PC Hangs on BIOS Screen (resolved)

Crabman

Hi folks,

The PC is a DELL E520 running Vista Home Premium (32-bit) (further info here).

Today when booting up it stopped on this screen:



I left it for a while and it was still there ~20 mins later, so I pressed F2 to enter setup. It then seemed to reboot and boot normally into Windows.

To try and diagnose, I restarted and it again got stuck at the same screen. This time I pressed F12 to enter the boot menu. It rebooted and went into Windows as normal.

I was wondering whether anyone knows what's causing this or how to resolve it? No software/hardware changes have been made recently and Microsoft Security Essentials is installed and updated (completed a full scan 5 days ago).

Thanks

debitcardmayhem

Anything plugged into USB esp Mobile Phone/Camera ?

Crabman

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Anything plugged into USB esp Mobile Phone/Camera ?

Thanks for the response.

There's a keyboard, mouse, scanner, printer, and USB WiFi dongle.

I've noticed that when trying to take the PC out of standby, it no longer responds to the keyboard. I used to tap a key on the keyboard for it to wake, but since this morning I've had to click the mouse. Seems a coincidence so wonder whether the two are related.

NiftyDigits

Fixed or not?

If not, update the BIOS (Save to Desktop and then Run as Admin)

Disable Antivirus and unplug peripherals before running the BIOS update, as you don't want anything to interfere with the update.

debitcardmayhem

It may be a flat CMOS battery, see how you get on with ND's suggestion. Have you noticed the date/time being incorrect on start-up from cold?

Crabman

*sheepish face*

I just shut down the PC, unplugged the USB keyboard and then found it booted up with no issues. Looked like a faulty keyboard to blame.

On closer inspection of the keyboard, I found that the "Pause/Break" key was stuck in... :doh:

Feel like an idiot for not noticing this before but thankfully it is sorted now.

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. :beer:

NiftyDigits

Update the BIOS anyway

NiftyDigits

Let me know when you have done so....

Laz123

Be very careful when flashing the bios as you could end up with a dead pc.

espresso

Laz123 wrote: »

Be very careful when flashing the bios as you could end up with a dead pc.

Another urban myth - there are many ways that you could end up with a dead PC.

Laz123

espresso wrote: »

Another urban myth - there are many ways that you could end up with a dead PC.

Obviously, even a static spark can kill a mobo. But urban myth, I'm not so sure http://search.babylon.com/?q=flashing+bios+gone+wrong&s=web&as=0&rlz=0&babsrc=lnkry