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whats wrong with my bios?

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5 replies

by mooney.joel

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im trying to fix my moms old dell 4600 dimension desktop so my kids can tear it up and not mine but i can not get windows to boot normally, from disk or from a usb flash drive. i keep getting the message about hardware configuration. ive went to the dell site and set everything to the what they say is default, still nothing, so, anybody wanna walk me through this? please? and be warned im not very technicaly savy.

5 replies

by nexs

Give us a list of the symptoms (ie: exact errors, steps you've taken - in detail, any other popups or irregularities).

by santeewelding

Take a number. Someone, as you can see with Nexus, will get around to you.

There are those here who are sharp as a tack about some things; dumber than a rock about other things.

Assume me to be in the latter category.

But just sharp enough to ask, if you're not "very technicaly savy", what makes you think it's the [b]B[/b]asic [b]I[/b]nput/[b]O[/b]utput [b]S[/b]ystem?

Like Nexus says, 'splain.

by oh smeg

You need to enter the BIOS and make sure that the Data & Time are correct. If they are not change them to the correct values and then set the system to Performance Defaults.

You can then exit the BIOS but when prompted to Save Changes make sure that you do save the changes.

Allow the system to restart and it should then work or at the very least load whatever is installed as an OS on it.

If it doesn't post back with the Error Message that it gives.

Col

by robo_dev

Go into the BIOS setup screen and verify that the hard drive is listed.

If the machine was working, and now it isn't, either the hard drive has failed, or the CMOS battery on the motherboard is flat, or both.

It's also very possible that the hard drive data or power connection has become unplugged inside the machine, not all that unusual if the PC has been kicked, dropped, or anywhere near children.

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