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PC freezes in BIOS

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8 replies

by icom

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I have got a machine running windows 98. What this machine is doing is, when I am setting BIOS it works perfectly, but when it comes the time to save the settings and exit the BIOS it just freeze. Just like that. It won't even load windows. Tell me what could be the problem, is it my board or the bios chip?

8 replies

by hal 9000

Have you tried changing the battery?

When they start to go flat you get all types of screwy problems that defy logic as they can do some really strange things.

Col

by mark.trappett

I have recently had problems with my computer. It becan when windows started crashing on blue screen, so I reformatted and for a week it was fine. Then the processor (AMD Athlon XP 2600+) began clocking at 1.8GHz instead of 2.1. I went into the BIOS and it had switched to manual detection instead of automatic, so I changed it back. Then after that windows was crashing on startup with a BSOD saying 'USB Device Failure' So I removed the 4 port HUB, and everything was fine for about a week, when the BSOD started appearing again followed by an instant shut down. Then the worst happened. BIOS started freezing at various times during boot. So thats when I got annoyed and to save the computer being thrown from my window I decided to check the forums and noticed this. Immediatly I brought a spare battery and I was absolutly flabbergasted when everything started working perfectly. Who would have known something so simple would have solved all the problems I was having? Anyway, there is a point to this tale and that is I would like to thank HAL 9000 for suggesting this solution, so thanks!

-mark.

by rickrbyrne

Hi.

Pop open your case and have a look for Swollen or leaking Capacitors. This can cause your system to lockup for any reason. Also what kind of settings are you trying to set.

Rick

by nilt

What prompted getting into the BIOS, though? If you leave it alone, does it hang or does Windows throw an error?

If it's a hang, try unplugging everything except the video card, RAM and CPU. A floppy or IDE device can cause this. I even saw a Creative sound card do it on a Dell recently; the system would flat out hang almost instantly booting to Windows except in Safe Mode. The BIOS would behave oddly if I looked in it and the only thing that made me think sound was that it's one of the things lacking in Safe Mode.

by sean

I had a similar issue with a system that was having hardware conflict issues. It was unable to assign the IO addresses correctly. Basically I moved the cards around and narrowed it down to being a conflict between the VGA and MB, replaced the VGA with a different make and model and it worked fine.

by mados123

A little late here but might be useful for the next person in need. Some how my CPU was overclocked in the BIOS. Had an Athlon XP 2800+ (~2Ghz) which should of been set at 166Mhz in the BIOS. Instead it was at 200Mhz. Had to switch the CPU switch (on the motherboard) to allow me to move around in the BIOS (which then registered the CPU at 1.25Ghz). Doing so, I then changed the CPU setting to 166Mhz, shut down, switched the board switch back and all was well. Hope this helps the next person!

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