Problem in bios settings?

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Kyta
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Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2002 11:34 am

I recently got a Dell 486DX2-66. When I turn it on, it says 'harddisk failure'. After that it says 'f1 to continue, F2 to bios'. If I press F1 it says 'missing operating system'. After that nothing, no command prompt, nothing...
I was thinking the solution was to boot it from A: and go from there.
But if I go to the bios the setting of the boot sequence is 'harddisk only'. The text beside it says I could change the value to 'diskette first', but it is not possible to change the value... Also the bios thinks it has a 5,25 inch floppydrive, althought it has the smaller one. This is also not changable...
(The problem is not the keyboard, because other settings I can change if I want to.)

Please help me? Am I looking in the right direction for a solution to the problem? And what can I do to solve the problem?

I just no very little about BIOS (but I'm learning every day ;-) ).
edwin
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If it says harddisk failure it means there is something wrong with the harddisk. Either dead, another type or not connected.

I think you have use the Enter key to change values.

What bios is this? AMI, Award or Phoenix?

What is the exact model of this Dell machine?
Kyta
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Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2002 11:34 am

The enter-key doesn't work. Neiter do the arrows, space-key, etc....
When I want to change some other subjects in the bios, I can use the arrow-keys and they work. But not in the subject 'boot sequence' (among other...)

I don't know what kind of BIOS it is. Where can I find this information?
I only know the version is A02.

The model is Dell 486DX2-66....

The pc did work before, so it must have the right kind of harddisk in it. The one who had the pc before me, did something wrong and after that.... He doesn't know anymore what he did wrong. But I am quite sure he didn't open it, so I suppose the harddisk-connection is still okay.

Somebody else said to me that the problem might be caused by an empty battery....
Well, till now I have three possible causes:
- bios
- harddisk
- battery

Please tell me what the right cause is and what I can do about this?
(Or are there more possibilities?)
edwin
The Hardware Archivist
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Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:11 pm
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Put harddisk in other working system and boot that from a floppy disk rightaway. Then do a search for bootsector viruses, (with F-PROT or something). Sounds like your bios has been attacked by a bootsector virus.
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