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Cannot Access BIOS

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by var1016

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Hello all.

I have just installed a new SATA hard drive which has registered itself as "slave" Drive E:\. The drive is Seagate, 160GB SATA II, the original drive is a Samsung 40GB SATA (don't know if it is I or II).

I want the new HD to be drive C:\ and Master - i.e. the boot drive. Using Sagate's Disk Wizard, I have copied over all the files. I have no idea if the disks are running correctly as SATA - I have not knowingly installed any SATA drivers - first because I don't have a floppy available - I do have a USB FDD drive and because despite reading the procedure several times I find it rather confusing and difficult to understand.

Problem is I cannot access the BIOS (Award). I have had this trouble before: press Del and nothing happens, although pressing F12 does give the Boot menu. M/board is Gigabyte M55 plus S3G.

Does anyone have any idea how I can get into the BIOS?

Thanks

Paul

38 replies

by Former member

Shutdown the computer, wait 5 seconds and then boot up, immediately press the "DEL" key (and hold it down) on your keyboard. Can you get into the bios now?.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by var1016

I have tried this - three times - to no effect (I even waited a minute before switching on again).

Paul

Paul

by Former member

Or is your screen just black.
Does any text appear on screen at all?
If not then you must take out your heatsink and processor and give these a good clean. Reset your processor and put on the thermal paste but only a small amount and spread evenly, then put on your heatsink and slowly give the heatsink a few twists while lightly pushing down. This will make the heatsink seal better with the processor. When finished reboot your computer and see if any text comes up on screen. If it does then you can access your bios.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by thechas

Okay, try this.

Disconnect BOTH hard drives.
This is to prevent the system from booting.

Start the computer.
Press Control and Enter.

Per the manual, this gets you into the the BIOS setup for flashing the BIOS. Once in, see if you can get to CMOS setup.

But, as I stated in my other post, if you are using a USB keyboard, that might be your problem.

Chas

by thechas

First off, since there is no BIOS option for a long memory test, you have a very short window of time to press the delete key.

To enter BIOS setup, you must press the delete key before the memory test has completed.

If you are using a USB keyboard, you may need to temporarily use a PS/2 keyboard and set the USB keyboard support option to enabled.

Second, if the Seagate utility performed it's task properly, it may be a matter of swapping where the 2 different drives are connected to the motherboard. That is, the boot drive should be connected to the lowest numbered SATA port.

Now for the bad news. XP and Vista remember what drive letter they assigned to an existing drive. If you just swap the drive connections, your new drive will remain drive E:

Here are 2 Microsoft Articles that address drive letter issues.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415/

Chas

by var1016

Hello and thanks.

Well I have explained elsewhere that I can now get into the bios, but the arrow keys work only about 10% of the time whilst I am there...

And I tried changing the connections as you suggested and all is fine - and Windows did change the drive letters! So I am running XP from drive C:\ on the new drive and have formatted the old one.

Thanks again and best wishes

Paul

by thumbsup2

I didn't go look up to see what key gives you access to the BIOS on that motherboard. But, you have to begin pressing DEL (or whatever key it needs) just as soon as you turn on the power. Press it repeatedly. In fact, try several keys. Sometimes it's an F2 or F10 key that gives you access, so try them too.

And, by the way. SATA's are not configured as Master/Slave. You can't change the new drive to be the C drive in the BIOS. SATA's don't work that way. Their boot order is determined by the socket they're plugged into. The sockets are numbered 0 through 3 (or more). Which ever drive is plugged into SATA-0 will be drive C. So, swap the plugs around between the two SATA drives so your new one is plugged into the correct socket where the old one now sits and you'll solve your problem.

And, you probably don't need to install drivers. The old drive is a SATA. If the new drive needed special drivers, the Seagate Wizard would have told you so.

by var1016

When I first built this machine a few weeks ago, I had no problem: I just pressed Del after the prompt and it was fine. Now I have discovered that it is best to press it at or close to the moment when I press the "on" switch!

But as I reported above in my reply to Peconet, I have a problem with the arrow keys: most of the time they have no effect when in Bios - or for that matter when selecting options on that B&W screen that appears when Windows has not shut down properly and one must choose Safe mode or normal etc.

As for the SATA issue, well I built this computer just a few weeks ago and have not installed any SATA drivers - at least not from a floppy disc!

How can I find out if the drives are working in their correct mode and have not defaulted to some lower type of operation?
Thanks

Paul

by Former member

If not then i suggest (like anyone would) to switch over to a PS/2 (old type) keyboard.
When plugged in boot into the bios and see if it is stable, I.E. the arrow keys are ok. When sorted get the update for your bios and put it onto a floppy and update it through the bios update section. When done select "save and exit", your computer will shutdown for a little while and boot up again all on its own, so do not be alarmed when it does this.
When you are all done, get hold of your motherboard disk, this will have the SATA drivers on it, put this into your cd/Dvd drive and let it load (as long as you have selected the Cd/dvd drive as the first boot option in the bios), it will list white text on a black background. It will show something like "Sata 32 bit" then underneath it will show "Sata 64 bit", click on the 32 bit option (make sure you have the floppy in the drive, or the external floppy drive), it will put the Sata drivers on to the floppy for you. Keep the floppy in the drive, (make sure that the floppy drive is second in the booting order in the bios), now put your Windows disk in the cd/dvd drive and re-boot your computer, it should read off the Windows disk, when you see "Press F6 if you have a third party driver", PRESS the "F6" key on your keyboard, it will now load on your Sata drivers. Hope this helps you.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by var1016

Thanks. I re-read (carefully) your post and tried again.

This time I had one finger on the switch and the other on the Del key; and it worked. I can now access the bios - but...

There is a problem: most of the time the arrow keys which one uses to select the various menu items seem not to work. I found that pressing two together had an effect and by pressing Esc and returning I could eventually get to where I wanted to be. Most irritating!

Thanks very much

Paul

by rob miners

if that doesn't work try pressing and holding down a Key as the PC starts up. Ignore the beeps as you will force a keyboard error and then you should be able to press DEL to enter the BIOS.

< add a bit >

If you are trying to use the Arrow Keys on the numerical pad you will have to turn off Numlock. The other Arrow keys should also work.

by var1016

Hello again.

I have found that I can get into the Bios by pressing Del, provided I do it absolutely at the beginning, unlike with other computers, where you have at least 20 secs!

I have just tried an experiment: I am now working on the other computer with the same keyboard. I just entered the Bios and there is no problem with the arrow keys, so I presume I have a problem with the BIOS on the Gigabyte board. I have had this for some time ever since I stupidly enabled the RAID thing (now disabled). I have since updated the bios from Gigabyte's @bios site.

Best wishes,
Paul

by var1016

I have just fired up the computer with the Gigabyte board, accessed the BIOS and amazingly today, the arrow keys are working perfectly...

I swear that I have done absolutely nothing at all today on this computer that might have changed this.

Baffled!

Paul

by var1016

Thanks very much.

My keyboard is I believe PS/2 - small round plug not USB.

I don't have a disc for the motherboard, but I have downloaded the drivers from the website; I have installed the chipset and audio drivers and the VGA (which I don't need because I have a separate graphics card installed). The fourth driver is called:
motherboard_driver_raid_nvidia-C51_bootdisk_XP. I presume that this contains the SATA stuff you referred to? I can burn it onto a CD of course.

Before I can go further I have to find a floppy disc!

Finally I see I have to use the XP installation disc and press F6. After the drivers are loaded I presume I can abort the installation - that is I do not have to make a fresh install of XP?

Thanks again,

Paul

by Former member

"Finally I see I have to use the XP installation disc and press F6. After the drivers are loaded I presume I can abort the installation".

As long as the drivers are copied from the floppy, you can take the floppy out, if that is what you mean. Do not abort the installation of Windows or you will have to do it ALL over again. :)

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by var1016

Ah... the point is that this computer is up and running with XP installed together with other programs.

Are you saying that SATA can only be installed before the OS is installed?

By the way I have SIW installed and under storage devices I see that the interfaces for the hard drives are stated as:

New HD: SATA II
Old HD: SATA

Does this suggest that they are already running in full SATA mode?

Thanks very much,
Paul

by Former member

NT:

by var1016

Ha-ha!

I am sure you must be right - there cannot be another explanation - and I am sympathetic: I would like a nice rest too!

Best wishes,
Paul

by rob miners

turn the keyboard over so that the keys are on the downside. Hold it about 4 inches 100mm above the desk and let it go. Frees up sticky keys and displaces the crap.

by var1016

Well, I didn't do this to get it going but I just tried it...

The results were amazing: a surprising quantity of tobacco!

Paul

by Former member

Asking for a free Roll up. Either that or start selling it. :)

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by Former member

The mode part is when you do raid. I:E. raid 0 or Raid 1. Raid0 = stripping, of which two drives become one under Windows and some Linux operating systems. Raid1 = Mirror, of which you lose one drive in Windows and other operating systems because it copies (mirrors) the drive that it is attached/paired up with. If you need to do Raid then you will have the option when you boot up, you will see "F4" or F10" to get to the raid part. Anyway a new board and more fiddling around. Sounds like you have the sata drivers on anyway.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by dumphrey

"Captain Jacks Ol` Keyboard -- Smooth, Refreshing?"

Hmmm, I have heard of worse ideas, like that coffee that's "processed" by some little rodents in the weasel family.

by Former member

Sounds good to me. lol. :)

by var1016

Sounds appetising to me too: I now think that perhaps I should design a keyboard/humidor combo; the tobacco looks too dry to roll/sell and such a device might even get me on Gizmodo!

Paul

by var1016

Thanks Peconet.

If I am running in SATA, I wonder how this could be?

After all, a newly-built computer, blank hard drives, new OS.

Where did the SATA drivers come from? I haven't installed them!

Best wishes

Paul

by Former member

When you buy some sata drives these come with drivers already built in, so maybe that is why you did not have to install them separately.
Only when you do a full drive wipe do you need the sata drivers. Just some more info to keep.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by thumbsup2

In your original post, you said: "Using Sagate's Disk Wizard, I have copied over all the files."

re: Wondering how this could be, did you forget that you had cloned the old drive which was a SATA? ;)

Memory is the first thing to go! :D

by ic-it

Then some SATA drivers are on the install CD.

by var1016

This is very interesting.

One drive is a Seagate SATA II, brand new that I installed on Saturday; I have partitioned it so I suppose some formatting went on - in fact when I started with Seagate's Disk WIzard it was a big problem - Paragon couldn't partition the drive as it said it was "invalid". Then I tried formatting with the XP disc. This took ages and didn't work either. I assumed the HDD was damaged. Somehow I managed in the end using Paragon, to copy partitions from the other HDD and from then on it was straightforward.

The other drive is a S/H Samsung 40Gb, obviously SATA I. I imagine that the seller formatted the disc before shipping. But from what you say it seems that the SATA drivers remain.

One more question if you don't mind: is there a utility that will definitely confirm that these discs are running correctly with the drivers etc? I am still as you can see, having difficulty with all this!

Thanks again,

Paul

by Former member

Or if you are using Maxtor then it will be from them. Western Digital is another, Western Digital drives are my favourite, i have no problem with these drives. But then we all have favourites.
Seagate and Maxtor tools here:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools
I have forgotten that seagate brought out Maxtor. :)
Western Digital tools here:
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en
You will have to use the right one for the right drives so do not get them mixed up. If you do not know what you have in your system then download this little program:
BELARC:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Click on the link that say "Download", this will tell you what you have inside your computer (well nearly all). :)

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by var1016

As I said, I formatted the new drive after the cloning!

Perhaps it's a case of "The song is ended but the melody lingers on"!

Paul

by dumphrey

board for an AMD XP64 3000 chip that loads XP (pre SP1) onto sata drives with no problems. The BIOS is mimicking a pata drive. When XP is up and going, the mobo drivers install the sata kit and you can go back into bios and set the sata for native. pretty slick really.

by var1016

Interesting.

I have four driver files from Gigabyte (downloaded as I have no CD). Three are obvious: chipset, VGA, Audio; the fourth which I have done nothing with is called "Motherboard_driver_raid_nvidia_C51_bootdisk-XP. I suppose that these are SATA drivers? But surely you must have loaded yours from a floppy disk? Everyone says they can only be installed from a Floppy. Why this might be baffles me since the floppy is really very old hat isn't it?

I am interested to know if it is possible to install SATA after the OS - and your post suggests that this is possible.

By the way, what does "native" mean in this context?

Thanks

Paul

by var1016

Hello and thanks.

Yes it's XP Pro with SP2.

Reading in SIW under disk drives, I see that the driver for my SATA II HD is dated 1-7-2001! This I find curious, because still in SIW, if I look under "storage devices" it says that the interface for this HD is SATA II. Now since SATA II didn't exist in 2001 I am baffled!

Paul

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