Gateway Crappy Bios Settings

[brianjoes@nocrap.com]

I have a Gateway 700mhz computer. It came with a blank formatted hard
drive. My other 700mhz computer died (bad motherboard). I am mostly
just transferring everything to this Gateway. My memory, video card,
sound card and drives. I put in my master HD with Win98 and all my
data. (I've done this before and it works, just need to change a few
drivers). Anyhow, the HD I am putting in, is a Western Digital 20gig.
The computer used to have a Quantum 20gig installed. When I go into
the bios CMOS settings, the computer insists that I still have the
Quantum drive installed. It's not only unplugged from the data cable
and power cable, but it's removed from the case. When I try to change
the BOOT settings, it sees WD drive, but it still sets the Quantum
drive as second boot device. If I change the 2nd device, it sets the
3rd as the Quantum, and sets the 2nd as Network Boot (I removed the
un-needed network card). It then sets the CDrom drive as 4th device.
If I try to change that, it places any one of these as the 1st device
and I start shuffling them all over again. It never gives me the
option to set my floppy drive as a boot device.

What the hell is wrong with this thing? I do have it set to plug&play
and even if it was not, any ATX computer I have ever used will sense
the hard drives that are installed. Why is this computer being so
retarded? I have never seen or used this bios before. Every other
computer I had to hit the DEL key yo activate it. On this one I got
to hit the F1 key. This has to be the most clumbsy bios settings I
have ever used. But why does it keep seeing hardware that no longer
exists?????

Thanks for all help.

Brian

 

[Don Phillipson]

<brianjoes@nocrap.com> wrote in message
news:tulob3pptfd0jhb9s7aa33sl8glq549lri@4ax.com...

> I have a Gateway 700mhz computer. . . .
> the HD I am putting in, is a Western Digital 20gig.
> The computer used to have a Quantum 20gig installed. When I go into
> the bios CMOS settings, the computer insists that I still have the
> Quantum drive installed. It's not only unplugged from the data cable
> and power cable, but it's removed from the case. When I try to change
> the BOOT settings, it sees WD drive, but it still sets the Quantum
> drive as second boot device. If I change the 2nd device, it sets the
> 3rd as the Quantum, and sets the 2nd as Network Boot (I removed the
> un-needed network card). It then sets the CDrom drive as 4th device.
> If I try to change that, it places any one of these as the 1st device
> and I start shuffling them all over again. It never gives me the
> option to set my floppy drive as a boot device.
>
> What the hell is wrong with this thing? I do have it set to plug&play
> and even if it was not, any ATX computer I have ever used will sense
> the hard drives that are installed. Why is this computer being so
> retarded? I have never seen or used this bios before. Every other
> computer I had to hit the DEL key yo activate it. On this one I got
> to hit the F1 key. This has to be the most clumbsy bios settings I
> have ever used. But why does it keep seeing hardware that no longer
> exists?????

1. If you want advice about BIOS settings, better repost
1a. identifying the BIOS (& manufacturer & date) have
you updated it? (Do you need to update it?)
1b. saying whether the Gateway manual advises how
to adjust BIOS settings.

2. Among the various boot settings (HD1, HD2, floppy,
network etc.) most BIOSes allow you completely to
remove unwanted items. Have you tried this? What
are your current settings for boot devices?

3. What is the current BIOS setting for your HD1 (e.g.
Auto or LBA or something else) ?

Repost making clear whether you are unable to do
something you want to do or you just dislike the
way these (unidentified) BIOS menus are organized.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 

[brianjoes@nocrap.com]

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:54:53 -0400, "Don Phillipson"
<d.phillipsonSPAMBLOCK@rogers.com> wrote:

><brianjoes@nocrap.com> wrote in message
>news:tulob3pptfd0jhb9s7aa33sl8glq549lri@4ax.com...
>
>> I have a Gateway 700mhz computer. . . .
>> the HD I am putting in, is a Western Digital 20gig.
>> The computer used to have a Quantum 20gig installed. When I go into
>> the bios CMOS settings, the computer insists that I still have the
>> Quantum drive installed. It's not only unplugged from the data cable
>> and power cable, but it's removed from the case. When I try to change
>> the BOOT settings, it sees WD drive, but it still sets the Quantum
>> drive as second boot device. If I change the 2nd device, it sets the
>> 3rd as the Quantum, and sets the 2nd as Network Boot (I removed the
>> un-needed network card). It then sets the CDrom drive as 4th device.
>> If I try to change that, it places any one of these as the 1st device
>> and I start shuffling them all over again. It never gives me the
>> option to set my floppy drive as a boot device.
>>
>> What the hell is wrong with this thing? I do have it set to plug&play
>> and even if it was not, any ATX computer I have ever used will sense
>> the hard drives that are installed. Why is this computer being so
>> retarded? I have never seen or used this bios before. Every other
>> computer I had to hit the DEL key yo activate it. On this one I got
>> to hit the F1 key. This has to be the most clumbsy bios settings I
>> have ever used. But why does it keep seeing hardware that no longer
>> exists?????
>
>1. If you want advice about BIOS settings, better repost
>1a. identifying the BIOS (& manufacturer & date) have
>you updated it? (Do you need to update it?)
>1b. saying whether the Gateway manual advises how
>to adjust BIOS settings.
>
>2. Among the various boot settings (HD1, HD2, floppy,
>network etc.) most BIOSes allow you completely to
>remove unwanted items. Have you tried this? What
>are your current settings for boot devices?
>
>3. What is the current BIOS setting for your HD1 (e.g.
>Auto or LBA or something else) ?
>
>Repost making clear whether you are unable to do
>something you want to do or you just dislike the
>way these (unidentified) BIOS menus are organized.

Please tell me how to identify the bios. I am not using that computer
now since it wont work the way it is. Whether it needs to be ungraded
I dont know either. It's the default bios. That computer was never
touched when I bought it, except to wipe the harddrive. For using
win98se I dont really think it needs anything upgraded. The computer
is either 1999 or 2000. I forgot which one he said.
There are no options available for LBA and all that sort of stuff I am
familiar with. This is just some oddball bios setup I have never
seen. I dont have a manual for the puter.

Brian

 

[Don Phillipson]

<brianjoes@nocrap.com> wrote in message
news:27epb31r295j161ekg0nvkgloaopcdtq2c@4ax.com...

> Please tell me how to identify the bios.

Most PCs display this on the monitor at POST =
Power On Self Test before you either get a DOS
prompt or load Windows. It usually displays the
company name, version number and date.

> There are no options available for LBA and all that sort of stuff I am
> familiar with. This is just some oddball bios setup I have never
> seen. I dont have a manual for the puter.

It should not take long to write down the
tree structure of the BIOS menu, i.e. how
many topic groups there are and which groups
include which topics. You can then search for
the right manual via Gateway or the BIOS vendor.
It would be unusual for a 1999 BIOS to lack
LBA as a hard disk type. Books in the library
can also help, viz. explain what each option
means so you understand it when you see it.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)