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Gummbee25

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G

Gummbee25

8 Posts

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November 30th, 2006 14:00

Reinstall bios?

im not really familar with bios and resetting my factory settings and waht not but hes my situation...

i have a dell 8400
WIndows XP service pack 2
pentium 4 3.0g
2 GB RAM

and im getting a new 250 GB wester digital HD
ive been getting error messages and blue sceen saying disk failure. i will reformatting my HD and want to know if i can and should reset my bios?? i just dont want to get anymore more error messages when i get my HD in from dell. somone told me virus can stay in your bios??
  • M

    Majestic

    2 Intern

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    9371 Posts

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    Posted November 30th, 2006 14:00

    So far I have never heard of a Dell owner having a virus infecting their BIOS so I wouldn't worry about it.  What you can do after installing the new hard drive is clear the NVRAM.  By clearing the NVRAM the system will reset all the BIOS settings back to the way they were when the system came from the factory.  The clearing process will also cause the system to redetect all the installed hardware including your new hard drive.  Clearing the NVRAM is safe to do and some people do it after every BIOS update or hardware change.  To clear the NVRAM just do this.....
    • Reboot system and enter the BIOS Setup by pressing F2. 
    • Turn on Caps Lock, Scroll Lock and  Num Lock.
    • Press ALT + E then ALT + F (should hear beep) then ALT + B

    If you do not have a floppy drive, after clearing the NVRAM will you get a message saving that diskette drive 0 can not be found or something to that effect.  This is normal due to the resetting of the BIOS options which turned on the Diskette Drive controller.  Just go into the BIOS Setup and turn Off the Diskette Drive and the problem will be gone on the next reboot.  The Diskette Drive option can be found in the Drives sub-menu of the BIOS.

  • G

    Gummbee25

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    Posted November 30th, 2006 18:00

    thanks alot man... when my hard drive comes in all install the drives and try this... thanks again
  • M

    Majestic

    2 Intern

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    9371 Posts

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    Posted November 30th, 2006 20:00

    You're more than welcome.  Best wishes on the hard drive change over.
  • R

    RoHe

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    45230 Posts

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    172625 Points

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    Posted December 1st, 2006 01:00

    If you're going to install XP on the new HD, you should read the last paragraph here for a bios setting change that's required before an OS install on the 8400. http://www.djdenham.com/8400%20Special.htm

    And if you're planning to set up a RAID configuration, read the whole document.

    Ron

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