Can't boot - ?BIOS

[thingy]

I was messing around with an old Dell 486 which I use for messing around with and now it won't boot up.
It does the RAM test successfully but then there is no Beep and the cursor just sits there blinking. It won't boot from a bootdisk either.
I think i might have inadvertently altered something in the BIOS
If I take the battery out and replace it, will this re-set the BIOS? If so, how long do I leave it out for?

Thanks

[bwbarbieri]

If you're seeing the RAM POST test, then you can probably get into the BIOS Setup Program. In a PC like that it should be fairly safe to reset the BIOS to defaults. You should then go into the Standard Setup page and make sure the floppy drive is set properly. Then in Advanced Setup page ensure the boot sequence is floppy A drive first, then C. Now try rebooting.

If that doesn't work, try another floppy drive. (Also make sure your boot disk is error free.)

If you just can't boot from a floppy disk, try another hard disk. In fact, turn the floppy off in the BIOS while you do this. Sys the hard disk first if you want the PC to boot.

If any of the above don't work, try going into BIOS Setup again and see if you can turn off the L2 cache. That's the cache on the motherboard. It might also be possible to disable the L2 using one or more jumpers on the motherboard. Then try rebooting again.

Outside of these things, you're going to have to check things like the RAM modules and CPU you're using.

I find that a lot of older machines need to be rebooted several times after a change is made before they will work. So be patient. You might have to wait 5 or more minutes for the PC to respond. I've worked on some machines that took almost 10 minutes before a blinking cursor suddenly disappeared and the PC started to boot.

[This message has been edited by bwbarbieri (edited 01-10-2002).]

[alliya]

if the above suggestions don't work, try clearing the cmos.

I've worked on some machines that took almost 10 minutes before a blinking cursor suddenly disappeared and the PC started to boot.

on my little 33mhz 386 with 4mb of ram and a 512k video card it takes a full two minutes for all the cards to bounce across the screen when you win a game of solitaire

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i was previously magtecln...

"but don't worry, there is one thing far more siniter and evil than women ... CGI" -ricyn, 05.24.2k

[thingy]

Thank you both for your suggestions.
I can't get back into the Bios, that's the problem!
If I could, then I could undo whatever it was that I did.
I will try leaving it alone for a while and see what happens but I 'sense' it's not going to do anything.!

[alliya]

I can't get back into the Bios, that's the problem!

that's why i suggested clearing the cmos (what you referred to as resetting the bios). yank the battery while you're "leaving it alone".

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i was previously magtecln...

"but don't worry, there is one thing far more siniter and evil than women ... CGI" -ricyn, 05.24.2k