another reinstall

[hpharley90]

This past week I had a hard drive failure and was able to save most everything.
Now that I've reinstalled the operating system(Windows Media Center 2005) everything is good so far accept it just won't boot up to the desk top.
I get the black screen that asks to press F1 to continue or F2 to go setup utility I think.
I press F1 and continues boot up to the desk top.
How can I get rid of having to press F1 key?

[Bobby]

Usually it is trying to tell you that something has changed or is invalid in the BIOS setup. You would normally press F2 in that instance to go into BIOS setup and see what is wrong. You can also get that message if your motherboard battery is bad and so your date/time is not valid.

Hard to say what the problem is without looking further into the BIOS.

[Bob]

I agree with Bobby, the bios detected the change in the hardware. Normally all you will need to do is press F2 to enter setup (the bios) and save. The bios should have autodetected the drive settings. Saving will update the cmos memory so you won't get the prompt again. Very old systems didn't have the autodetection capabilities that modern systems do and you had to manually set up the drive characteristics. I'm glad we don't have to do that anymore. Bobby is correct about other things causing the prompt to appear too, but I think the most likely thing is the drive change.

[hpharley90]

Thanks Bobby.
I'll open BIOS and see if I see anything with the boot sequence.

[hpharley90]

Bob I just saw your post and will do as you suggest.
Thanks.

[Bobby]

Yup I agree. The only change pending may be the detection of the new drive, and it will keep asking until you acknowledge it by going into Setup and then Saving.

[hpharley90]

I went into BIOS. The only time I can save is if I change something.Otherwise there is just an exit button.
I'm not understanding something.

[Bobby]

Hmmm. You should be able to press F10 to save and exit, but if there is nothing changed they it may not present that option.

Well, as a test, change something and change it back, like the time. Then see if it saves and fixes the problem.

[Bob]

Which bios does your system use? And, how old is the system.

[hpharley90]

Well, as a test, change something and change it back, like the time. Then see if it saves and fixes the problem

Time changes immediately.
To get a change to happen I changed boot order.saved and booted to desk top.I shut down then rebooted and no change.I went back into BIOS and put boot order to default saved went to desk top then shut down and rebooted.
No change. I still have to hit F1 to continue setup.

Which bios does your system use? And, how old is the system.

Bob it'd Dell BIOS revision A02.
I bought in November 2005.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Try changing the motherboard battery (suggested above by Bobby). It could be the culprit and solve this problem....the existing battery is four years old so most likely on the wane.

[hpharley90]

I still need some help.

Try changing the motherboard battery (suggested above by Bobby).

John thanks but I'm not convinced it's the battery.And I respect yours and Bobby's suggestions but I've many older computers with never a battery change and their fine and one of them I just did a reinstall on 3 months ago. (Pentium 4 Hyper Threading) It's 2 years older than the one with problem. Everything runs like it's new. And 50 hours or so ago my computer with the problem was fine.
With the complete reinstall I think a parameter or setting isn't correct.
I'll pop the battery out and test it.I'm not to optimistic though.

But I'm hoping for more suggestions. I don't know what to do.

[Bobby]

The two don't go together Richard. Normally the OS doesn't mess with BIOS settings (although that is not an absolute rule) and the BIOS shouldn't have been affected by the OS reinstall. I am coming up with a blank on this one right now.

[Bob]

The motherboard battery powers the cmos memory where your clock and bios configuration data are stored. If the battery is weak, you can start getting random changes to the configuration data. Normally, the bios would post an error message if the crc checksum didn't come out right. Batteries can last up to 10 years, but it's very common to fail long before that.

I don't think it's a battery problem. But, I'm not sure what is causing you to get the that prompt either. I'm not familiar with the Dell bios, you may want to look at the bios options and see if there is a setting that controls that feature.

[hpharley90]

Thanks guys. Yes there are no clock or date problem so I think it discounts the battery.

I'm not familiar with the Dell bios, you may want to look at the bios options and see if there is a setting that controls that feature.

Bob I installed Everest home edition and it told me that my BIOS Type is Phoenix (10/28/05)
Does that help?

I'm doing some Google searches now.