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Got a annoying problem occuring during booting. It's not a serious one just I feel an unnecessary one.
While booting a Gateway computer using PhoenixBios 4.0 Release 6.0 ROM the booting process stops. On the screen is displayed the condition of the Keyboard, Mouse, CDs, and Disks. Also is displayed the processor speed and amount of RAM. At the bottom of the screen the message
"Press ESC to continue"
is displayed. After pressing ESC the boot process continues and ends just fine. No problem.
Checking the ROM BIOS "BOOT" Catagory I see this:
After Power Failure Stay OFF
On Modem Ring Stay OFF
On LAN Power ON
ON PME Stay Off
I would like the boot process to go to completion without having to press ESC. Can anyone advise me as to what I must do to accomplish this?
David
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There is nothing in a line immediately above the "Press ESC..." message?
Do you notice that any drive LEDs are on when the message is shown? If you have added, say, a DVD burner and it is jumpered as CS, try changing it to master or slave depending on what is on the same controller cable.
It will most probably be due to a piece of hardware that you have added and the BIOS is not communicating well with it. Try disabling/disconnecting any hardware that you have added and see if the message stops.
If the BIOS settings have "Quick Boot" or "Quick POST" you may need to disable that. It may also be "forgetting" it's previous settings, so replace the CMOS battery.
If you cannot find another direct cause, look at updating/upgrading the BIOS, depending on whether it is annoying enough.
There is nothing in a line immediately above the "Press ESC..." message?
Do you notice that any drive LEDs are on when the message is shown? If you have added, say, a DVD burner and it is jumpered as CS, try changing it to master or slave depending on what is on the same controller cable.
It will most probably be due to a piece of hardware that you have added and the BIOS is not communicating well with it. Try disabling/disconnecting any hardware that you have added and see if the message stops.
If the BIOS settings have "Quick Boot" or "Quick POST" you may need to disable that. It may also be "forgetting" it's previous settings, so replace the CMOS battery.
If you cannot find another direct cause, look at updating/upgrading the BIOS, depending on whether it is annoying enough.
Matt
Matt:
Thank you for your numerous suggestions. I shall try them one by one and see if anything works. There were two other pieces of evidence I failed to mention in my original question.
1.Right before the time of the display to "Press Escape to continue" I hear two beeps. After I press ESCAPE I hear one beep. I figure the BIOS is trying to tell me something.
2. There are three more options indicated in the BOOT section of the ROM BIOS. They are as follows:
Silent Boot ENABLED
Quick Boot Mode ENABLED
Scan User Flash Area DISABLED
Another question arises. If I replace the battery will I be losing all previous settings? I guess I must make a record of all ROM BIOSn settings before doing this. Is this true?
Another question arises. If I replace the battery will I be losing all previous settings? I guess I must make a record of all ROM BIOS settings before doing this. Is this true?
Yes Removing the battery clears the CMOS - standard practice for doing just that.
The CMOS is a "hardcoded" chip. It is a ROM, a Read Only Memory. It can only be changed by doing an upgrade/flash.
The CMOS battery "holds" the changes that you make in the BIOS settings. If you were to take the battery out for, say, a few months, the computer should still start up using it's hardcoded default CMOS settings.
Unless the computer has had many changes to the BIOS settings (which would mean that it needs to run "way off" normal) it should start up to the default settings that are in the CMOS.
If you remove the battery you will need to remake any changes to the settings in the BIOS that you made previously.
This may not be "absolutely" technically correct, but I think it should be reasonably accurate.
In short, you won't need to make note of all the BIOS settings, only those you may have changed manually.
The CMOS is a "hardcoded" chip. It is a ROM, a Read Only Memory. It can only be changed by doing an upgrade/flash.
The CMOS battery "holds" the changes that you make in the BIOS settings. If you were to take the battery out for, say, a few months, the computer should still start up using it's hardcoded default CMOS settings.
Unless the computer has had many changes to the BIOS settings (which would mean that it needs to run "way off" normal) it should start up to the default settings that are in the CMOS.
If you remove the battery you will need to remake any changes to the settings in the BIOS that you made previously.
This may not be "absolutely" technically correct, but I think it should be reasonably accurate.
In short, you won't need to make note of all the BIOS settings, only those you may have changed manually.
Matt
Matt:
I changed the Quick Boot Mode from Enabled to Disabled and went through the boot process. I shut the system down and in booting up checked to see if the instruction had been remembered. It had. So I think the battery is adaquate.
I checked the Phoenix Bios beep codes.I could not find a listing for only 2 beeps. I found a listing for 1 beep which is that booting would proceed (and indeed it does).
There are no messages above the "Press ESC ro resume"
There are no lights on any of my disks at the time of the two beeps and the boot process halting.
I think the 2 beep is trying to tell me something but I can't find out this means for a Phoenix Bios.
I might be wrong on this but that sounds a lot like you have the bios set for parity for the memory and you're getting a parity error stop. You might check the memory settings in the bios and see if there is a setting for parity. Reverse it and give it a try. It doesn't mean anything is wrong. A lot of memory doesn't use parity.
Removing the battery clears the CMOS - standard practice for doing just that.
