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If I have a laptop that won't even get to the BIOS (it locks up trying to get into it), does this mean the BIOS is bad or could it be something else. Is there a way to get into the machine otherwise (some sort of bootdisk that bypasses BIOS?).
I am really stuck as the machine starts, but locks before showing any diagnostics, etc.
Jay Fro
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PC Help Bad bios?
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#2
jayfro 
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Posted 10 July 2007 - 09:31 PM
wow. I just tried something stupid. I was stuck on the Entering Setup after pressing F10... so I rebooted and held down F1 for the hell of it to see if I would get errors. I restarted a couple times, then it actually skipped the normal diag and started windows XP. I have a feeling the BIOS is fried on this machine, but I cant figure out who to figure out!
Jay Fro
Jay Fro
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jayfro
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Posted 10 July 2007 - 10:36 PM
in case it every happens to others. The issue is the SmartDrive is reporting imminent failure. However, the BIOS was old and it was causing the machine to lockup on that error (before the error showed). F1, just happened to be the key to ignore the error, which is why holding that allowed it to bypass and go to Windows.
I updated the BIOS, and now I get the error and the F1 command. Now that I know the drive is about to fail, hopefully I can do something about it before it does!
Jay Fro
I updated the BIOS, and now I get the error and the F1 command. Now that I know the drive is about to fail, hopefully I can do something about it before it does!
Jay Fro
you found it before we could read it
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Chromakey
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Posted 11 July 2007 - 05:37 PM
QUOTE (Skibum @ Jul 11 2007, 11:35 AM)
Please elaborate............
Old cameramen never die, they just go out of focus.........
FWD# 454224
My HD internet TV channel for scuba divers
FWD# 454224
My HD internet TV channel for scuba divers
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Skibum
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Posted 11 July 2007 - 05:41 PM
smartdrive was something championed a few years back that never really lived up to what it was supposed to do... in fact it can catually make things worse.
#8
Chromakey
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Posted 11 July 2007 - 05:44 PM
QUOTE (Skibum @ Jul 11 2007, 10:41 PM)
smartdrive was something championed a few years back that never really lived up to what it was supposed to do... in fact it can catually make things worse.
So what exactly is it? - I have seen it and think its on a few machines here.......
Old cameramen never die, they just go out of focus.........
FWD# 454224
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FWD# 454224
My HD internet TV channel for scuba divers
#9
jayfro
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Posted 11 July 2007 - 10:07 PM
All I find find is that it must be disabled in BIOS. Unfortunately, this laptops bios doesn't even look like a standard BIOS. Lets you change boot order, and thats about it. I also can't get it to boot from the CD Drive, as I was hoping to run SpinRite on it to check the drive.
Jay Fro
Jay Fro
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