Computer help wanted. ( Operating system not found on any devices...)

myself | 2-25-04 | Tet68

[tet68]

Well, it's like this, my boss is a computerphobe, and swears his machine is out to get him. It has given him nothing but headaches since he's had it. I personally think he has some kind of negative electrical impulse that affects it but what ever it is, he only has to touch a keyboard for things to get weird.

Today, he was trying to get booted up for his daily round of Solitare when Zot! the evil machine began acting on it's own (or so he says.)

His machine requires a powerup password which he typed in but after this it wouldn't boot, just a screen saying, Operating system not found on any devices,press any key to retry. We tryed rebooting, no good, service boot, no good, F1 setup entry, no good, reinstall restore disc, no good. nothing.

He even went and bought a new hard drive and we reloaded his restore disc on it but no luck.

Any one got any idea? What can we do? I've never seen this message before so am at a loss.

[glock rocks]

get a new boss?

[DefCon]

If it was me, I'd try reinstalling my Operating System.
But, then, on the other hand, sometimes I am a dumb-ass.

[DefCon]

A pole transformer?
You mean like Lech Waleska?

[glock rocks]

is the powerup password stored on eeprom?

hmmm. wrong password? no bootie. (caps lock?)

changing hard drive doesn't alter the eeprom password. he's still sol.


that's my best guess.

[GeronL]

I knew a girl in Houston who says she had the same problem, but she swears she loves computers but everything electrical seems to get fried when she is involved. She said.

[DefCon]

Seems like there is a bios setting to disable startup passwords.
But I am not sure.

[KangarooJacqui]

No darling, the question is, what do you WEAR?

My suggestion is a tinfoil hat... the fashion accessory every FReeper needs...

<:-P~~~

[DefCon]

Oh, and WHATEVER YOU DO !
Don't let the 'magic smoke' get out.

[glock rocks]

bios level passwords are made to prevent anyone from getting near booting. the only bypass is going to come from the manufacturer, and won't be available to the common hacker (or boss :o).

[glock rocks]

Absolutely! Avoid LER's

(light emitting resistors)

[brityank]

Seems like there is a bios setting to disable startup passwords.

If the bios PW got set, you need the old one to be able to change/delete it. You need to replace the bios chip -- no way around it if that is in fact what's happened.

[tet68]

We tried using his old password, the only one he's ever had.
No dice, am at a loss to help. No way to get into set up.
this is a new one on me.

[glock rocks]

get the computer's make and model, and phone your local comp usa type store and see if you can replace the BIOS chip... then don't use a password on it. that's my suggestion. Some BIOS chips are soldered in, and hopefully the resident computer guru salescritter can tell you the situation.

could be that a cosmic ray or surge finally tweaked a bit in the area that stores the password. (you did try caps lock, didn't you?)...

[Brett66]

I think you can set a jumper on the motherboard that will erase any BIOS passwords. You'll need the mobo manual to locate the jumper, you may be able to find it on the internet.

[brityank]

Only time I heard of this was on a 286; they suspected they'd zapped the eprom with static. Got another eprom burned and replaced it -- problem resolved. Made me a believer is static discharge damaging chips. Some good points in other posts too; possible jumper point, or a socketed chip you can replace. If it is soldered, it's likely into a multi-layer mother-board, and they are a b!tch to replace components without all of the right tools, especially a vacuum desoldering station. Good luck. :^)

[tet68]

Caps lock?

[glock rocks]

passwords are usually case sensitive. is the caps lock key depressed? did you try to reenter the password after pressing the caps lock key to make sure?