Even if you don’t enter BIOS, you can learn some information during a normal boot up. The BIOS may use beep codes to communicate with you, and you might hear a single beep as your system boots up. A single beep means that everything passed muster and your PC will boot up normally. Other beep codes don’t offer as rosy of a report, but we’ll get to those in a moment.

BIOS Problems

If your computing life is good, you won’t have to enter your BIOS and attempt to fix a problem very often: It’s not one of the easiest aspects of your PC to troubleshoot. But we’ll cover some basic scenarios that will give you a place to start in the event of a BIOS breakdown.

Problem: My BIOS keeps beeping at me.

Solution: Because most BIOSes don’t talk (although there are some that do pipe out a voice with their error message), they communicate via a series of beeps. A single beep is essentially an “all clear” to let you know that everything checked out all right. Unfortunately, there’s no uniformity among BIOS manufacturers about other beeping messages.

Sometimes you may hear a double beep, which means a POST error in the original standard IBM codes, but can also mean a memory error with a newer BIOS. If you’re getting more than one beep (or no beep at all) and your computer isn’t booting up fully, check the screen—there will often be a text error message that goes along with the code. If not, check your computer or motherboard manual or the PC manufacturer’s Web site for their specific code information to help you decipher what your BIOS is saying. A BIOS error code is usually indicative of a hardware problem, so you may end up having to replace your memory or other system components if the beeping continues.

Problem: I’m having trouble getting into my BIOS or moving around.

Solution: As we mentioned above, you’ll need to press a certain key on your keyboard to get into your BIOS. The DELETE key is a common one, as are the Function keys at the top of your keyboard. Watch the screen when your computer boots up and you’ll see a message that tells you what key to press to enter BIOS or “Setup.” Alternatively, you can check your system or motherboard manual for details on getting into the BIOS.

Moving around in the BIOS is different than navigating a normal Windows program. Because Windows hasn’t booted up yet, you won’t be able to use the mouse to maneuver the cursor. But you can get around in the BIOS by using the arrow keys and pressing the ENTER key to enter a menu (you can usually use the ESC key to back out of a menu). When you’re finished making changes to your BIOS, be sure to save them when you exit (usually F10 will save and exit BIOS).

Problem: I made a change to my BIOS and now my computer is acting weird.

Solution: The nice thing about making changes to your BIOS is that it’s really hard to muck things up permanently. Because the BIOS runs before everything else, you can re-enter your BIOS, correct the changes that you’ve made, and then save the changes that should set your system back to normal.

If there’s something more serious going on, you can also try resetting your BIOS back to the default BIOS settings (the settings your BIOS had when the computer manufacturer first shipped the PC to the store or to your home) to see if that will fix the problem. For example, with AMI BIOS from American Megatrends, the Exit menu contains an option called Load Optimal Defaults, which will load a set of default settings designed for best possible performance. There’s also an option for Load Failsafe Defaults, a group of settings that is designed for stability that can be useful if you’re having system problems.

Problem: My BIOS problem can be fixed by a new version, but I don’t know how to install it.

Solution: If you think there’s a major problem with your BIOS, you can try a firmware upgrade. This process is called “flashing” your BIOS. These upgrades can also improve performance if you’ve added new components or other features that your current BIOS version isn’t optimized for. But before you upgrade your BIOS, make sure that you need to. You can cause serious problems to your system if you upgrade to the wrong BIOS version, so you might want to talk to your PC manufacturer’s or motherboard manufacturer’s tech support before taking this step. It’s imperative that you know the current version of the BIOS you’re using now, so you know which version of the BIOS you’ll need to download when you go to the manufacturer’s Web site to download.

Upgrading your BIOS will involve downloading a program and then putting it on a floppy diskette, a flash drive, or similar removable media. (Not all motherboards support all removable media for this process, so check your user manual before settling on a storage type.) The download should come with a text file with directions on how to flash upgrade your BIOS, and you may want to print out these instructions so you'll have something to refer to during the upgrade process. As an example, to upgrade to the certain versions of AMIBIOS from American Megatrends, you'll need to download a zipped or compressed folder, put the files from the folder onto a diskette, and then boot up your system with the diskette in the drive and the CTRL and HOME keys held down. The files on the diskette will automatically upgrade your BIOS to the new version.

This is just one example, and other BIOS upgrades may require you to make a Windows boot disk to use with the BIOS upgrade file floppy diskette. Again, be sure to read the directions included with the upgrade carefully. If you don’t have a floppy drive on your system, check the manufacturer’s Web site for alternative methods. Sometimes you’ll be able to burn a CD with the flash upgrade on it and be able to boot from CD to flash the BIOS.

It's worth noting that many motherboard manufacturers offer new (and easier) ways to flash the BIOS. For example, MSI (www.global.msi.com.tw) offers Live Update 3 for its newest motherboards. Live Update 3 is a Windows-based BIOS-flashing utility. Once you download this software from MSI's Web site and install it in Windows, the program updates your BIOS to the newest version without you ever manually entering the BIOS.

Problem: My BIOS isn't letting the computer boot from a CD or DVD.

Solution: When your computer powers on and the BIOS finishes its self tests, it checks certain drives (such as the hard drive, floppy drive, and your CD/DVD drive) for Windows or any other operating system. The order in which the BIOS checks those devices is generally known as the boot order, because it's looking for an operating system to boot.

Most PC manufacturers configure your BIOS to search the floppy drive (if one is available) first. If the BIOS doesn't find any files that would let it boot an operating system, it moves to the next drive in the boot order. This next drive is usually the hard drive, as it's the drive that contains Windows. If the BIOS finds Windows, it boots the operating system and doesn't look any further down the boot order.

From time to time, you may find that you need to boot from a CD/DVD, instead of booting into Windows. You'll find yourself in this situation if you need to reinstall Windows from its original installation CD/DVD. The installation process starts only if the BIOS searches your CD/DVD drive before searching your hard drive.

To change the boot order, enter the BIOS (press DELETE, F2, or the appropriate key when your computer first starts). Although there are many different BIOS menus, you'll probably find the boot order without much trouble. The list often appears in a Main tab, but some BIOSes have a separate tab devoted specifically to the boot order. Once you find the boot order, move the CD/DVD drive to the top of the boot list, save your changes, and then exit the BIOS. (Some BIOSes include only a CD-ROM label. Don't let this trip you up: In the BIOS, that label applies to any optical drive, including DVD drives.)

At this point, your PC reboots. Place the CD or DVD (from which you want to boot) into the drive and then watch the screen for a Press Any Key To Boot From CD message. Press the appropriate key when it appears. The BIOS searches the disc in the optical drive and boots from the disc (instead of booting Windows from the hard drive).

Of course, your new BIOS settings mean that your PC will display the Press Any Key To Boot From CD message every time you start your computer. Once you're ready to boot your PC from the hard drive again, you can either ignore this message (in which case, the BIOS eventually boots from your hard drive) or you can re-enter the BIOS and change the boot order settings back to the original order.

Problem: I installed new hardware, but it isn't working.

Solution: If you recently installed an audio card, video card, LAN (local area network) card, or other hardware, it may conflict with your motherboard's built-in devices (the very devices you're trying to replace). PC enthusiasts run into this problem less often with newer motherboards, but if you add a discrete audio card to an older computer, you may find that it conflicts with the motherboard's built-in audio card.

To solve this problem, enter the BIOS and then look for a menu that lists the motherboard's devices (this menu often has a label such as Onboard Device Configuration). Find the name of device that you're trying to replace (the audio device, in this example) and then check to see whether the device name has an Enabled or Disabled tag. If it has an Enabled tag, switch it to Disabled and then save the BIOS settings and exit the BIOS. When you restart the computer, your new audio card should work, unimpeded by the motherboard's old audio device.

Problem: My BIOS settings don’t stick.

Solution: First, make sure that you’re saving the changes upon exiting and not just exiting BIOS. If you have been saving changes and they’re still not there the next time you enter BIOS, you may have a problem with your motherboard’s battery. Another symptom that confirms this diagnosis is a system clock that you need to reset often.

Most motherboard batteries are the round Lithium batteries like the kind you find in watches. These are fairly easy to replace, but check your motherboard/system manual or the manufacturer’s Web site beforehand to make sure you follow the right directions. Always replace the battery with the system powered down and the power cord unplugged.

by Joel Strauch