different for each manufacturer.

1 beep Refresh failure
- try reseating the memory, if the error still occurs, replace the memory
2 beeps Parity error
- try reseating the memory, if the error still occurs, replace the memory
3 beeps Base 64K memory failure
- try reseating the memory, if the error still occurs, replace the memory
4 beeps Timer not operational, system board bad
5 beeps Processor error, system board bad
6 beeps 8042 - gate A20 failure, try reseating the keyboard controller chip
7 beeps Processor exception interrupt error, system board bad
8 beeps Display memory video card read/write failure error, replace video memory or video card
9 beeps ROM checksum error, faulty BIOS chip(s), must replace them
10 beeps CMOS shutdown register read/write error, system board bad
11 beeps Cache memory bad

Answer 4

hi you only need to go into bios to boot from DVD drive first,
try starting xp, insert vista DVD then restart computer and it should read disc the come up "press any key to boot from disc" if not then you need to enter bios as soon as you switch on try pressing delete or F8 or F10? it should tell you quickly?
hope this helps????????

Answer 5

Your BIOS will have a password.If you change it you can cause
problems.Like having to pay the makers to fix it.On start up try
F12.

Answer 6

to get into bios i think its f4 or f8