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I am tryiing to install XP onto an Intel Celeron 566 to get my mum access to the internet and desperately need to go into BIOS settings.
No display whatsoever of the key you need to press to get into the set up utility.
Has anyone ever pre-owned one of these and knows the key needed? or is there a website where I can find out ?
I have tried intel's website with no luck.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

The "Del" key is it for most motherboards. Just turn the computer on and try pressing it in and out, but there should be an on screen message saying "Press ... to enter BIOS." The timing is what usually matters.

There are a few mobos that use a key other than "Del", but I can't remember what they use.

Psyber wrote:The "Del" key is it for most motherboards. Just turn the computer on and try pressing it in and out, but there should be an on screen message saying "Press ... to enter BIOS." The timing is what usually matters.

There are a few mobos that use a key other than "Del", but I can't remember what they use.

Thanks for your reply Psyber.
I've been surfing the web for hours to find an answer and the 2 I got were press delete or F2.
I've tried both without luck.
There is no message whatsoever at the start saying "press....to enter bios"

I'm thinking maybe this processor just doesn't like XP..... might have to track down a copy of 98..

Thanks for your help though.
Smithy

You could always give her Ubuntu Linux. Easy install and comes with Firefox, the Evolution email programme, and Open Office, and they'll post you free disks if you order on the web site. It is easy to use too.

Psyber wrote:You could always give her Ubuntu Linux. Easy install and comes with Firefox, the Evolution email programme, and Open Office, and they'll post you free disks if you order on the web site. It is easy to use too.

I'll certainly have a look at that.
Thanks so much Psyber..

Smithy

Usually it's DELETE
Sometimes it's F2, F10 or F12

It's not the CPU which sets that, it's the motherboard - find out what brand/model it is and that would make things easier.

It's nothing to do with XP though!

From memory the key for a genuine Intel is F10. If it's something else you might have to try your luck. If you want, write in a description of what the board looks like (better yet a picture) and any numbers that appear on there, especially bar codes, and I might be able to tell you what brand it is even if I can't remember what the CMOS setup button is.

BTW, this has nothing to do with the OS. If you had no hard drive hooked up at all, you would still get a boot sequance and would be able to access the bios.

Grahaml wrote:...BTW, this has nothing to do with the OS. If you had no hard drive hooked up at all, you would still get a boot sequence and would be able to access the bios.

Yes, and that suggests there is something more fundamental wrong - mobo, Videocard, RAM??

I'm 99% sure that the bios key is different and the post screen doesn't actually point you to it. This story sounds very familiar. Just to make it harder many genuine intels don't actually come with any sort of decent manual. Sometimes the Intel site doesn't even say anything! I'd be very surprised if there was a hardware fault judging by what the description of the problem is.

Grahaml wrote:I'm 99% sure that the bios key is different and the post screen doesn't actually point you to it. This story sounds very familiar. Just to make it harder many genuine intels don't actually come with any sort of decent manual. Sometimes the Intel site doesn't even say anything! I'd be very surprised if there was a hardware fault judging by what the description of the problem is.

I had one recently with a friend's older machine, where the first words describing the videocard appeared on screen then everything went totally blank - no POST no nothing - the videocard was fine in another machine. The AOpen mobo had previously suffered some trauma having a cable to a Zip drive that was a bit short and too tight rip loose in transit taking a pin out of the drive with it, so I wondered if it had a fine crack but couldn't find one. I rebuilt it on a Gigabyte board and all is fine.

It is still technically an unsolved mystery I guess!

You have to remember, it's not a woman it's a computer!

I would have had dozens of occasions where something was obviously wrong, then I swap the RAM with another system's RAM and bingo! Both work flawlessly. Early on I used to test and test and test to try to work out what exactly was the problem, but in the end I just concluded that it was just a quirk in one or more bits that just didn't like each other and so once separated there weren't any problems.

Although, I did come across a rash of problems with power supplies at one point when they went from P3/SD systems to P4/DDR and Athlon/DDR which had a lot of strange problems because they were just slightly underpowered. Since then I have always been suspicious that problems which seem to defy logic are likely to be the PSU.

Thanks for all you replies.
The only number I can see that resemble a model No are SIS 620 which I assume is video, and 98146/V76M Bios.

On boot up, it displays RAM etc briefly, then goes to ACER display then asks for an installation disk.
I enter XP, (have tried 2 different CD's) and it enters a few files, says "windows is starting up" and everything stops.

Not sure if it's the PC as I once had a smaller machine with this one in every facet which ran XP fine, so that's why I would like to have a look in BIOS and maybe changing from FAT to NTFS would help ?

Thanks so much, so far

Smithy

Ah, ok. I see now. I don't think you need to get into the bios at all.

If it's an Acer board from an Acer system then it probably wants the actual Acer disk ideally if it came with one.

What level of computer expertise are you at?

What exactly are you trying to do here? Install over the top, or just a brand new install? Does it give any errors when it stops? Does the screen go blank or anything? Does it reboot?

Level of expertise - intermediate

I am trying a new install, it had 98 on it and was a mess so I formatted and am trying to get XP on which is my problem.

When I see the "windows is starting up" part down the bottom of a blue screen, that's all I'll see, no errors, no reboots.. nothing, it will just sit there until I turn it off at the back.

Thanks Graham

Smithy

It is starting to sound like a hardware fault rather than a setting. Suspect number 1 is always RAM for me, but that's because it's the easiest to take out as well. XP requires a minimum amount of RAM to run, so you might be short the required amount. How much RAM is in there?

That's the part really early on in the CD install isn't it? So basically there's nothing you can do to fix it just by playing with the software. You can never really rule anything out 100% in these cases, but I really don't think it's bios or software ATM. Just to be sure, do you know where the CMOS reset jumper is on the mainboard? If you reset the CMOS you should get rid of any possible problem there.

Do you have any spare bits to chuck into it? Or does it have multiple RAM sticks?

Grahaml wrote:It is starting to sound like a hardware fault rather than a setting. Suspect number 1 is always RAM for me, but that's because it's the easiest to take out as well. XP requires a minimum amount of RAM to run, so you might be short the required amount. How much RAM is in there?

That's the part really early on in the CD install isn't it? So basically there's nothing you can do to fix it just by playing with the software. You can never really rule anything out 100% in these cases, but I really don't think it's bios or software ATM. Just to be sure, do you know where the CMOS reset jumper is on the mainboard? If you reset the CMOS you should get rid of any possible problem there.

Do you have any spare bits to chuck into it? Or does it have multiple RAM sticks?

Thanks Graham.
It was suggested to me by a friend that it could be RAM.
It's got 192MB RAM and only 2 slots otherwise I could of wacked in another 64.
I'm almost certain that with my 233 years ago it only had 128 MB RAM and ran XP fine but could be wrong.

YEs it is very early on in the installation, probably about 3-4 mins in.

Thanks

SMithy

It might be worth trying it again with just one of the two that are in there. Probably take out the 64 and run with just the 128 first, and then vice versa. I'm no sure what XP is designed to run on so it might be a case of it might work, and it might not.

I have an old Acer lappy at home, only has 32MB and was supposedly built for XP. It runs OK but struggles to do more than one thing at a time (I don't dare send an email AND surf the net at the same time).

Often you can run things at lower than the "minimum" specs, but it can lead to problems, sometimes strange ones. It's quite likely that it's not the problem at all, but just something I was kicking around as a possible idea.

Grahaml wrote:You have to remember, it's not a woman it's a computer!

Yes, I have found upgrading or repairing them doesn't work, and you have to just get a new one occasionally. I have had two last more than a year. One [WIFE v.1.0] lasted about 8 years, but the current model [WIFE v.2.0] has been with me much longer and is holding up well.

Grahaml wrote:I would have had dozens of occasions where something was obviously wrong, then I swap the RAM with another system's RAM and bingo! Both work flawlessly. Early on I used to test and test and test to try to work out what exactly was the problem, but in the end I just concluded that it was just a quirk in one or more bits that just didn't like each other and so once separated there weren't any problems.

Yes I had a problem with one of my own - bought from Altech using a Foxconn mobo - it only likes one of the for PCIe videocards I own. The other two machines I commonly use have Gigabyte and DFI boards and are not picky. [All my personal machines are AMD 64s, except the old AOpen XC Cube I trial Linux distros on.]

Grahaml wrote:Although, I did come across a rash of problems with power supplies at one point when they went from P3/SD systems to P4/DDR and Athlon/DDR which had a lot of strange problems because they were just slightly underpowered. Since then I have always been suspicious that problems which seem to defy logic are likely to be the PSU.

Yes I had one years ago that kept playing up - after the third PSU was put in it was fine, and the other two worked in other machines.