Messages

1

Software / BIOS reset from within Windos XP?

« on: August 25, 2009, 08:50:28 AM »

Hi.  Thanks for the reply.  I run a small I.T. business and I took this as a swap for labour from a customer who had upgraded.  He knew the power on PW, but when I asked about the BIOS PW all I got was a blank look!  I may as well have "jacked" it for all the trouble it's causing me!!  

I was hoping to do this without taking the laptop apart, but now that I need to, I can't find any reference to a CMOS / RTC / BIOS battery in the service manual & I'd rather not start on it till I know how long it's going to take (I have a couple of partly assembled laptops on my shelves that started as projects with no planning or timescale involved & I don't need another)
 
If anyone can point me in the direction of the CMOS battery, I'd be very grateful.

Regards, Alan.
Thurrock PC Services
www.tpcservices.co.uk

2

Software / BIOS reset from within Windos XP?

« on: August 13, 2009, 05:57:26 AM »

I have inherited a HP Pavillion Zx5000 laptop that has a BIOS passwordthat I don't know and a power on password that I do know, but want to remove.  There is a problem with the DVD drive in that it's not reading discs (though it recognises there's a disc inserted, as it doesn't say "Insert Disc") so I can't run a boot CD or get into DOS to run anything like KillCMOS.  The system boots OK into Windows XP once I've entered the power on password, but there is no option to remove the password, so I assume I need to get into the BIOS to do this.  Unfortunately, this is where my problem lies as the BIOS is PW protected.

What I'm looking for is a Windows based BIOS / CMOS hacking tool, if such a thing exists.  I'm also thinking that if I copied a bootable DOS floppy to a spare hard drive and tried booting the laptop that way, I might be able to run DOS based CMOS programs?  

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.  

Best regards,

Alan

3

Tech Clinic / Strange "Missing Graphics" problem, but only in Windows

« on: August 07, 2008, 08:09:47 AM »

Solved.  I managed to (blindly) flash the bios and  all is now well.  Thanks again for all of your help.  Regards, Alan.

4

Tech Clinic / Strange "Missing Graphics" problem, but only in Windows

« on: August 04, 2008, 05:22:00 AM »

Hi.  Thanks for the reply.  I would prefer to repair the current windows install by selecting this option during the install process, although I will format & reinstall if necessary.   As for the PC, it's got onboard VGA & NIC and I've removed every PCI card, so it's down to bare bones with PS2 mouse & keyboard.

Best regards, Al.

5

Tech Clinic / Strange "Missing Graphics" problem, but only in Windows

« on: August 02, 2008, 01:44:50 PM »

I've been given a PC to repair which appears to have some sort of problem with the graphics.  to cut a long story short, if I run a bootable diagnostics CD such as "Ultimate Boot CD", the graphics are fine and  I can use all of the diagnostics tools.  The same applies when I use a Linux Boot CD such as Suse or Knoppix, but if I try to use "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" which has a virtual windows environment, or I attempt to install Windows from CD, the graphics only appear on screen for a few moments before fading away till the screen is black.  I have tried several different AGP and PCI graphics cards and the results are the same, so it's not a faulty card.  Other than that, I'm baffled.  I have repaired 1000's of PC's in my time, but never seen anything like this.  Any suggestions would be well appreciated.  

Best regards, Alan.

6

Tech Clinic / No post on IBM Netvista PC

« on: September 29, 2007, 11:25:09 AM »

Thanks for the reply.  There's no cards & only one stick of RAM, but I've now made some progress.   I've replaced the AGP graphics card with a PCI card and it boots as far as the P.O.S.T. screen before giving me a warning "0135 fan error", which the IBM /Lenovo website list as CPU fan or Motherboard failure.  I  can choose to ignore this error and it boots OK, but I can't disable the fan error message in the BIOS. As the fan is spinning away like buggery, It looks like the board is on it's way, which could well explain the AGP port going down.  Looks like it's destined for the spares bin.

Regards, Al.

7

Tech Clinic / No post on IBM Netvista PC

« on: September 29, 2007, 10:13:59 AM »

I've got an IBM Netvista PC that would not boot sometimes, but would boot OK on other occaissions.  It has now ceased to start at all, with no P.O.S.T. screen or BIOS beeps.

The power supply has tested OK,  I've removed the PCI cards & graphics card & note that there are no BIOS beeps indicating a lack of graphics card & the same applies if I try to boot it without RAM.  The odd thing is that is powers up, stops for a few seconds, then powers up again, but never gets any further.   The CPU fan is working fine, but without a spare CPU to test it with, I don't know if the  CPU is OK.  

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be grateful.


Best regards, Al.