Guest brianjoes@nocrap.com Posted August 10, 2007 Posted August 10, 2007 I have a Gateway 700mhz computer. It came with a blank formatted hard drive. My other 700mhz computer died (bad motherboard). I am mostly just transferring everything to this Gateway. My memory, video card, sound card and drives. I put in my master HD with Win98 and all my data. (I've done this before and it works, just need to change a few drivers). Anyhow, the HD I am putting in, is a Western Digital 20gig. The computer used to have a Quantum 20gig installed. When I go into the bios CMOS settings, the computer insists that I still have the Quantum drive installed. It's not only unplugged from the data cable and power cable, but it's removed from the case. When I try to change the BOOT settings, it sees WD drive, but it still sets the Quantum drive as second boot device. If I change the 2nd device, it sets the 3rd as the Quantum, and sets the 2nd as Network Boot (I removed the un-needed network card). It then sets the CDrom drive as 4th device. If I try to change that, it places any one of these as the 1st device and I start shuffling them all over again. It never gives me the option to set my floppy drive as a boot device. What the hell is wrong with this thing? I do have it set to plug&play and even if it was not, any ATX computer I have ever used will sense the hard drives that are installed. Why is this computer being so retarded? I have never seen or used this bios before. Every other computer I had to hit the DEL key yo activate it. On this one I got to hit the F1 key. This has to be the most clumbsy bios settings I have ever used. But why does it keep seeing hardware that no longer exists????? Thanks for all help. Brian
Guest Don Phillipson Posted August 10, 2007 Posted August 10, 2007 Re: Gateway Crappy Bios Settings <brianjoes@nocrap.com> wrote in message news:tulob3pptfd0jhb9s7aa33sl8glq549lri@4ax.com... > I have a Gateway 700mhz computer. . . . > the HD I am putting in, is a Western Digital 20gig. > The computer used to have a Quantum 20gig installed. When I go into > the bios CMOS settings, the computer insists that I still have the > Quantum drive installed. It's not only unplugged from the data cable > and power cable, but it's removed from the case. When I try to change > the BOOT settings, it sees WD drive, but it still sets the Quantum > drive as second boot device. If I change the 2nd device, it sets the > 3rd as the Quantum, and sets the 2nd as Network Boot (I removed the > un-needed network card). It then sets the CDrom drive as 4th device. > If I try to change that, it places any one of these as the 1st device > and I start shuffling them all over again. It never gives me the > option to set my floppy drive as a boot device. > > What the hell is wrong with this thing? I do have it set to plug&play > and even if it was not, any ATX computer I have ever used will sense > the hard drives that are installed. Why is this computer being so > retarded? I have never seen or used this bios before. Every other > computer I had to hit the DEL key yo activate it. On this one I got > to hit the F1 key. This has to be the most clumbsy bios settings I > have ever used. But why does it keep seeing hardware that no longer > exists????? 1. If you want advice about BIOS settings, better repost 1a. identifying the BIOS (& manufacturer & date); have you updated it? (Do you need to update it?) 1b. saying whether the Gateway manual advises how to adjust BIOS settings. 2. Among the various boot settings (HD1, HD2, floppy, network etc.) most BIOSes allow you completely to remove unwanted items. Have you tried this? What are your current settings for boot devices? 3. What is the current BIOS setting for your HD1 (e.g. Auto or LBA or something else) ? Repost making clear whether you are unable to do something you want to do or you just dislike the way these (unidentified) BIOS menus are organized. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
Guest brianjoes@nocrap.com Posted August 10, 2007 Posted August 10, 2007 Re: Gateway Crappy Bios Settings On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:54:53 -0400, "Don Phillipson" <d.phillipsonSPAMBLOCK@rogers.com> wrote: ><brianjoes@nocrap.com> wrote in message >news:tulob3pptfd0jhb9s7aa33sl8glq549lri@4ax.com... > >> I have a Gateway 700mhz computer. . . . >> the HD I am putting in, is a Western Digital 20gig. >> The computer used to have a Quantum 20gig installed. When I go into >> the bios CMOS settings, the computer insists that I still have the >> Quantum drive installed. It's not only unplugged from the data cable >> and power cable, but it's removed from the case. When I try to change >> the BOOT settings, it sees WD drive, but it still sets the Quantum >> drive as second boot device. If I change the 2nd device, it sets the >> 3rd as the Quantum, and sets the 2nd as Network Boot (I removed the >> un-needed network card). It then sets the CDrom drive as 4th device. >> If I try to change that, it places any one of these as the 1st device >> and I start shuffling them all over again. It never gives me the >> option to set my floppy drive as a boot device. >> >> What the hell is wrong with this thing? I do have it set to plug&play >> and even if it was not, any ATX computer I have ever used will sense >> the hard drives that are installed. Why is this computer being so >> retarded? I have never seen or used this bios before. Every other >> computer I had to hit the DEL key yo activate it. On this one I got >> to hit the F1 key. This has to be the most clumbsy bios settings I >> have ever used. But why does it keep seeing hardware that no longer >> exists????? > >1. If you want advice about BIOS settings, better repost >1a. identifying the BIOS (& manufacturer & date); have >you updated it? (Do you need to update it?) >1b. saying whether the Gateway manual advises how >to adjust BIOS settings. > >2. Among the various boot settings (HD1, HD2, floppy, >network etc.) most BIOSes allow you completely to >remove unwanted items. Have you tried this? What >are your current settings for boot devices? > >3. What is the current BIOS setting for your HD1 (e.g. >Auto or LBA or something else) ? > >Repost making clear whether you are unable to do >something you want to do or you just dislike the >way these (unidentified) BIOS menus are organized. Please tell me how to identify the bios. I am not using that computer now since it wont work the way it is. Whether it needs to be ungraded I dont know either. It's the default bios. That computer was never touched when I bought it, except to wipe the harddrive. For using win98se I dont really think it needs anything upgraded. The computer is either 1999 or 2000. I forgot which one he said. There are no options available for LBA and all that sort of stuff I am familiar with. This is just some oddball bios setup I have never seen. I dont have a manual for the puter. Brian
Guest Don Phillipson Posted August 10, 2007 Posted August 10, 2007 Re: Gateway Crappy Bios Settings <brianjoes@nocrap.com> wrote in message news:27epb31r295j161ekg0nvkgloaopcdtq2c@4ax.com... > Please tell me how to identify the bios. Most PCs display this on the monitor at POST = Power On Self Test before you either get a DOS prompt or load Windows. It usually displays the company name, version number and date. > There are no options available for LBA and all that sort of stuff I am > familiar with. This is just some oddball bios setup I have never > seen. I dont have a manual for the puter. It should not take long to write down the tree structure of the BIOS menu, i.e. how many topic groups there are and which groups include which topics. You can then search for the right manual via Gateway or the BIOS vendor. It would be unusual for a 1999 BIOS to lack LBA as a hard disk type. Books in the library can also help, viz. explain what each option means so you understand it when you see it. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
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