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Hello techies and everyone else!
I am working on a friends PC he purchased at a sale at a community college. When We boot it up he gets a error strike F1 to reboot or F2 to enter setup. When we hit F1 to reboot, it says the same error, when we try to enter setup (BIOS) its looking for a password we obviously dont got, and I cant change the bios opitions becaus either the password is restricting us or I'm just a complete idiot. I load in a Windows 98 CD, I get Two opitions here.1. Boot from hard disk
2. Boot from CD-RomWe try both but all we get is a blinking cursor.
Hopefully one of you guys or more can give us some help on to fixing this problem. I think resetting the CMOS battery will do the trick to kill that password.
Hope this is enough details for you guys!
Thanks!
Remove the battery for at least ten minutes with the power to the computer unplugged.
If you have a voltmeter measure the battery voltage - it should be 3 to 3.3 volts. When you put the battery back in, make sure the polarity is right - usually + is up.
When you boot you will get a "Cmos Checksum Error...." or similar message. You will either be prompted to enter the bios Setup or you will automatically go there. Enter the bios Setup, and load Bios Defaults - Set the time and date - save settings, reboot.If it won't boot to the hard drive, try a bootable floppy disk in the floppy drive. If that works, there's something wrong with the hard drive or it's connections to the computer.
If you can't do that because the boot stalls forever, unplug the computer, open up the case, carefully remove the data cable to the hard drive. Plug in the computer, try the bootable floppy again. If that works, there's something wrong with the hard drive or it's connections to the computer.
If that doesn't work, unplug the computer, carefully unplug both IDE data cables at the mboard.Plug in the computer, try the bootable floppy again. If that works, there's something wrong with the hard drive(s) or the CD drive(s) or their connections to the computer.
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You won't get anywhere unless you kill that password.
Taking the battery out for a while often does it. It would be better to give us the exact model number, then someone might be able to point to a jumper setting that needs to be set to clear it.
DerekW
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Sorry I forgot what the Model number was.... heres a pic of the tower... not if thats much help
http://www.monitorman.com/Dell_Opti...
Actually, when I saw this password, I realized this battery needs to be out so this password can be cleared. But its so hard to get to it because the video card/ethernet is in it's path and its hard for a screwdriver to get in there..
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If you have any doubts about the battery then replace it (they are very cheap).
Measuring the offload voltage on any battery can be misleading. This is because a voltmeter is high resistance and draws very little current. Often the voltage of a battery drops dramatically when under load, due to an increase in its internal resistance.
For example, with a torch battery I put a bulb across the terminals and then measure the voltage. Many quite useless batteries still show the full rated voltage offload.
I rather doubt the battery is the problem in this instance but you never know I suppose...
DerekW
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I just wanna get to it so I can clear the password and change the boot sequence. This stupid password..ugh LOL im gonna haft to like force a screwdriver in there to take off that card.
This wont be easy.
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If it's that hard to get to it would be worth getting the model number to see if it can be reset with a jumper instead.
DerekW
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What's this card about? For most cards you undo one screw then lift them out of the socket.
DerekW
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This card where the screw is in a tight spot theres like a drive there or something I forgot. I never took out a CMOS battery before. Does it require some special technquie?
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Not really - although an IQ of 100 or so is recommended
On those old Dells you need to find and release the latches - everything swings out of the way once you've done that
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock
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... anyhow, I've some similar models, and the battery is located near the front right of the mboard. On this one, just releasing the CD drive and tugging it ahead allows access
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock
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The section that holds the add-on cards is removable. There's a lever you flip on the top to loosen it and then it slides out. Also, there's probably a 'clear cmos' jumper you can use to clear it instead of removing the battery.
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It's a small connector link, usually black and less than 0.5cm square. You move it over to another set of pins to clear CMOS.
I've no idea where it is on that machine (DAVE might be able to help). There is a chance that it is marked on the board.
DerekW
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The clear cmos jumper block is often close to the battery - it usually has three pins, and there is a removable jumper, usually black plastic, on two of the pins that connect (short) the pins.
General info, but I don't see anything specific about the mboard in it.
"Specifications: Dell™ OptiPlex™ GX1 Systems"
http://support.dell.com/support/edo...
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I just threw out one of those cases the other day. Of course the motherboard setup may have been different than yours. But those Intel motherboards usually had a clear cmos jumper somewhere. You may need to just eyeball the motherboard close up and see if you can find it.
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Well look at the idiot.
I just threw in a 98 start up disk and found out that theres no partition on there! So I created and formatted a partition. I got windows installed fine and its in working order( need drivers like PCI controller , etc) he dont have the drivers.
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Will that tell me what drivers I need to load?
Sorry about telling you the model version to late but it was a Dell Optiplex GX110
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If it's in the GX1 series, as in GX1 10, those are the drivers. If there is a GX 110 series, look up the specs on the Dell website - that will tell which chipset it has. Then you go to the web site of the maker of the chipset e.g. If it has and Intel chipset, go to www.intel.com - and find the drivers.
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Why don't you run Everest to ID your Hardware?
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4...
Then go to the below site and see if you can find your drivers.
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On the Dell site, search by service tag # if it's still on the chassis
gosh! - this is going well
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock
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Man I need to have more experience.
Thanks. How can I get internet on this thing if it doesnt have a PCI Ethernet Controller?
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What kind of internet service do you presently have available?
"gosh! - this is going well"LOL
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LOL
well my friend has DSL but a sibling of his needs it so were outta luck unless I bring it over here and hook it up to my router. Hopefully it will read it. I looked in the Network adapters and all I saw was Dial Up adapter so its obvious that its not present.
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On another computer, go here to download an older version of WinZip - this one will fit on a floppy disk:
get winzip70.exe here (faster)
http://www.midcoast.com/software/wi...or here(slower)
http://andi.or.id/website/file.phpCopy winzip70.exe to a floppy. Copy it from the floppy onto your no internet computer - double click on winzip70.exe to install WinZip 7.0 .
How to use WinZip 7.0 - if you have Word or a Word reader.
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkjQv9...There is also Help in the program itself.
On another computer, find the drivers and download them.
If you have a GX1 10, the drivers (INF updates) for the Intel 440 series are the right drivers.If you have a GX110 series computer it has a different Intel chipset, and Intel video.
If the download is too big to fit on a floppy (1.44mb), if you have WinZip 7.0 or later on that computer you download it onto, you can make a zip file of the download on a multiple floppy (spanned) set of floppies. If you don't have WinZip on that computer, install WinZip 7.0 on that computer too - it works fine even in XP and 2000.
All the GX110 drivers:
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...GX110 Video Drivers: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...
GX110 Chipset drivers download that makes a set of floppies:
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...If any download is too big to fit on a floppy (1.44mb) - the video driver certainly is too big - if you have WinZip 7.0 or later on that computer you downloaded it onto, you can make a zip file of the download on a multiple floppy (spanned) set of floppies. If you don't have WinZip on that computer, install WinZip 7.0 on that computer too - it works fine even in XP and 2000.
To unzip a multiple floppy (spanned) Zip set on the non internet computer, start up Winzip, have it look at the first floppy in the set - it will ask for the last floppy in the set, then the first floppy again, then it will unzip the whole set.
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"...have it look at the first floppy in the set..."
as in - have it extract all files in the first floppy
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If the other computer you go to has a cd writer just download all drivers you need and put them on 1 cd.
If not follow tubesandwires instructions.
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My current computer does have a CD-Writer. I will download all the drivers and put them on a cd.
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If you do that, write them to a CD-R CD, not a CD-RW CD, for best chances the CD drive on the non-internet computer can read the data.
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If you have a GX110 series computer, you don't need all the drivers - just the ones for the chipset, onboard video, and ones for the cards you have installed in the system.
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Further to #30
Good advice. For an even better chance find out how to "Finalize" or "Close Session" the CD-R's afterwards. They might even run on a washing machine then LOL.
DerekW
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Hello everyone I solved my own problem.
I had a Windows ME upgrade CD. I told my friend this will be better for what hes doing ( Internet) and guess what! IT FOUND ALL THE DRIVERS! I was amazed at my discovery.
LOL
Thanks for the support I need to use my common sense more wisely.
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It's good to hear you solved your problems.
ME has more built in drivers for older mboards like this. However, there are problems ME has that Win 98SE, especially, doesn't have. E.g. There are many devices there are no ME drivers for and 98/98SE drivers won't work for.
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They might even run on a washing machine then LOL.
Thank You Derek:That was what the doctor
ordered.LOL
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