Can't get to BIOS

[videocheez]

I have an old P3 that has Unbuntu on it. I use it exclusively for music downloads. I got this comp from a company that went out of business and it was set up for network boot-up. Anyways, we had a power outage today and when I came home, the computer kept trying rebooting and asking me to insert a floppy because no OS could be found. I got to the bios screen one time and tried to disable the default network boot option and some how I jacked it up. Now I cannot get back to the BIOS screen. I can get to a setup screen If hit CTRL S during the boot sequence but this DOS like screen is not the same as the onethat has all of the BIOS settings. I pressed F2 at start, F5,F8, etc. but I cannot seem to find the BIOS. Any suggestions on how to get to the BIOS screen so that I can undo what I did would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

VC

[minidv2dvd]

some use the del key during startup to bring up the bios screen.

[redwudz]

If all else fails, you might pull the BIOS battery for a few minutes or just use the BIOS shorting jumper. Unplug the PC while doing this. This would reset everything in the BIOS back to default.

Often times when it says to insert a disc or no OS can be found it lost contact with the boot drive. But if it was set to boot by default from a network, maybe that's all it is.

Even with a net boot, BIOS should function normally, AFAIK.

[RabidDog]

Sounds like your mbr could be corrupted, (have you been to thailand lateley?).
Normally most systems, even if set to network boot, will have a fall back to boot from HD. If it cannot find the oS on the hard disk then it will default to boot from floppy. Put in a floppy and try to boot from that.?
Also try pressing the home key during boot to get to the BIOS.
Try booting from a linux live CD.

[videocheez]

If all else fails, you might pull the BIOS battery for a few minutes or just use the BIOS shorting jumper. Unplug the PC while doing this. This would reset everything in the BIOS back to default.

Often times when it says to insert a disc or no OS can be found it lost contact with the boot drive. But if it was set to boot by default from a network, maybe that's all it is.

Even with a net boot, BIOS should function normally, AFAIK.

Thanks for the everyone. I chose to use redwudz suggestion because unfortunately I no longer own any floppies and my "oldskool" neighbor with the floppies was not home. I think I must have selected some incompatible BIOS options such as only look to boot from floppy. I also could not make a Linux boot floppy either since my comp was down. Anyways, I back in business and I never would have thought about removing the little lithium battery. I looked for the BIOS shorting jumper but could not find it since I didn't know where I was looking.

Thanks,

VC

[redwudz]

That's why I more often suggest removing the battery. Some BIOS shorting jumpers aren't even installed. And even then, you may need a motherboard manual to find which way to put it or where it's located. The battery pull always works. Just be careful not to damage the battery holder. They all seem to work differently.

The main downside to reseting the BIOS is you may lose some custom settings. But if you can't get to BIOS, that doesn't matter. Otherwise, you might want to note down your BIOS settings before a reset. BIOS can also get corrupted on the EPROM (Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory) that stores it. About all you can do then is to re-install it. Worst case, the EPROM won't let you and you would have to replace it. Not too common, though.

But glad you got it working again.