BIOS Updates forum

Im hoping this is the right section to post in,as i am experiencing difficulties with my pc.

I have been trying to format the hard drive and re-install windows xp Home version 2002. All of my documents needed have been copied to an external hard drive.

Firstly my pc will not allow me to do this via my computer>drive c> right click> format, i get this message "Windows cannot format this drive.Quit any disk utilities or programs..."

So next step i have tried to boot from windows installation disk,but i cannot access bios from booting pages, i have tried all possible Fkeys and ctrl+alt etc,but still no bios,all i can acces is a RAID dos screen by pressing CTRL+S,CTRL+ALT+S scans the drive,CTRL+ALT+ESC and CTRL+ALT+INS do nothing

Below is system scan information from biosagent plus scan.

BIOS Type: Phoenix-Award
BIOS Date: June 30th 2004
BIOS ID: 06/30/2004-RS350-SB300-6A664PRDC-00-None
BIOS OEM: BIOS-I-4M (2K040630) - 6.00 PG
Chipset: VIA 82C3044 rev 128
SuperIO: ITE 8712F rev 5 at port 002E
Manufacturer: Unknown
Motherboard: RS350-SB300

System Scan Results - BIOS & Drivers

25 of your drivers are old Good Good (75%)
Bad Bad (25%) Ticket Number: 49wlwhq

BATTEBURG (system summary) Good Bad Download
BIOS
Phoenix-Award Bad Download


Disk Drives
Maxtor 6B200M0 Good
Display adapters
ATI RADEON 9100 PRO IGP Series Bad Download
DVD/CD-ROM drives
DVD-16X DVD-ROM BDV316E Good
YH1244Z CFL452O SCSI CdRom Device Good (this drive doesn't exist,appeared randomly last summer)
_NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG Good
Human Interface Devices
USB Human Interface Device Good Download
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller Bad Download
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller Bad Download
Keyboards
Logitech PS/2 Keyboard Good
Mice and other pointing devices
HID-compliant mouse Bad Download
Monitors
Plug and Play Monitor Good
Network adapters
Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC Good Download
Ports
Communications Port (COM1) Good
Printer Port (LPT1) Good
Processors
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz Good Download
Printers
HP Deskjet F2100 series Good Download
SCSI and RAID controllers
SCSI/RAID Host Controller Good
Sound, video and game controllers
MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device Good
Realtek AC'97 Audio Caution Download
Standard Game Port Good
System Devices
ATI RS350 Accelerated Graphics Port Bad Download
ATI SMBus Bad Download
VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller Good
Universal Serial Bus controllers
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller Notes
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller Good
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller Good

The above scan appears to show my bios as needing an update, will doing this enable me to access bios and then boot from xp disc?

I will reply with more information if necessary however as a 'BIOS beginner' i do not know what that information is at present,also apologies if this thread is not purely BIOS based but i assume you guys will know what im on about.

On a side note i am using a wireless logitech keyboard which appears to have a mind of its own,could this be linked to my inability to reach my bios?

any help will be greatly appreciated

Award 6.00PG bios - the delete key should be the standard way to enter Bios

Denniss wrote:Award 6.00PG bios - the delete key should be the standard way to enter Bios

Thanks for that,another problem has turned up.I pressed delete and entered bios,changed boot priority to cd,and booted windows from disk,pressed enter to do a new install, but then the next screen said 'Setup did not find any hard disk drives....', any ideas with this?thanks again

thanks for help denniss,i have managed to reinstall windows,i think i originally forgot to install the programs on my motherboard cd when i originally setup the computer,i think this has been the root of all my pc woe!
All seems to be working now,have changed boot priority to hd,is raid a better setting in bios than ide?
I am still getting bios update needed on agent scan,is this worth doing?

leave at IDE, bios update not needed, system is working OK now, isn't it?

it is indeed,thank you an goodnight,much love