Basically around the 2000s we had a WinXP computer and each time I wanted to use it, either my mom or my dad had to turn it on. However they had to strike the key to enter the BIOS. Everytime when booting the PC. Then they would exit the BIOS and so Windows XP would boot normally.
Do you guys know if your parents also did that and why?
It’s possible they had a dead BIOS battery, and whenever they had to boot up, they had to reset the BIOS clock, or the system would go haywire thinking it was Jan 1, 1992 or whatever the default date was.
Yeah, I think it was because the CMOS was dead. But not sure because I don’t have the computer anymore. Thanks for the answer
oh, I’m so glad I could scratch that memory itch!
it was a problem form another time. but, honestly, I’m so glad to be able to answer a tech support issue from, what, 20 years ago? yay!
Dead CMOS, or the boot order was wrong and they didn’t know how to fix it would be my guess.
I’m not sure, but since it sounds like they opened the BIOS just to close it and boot normally, I would assume that they thought of it more as a command than an option.
I’ve seen it a lot since I work in an IT field. Sometimes people think that the computer is telling them to do something when really it’s just giving the option to do something.
Could be a dead CMOS battery, but if the computer had a case switch more likely it was a security feature that lets you know the case was opened. On Acer computers you would have to press F1 to continue the boot, or Del key to enter the BIOS and have the chance to change the setting. Incidentally the setting is usually under the Security tab> Open Chassis. You can reset the notification or turn it off.
I run into this situation on office computers all the time, because no one knows how to turn it off or reset it.
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I think a dead CMOS battery would cause that to happen.
It was possible to set a bios password. They might have done that to prevent you from booting the computer without permission.
Are you sure it was BIOS, and not just the password unlock, or they had DOS amd Windows Dual boot?
Couple of things - back then, bios was slow to load. Add to that if they had a usb keyboard or mouse, the bios wouldn’t detect it and make you go into bios (even though the keyboard and mouse it just didn’t detect accepted the keypresses to go into bios). There was an option to set in most to skip keyboard and mouse errors. They probably didn’t know how to set it.
Maybe they didn’t setup the boot disk properly? Another explanation could be that some pre-xp pc’s required you to type “win” in the CLI for Windows to start it’s GUI.
Unrelated, but I remember that my dad had to open up the PC and install a new video card once so that I could use Paint.
I think it was Win 3.1 where you last had to type “win” to start Windows.
Win 3.11.
Home PCs weren’t a thing when my parents were growing up :)
At a guess though, the battery on your motherboard was flat, and the motherboard was throwing a warning whenever you turned the machine on. That was a common issue
Is it possible to ask them?
I’m willing to lend my Ouija board if required
Dual boot, baby!
Bios was not set up correctly, or it did not detect the keyboard and was set to fail into bios in that case.
There was no real standard of behaviour that was adhered to for early PCs, so different hardware acted very differently. Standards that were adopted like USB were often implemented in incomplete or incompatible ways.
