Can't acces setup or boot menu, will not boot up

[atsabay]

Hello, i have an acer aspire timeline 5810TZ and i was trying to reformat it to run XP. When i changed the BIOS setting to IDE and restarted, i found that the computer will not boot up, and when i try to use the "f" keys to access setup or the boot menu, i'm unable to. i've tried some key combos that i found on the internet, but none have worked. i've also tried taking out the battery, plugging it in/unplugging it, and removing cds, usb drives, etc. any help? i'm desperate at this point.
not sure if this is a motherboard problem or what...

 

[FALC0N]

What do you by "will not boot up"? Describe exactly what happens.

 

[atsabay]

I press the power button, then the fans go a bit, and i get to the screen that usually shows up for a few seconds before moving on to boot up the os. however, this is wehre the computer stops moving... the screen says at the bottom "press f2 for setup or f12 for boot select menu". Then if i press either of those function keys, the message at the bottom changes to "please wait" and then no matter how long i wait (i let it on all night once) nothing happens, it just stays at htat screen.

 

[pinkeyes]

Try resetting the CMOS via motherboard jumpers and get back to us.

 

[atsabay]

aaah, sorry, i'm limitedly tech savvy -- how do i go about this?

 

[Guest]

I have the same problem as atsabay. how do I reset the bios using MB jumpers??

Drbrake

 

[Guest]

Try resetting the CMOS via motherboard jumpers and get back to us.

I am not that tech savey how do I reset the bios using mother board jumpers???

drbrake

 

[pinkeyes]

Look up in your motherboard manual (or you can probably google around and find it) the schematic for your motherboard to find the CMOS reset jumpers.

It should look like 3 pins in a line with the jumper (which looks like a thin cap) over 2 of the pins.

To reset the BIOS you take the jumper off, and put it back on one pin over (so it's still on the center pin but now also on the other pin that was not covered before). Leave it like this for a few moments and then return the jumper back to its original position.

 

[pinkeyes]

Wait it's a laptop isn't it (mention that next time =)...

The point of resetting the CMOS is it will reset the BIOS settings to defaults, which I think has a good shot at fixing your issue.

Unfortunately it's probably going to be a pain in the ass for you to get to that jumper, removing the CMOS battery should perform the same function if you can get to that.

I'd google for specific directions on how to get to the internals of your laptop.

 

[atsabay]

Best answer selected by atsabay.

 

[Guest]

Wait it's a laptop isn't it (mention that next time =)...

The point of resetting the CMOS is it will reset the BIOS settings to defaults, which I think has a good shot at fixing your issue.

Unfortunately it's probably going to be a pain in the ass for you to get to that jumper, removing the CMOS battery should perform the same function if you can get to that.

I'd google for specific directions on how to get to the internals of your laptop.

Thanks for the quick reply

I got lucky.

There was no jumper. this is a dual bios MB. Anyway I pulled the battery and put is back and that solved the problem
It is a desk top about 8 years old. Plenty of room inside to get to the battery


Now I have to decide if I want to mess with the gigabyte dual bios built in flash system which is suppose to fix the main bios using settings from the back up chip.??? There are two soldered in bios chips on the MB

Thanks

 

[pinkeyes]

No problem at all

I personally don't have any experience with Gigabyte's dual bios setup, hopefully googling yields some easy to follow directions for you.

Best of luck

 

[Guest]

OK

Thanks