somehow in the middle of the night my PC lost its Bios, at least thats what it says when it trys over and over to boot and wont/cant.
it says “Bios not found!”
im posting at work now but it may be once agian time for the internet dark ages at home if i cant find where i lost the Bios.
PS, i have no idea what a Bios is.
also, this may be Catboys fault since he was the last person i spoke to over AIM and telephone last night.
WHERE’S MY BIOS!!!
Evrything you need to know about the Basic Imput Output System aka BIOS.
Maybe the talking Gojira took it Jagur!
As for solving the problem. What version of Windows are you using? Does the computer boot at all? It the compy plugged in?
win 2000
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm… helping someone who’s accusing me of running a BIOS hack? I may be a script kiddie, but I’m not that mean. I’ll help you, but just because I’m nice.
The BIOS could have gotten corrupted due to a power glitch or something. If you are able to get into the BIOS setup you can set things back to the defaults and possibly fix the situation. This page explains how to get into the BISO setup for many different computers. Usually you have to hit the DEL key very early in the boot-up cycle to get to the BIOS setup.
The other problem could be a weak or dying battery. Some computers have a little button battery on the motherboard that powers the memory for the BIOS. If the battery gets too low the memory gets wiped and the BIOS can no longer load. Replacing the battery will fix the problem. Hopefully it is a removable battery and not one that is soldered on. After replacing the battery you’ll have to go into the BIOS setup and set things back to normal. At that point you may need to find someone who knows about computers to help you get the settings right.
no no, just funny how that worked out timing wize.
John is right, get someone who knows about Computers to look at it and find whats up. It could be as simple as replacing a battery or working in the BIOS setup, or the BIOS could be completely wiped from the compy, and you’ll have to get it from your Computers manufacturer, but thats really unlikely.
Playing with the BIOS settings can get tricky and techy. It asks techy things like how many cylinders and heads your hard drive has and details about memory timing. There are easy settings like system date and time but there are also some very technical settings. Best to get someone who knows what they’re doing to get it configured if it’s messed up.
If the computer has completely lost the BIOS and needs to be reflashed then you’ll need to take it to a computer shop. It is easy to completely mess up a motherboard by incorrectly flashing the BIOS. Flashing the BIOS means reloading the BIOS code from a floppy disk or some other source.
well this sounds pretty bad, i’ll try what i can tonite.
i remember seeing the option to hit DEL right at the boot up, i look in there and see if its not on the defaults.
The good thing is that generally the defaults are safe settings and won’t do any damage.
The tricky settings can be things like CPU speed, bus speed memory speed, and hard drive settings. It may be able to figure out the proper or safe settings on its own for those things.
Putting the CPU at a higher speed than it’s designed for can damage the CPU. Putting the hard drive at a setting that is not correct will make the HD unaccessible till you get the settings right. Putting the memory speed at the wrong settings can make the memory not work till you get the settings right.
Generally the defaults are safe but may not be optimal. People who know what they are doing can tweak the settings to get a little bit more speed from the computer.
I used to know a guy who flashed his BIOS all the time for reasons that I’ve forgotten. He talked like it was nothing. He wasnt really techy either. He just did it before and knew a little bit about it. Its likelly all you need to do is get a floppy with the BIOS and do it. He said there was never any true harm in doing it.
I just thought thats about all the floppy disk drive is good for these days.
Yeah, unfortunately the BIOS for each computer manufacturer and model is different. It’s easy to get BIOS updates and stuff though, Microsoft.com has a massive list of all the computer manufacturers and their BIOS updates dealies.
Flashing the BIOS is easy. The tricky part is making sure you have the right BIOS image for your motherboard. If you are not 100% sure you have the correct BIOS image then it’s not worth the risk. If you flash the wrong version or flash a BIOS designed for a different motherboard then you could be left with a motherboard that will no longer boot and will no longer let you flash the BIOS again to fix the mistake. You’ll be stuck unless you can manage some heroic repairs.
It’s also risky in that if there is any kind of a problem while flashing you could be left with a MB that will no longer boot. Problems could be a bad sector on the floppy disk or bad cable or a power fluctuation at just the wrong time.
Any time you’re flashing a BIOS or ROM or firmware onto a device you are taking a risk that it may go badly and leave you with a paper weight. Some devices are easy to recover from if the flash goes wrong. Other devices, like some motherboards, are difficult or impractical to recover from if the flash goes wrong.
I don’t have many worries when flashing a new firmware to my MP3 player or my CD-RW drive. But I get nervous when it’s something like a motherboard.
I’ve found the opposite, actually; the majority of half-recent motherboards have backup BIOSes so it’ll still work if you flash it with rubbish, and the ability to flash the BIOS from windows. Mine came with a program to check the internet for updates and automatically flash them; it wasn’t half easier than fiddling around with floppy disks and whatnot.
I’ve flashed a DVD drive and my mp3 player; they offered absolutely no way out if it goes wrong.
Phil
When I totally screwed up my bios once I just reset it by bridging the correct jumpers on the motherboard. You should be able to reset/flash/fix a glitch by finding the right jumpers.
Find your motherboard’s manual online and it will show you how.
I flashed the firmware for my phone, changed it from Vodaphone sweet-shop red/white to a really nice blue colour scheme (the firmware was chinese, with english language option). That was really risky, using a slowed down baud rate serial cable and a bit of shoddy software. Never mind, it worked a charm.
Loose.
I flashed a group of nuns once. I had to go to jail for awhile.
I bet it wasw worth it though. Am I right? eh?