Can't get into the bios

Ahh help, I just bought the Zalman CNPS9500, which replaced the stock a64 one. Once I'd inserted the new heatsink i booted up the pc..everything's working fine, apart from the bios.
It gives me the option to enter the bios on the startup screen, if i press delete...i'm taken to a black screen with a "_" at the top left of the screen..and have to restart to get the pc to boot normally. But if i turn the pc on, allowing it to boot normally, everything is fine, so it's just slightly annoying not being able to get into the bios.
Any ideas? it was working when i had the old cooler on the cpu and i haven't chagned anything else in the pc, i tried updating the bios...but still the same effect...help me please!!! :)

Check the new Zalman cooler is seated correctly.

Failing that

Try clearing CMOS on motherboard (this will reset all settings on motherboard to default)

...or if that doesn't work, power off, unplug, POP out the CMOS (watch) battery. Leave for about 30 secs. That should 'properly' clear the CMOS.

Tom

I had this on my old Abit board - it seemed that the board didn't like the hsf I replaced the stock cooler with - if it was plugged into a particular fan socket on the board the BIOS would hang. If I used a different fan socket it was fine. If the suggestions above don't work, try plugging the hsf power into a different fan socket on the board.

You may have checked already, but are you using a USB keyboard? If so is the bios set to to enable this in DOS / BIOS?

Jamin

I'm using a PS/2 keyboard so that's not the problem. I tried resetting the CMOS, by taking the battery and PSU cable out for about a min, no effect, i'll try changing the fan socket..hope that works.
I hate it...installing the new heatsink fixed some random crashes...but brought on some more problems..aghh!
Cheers for the advise, hope it works :undecided

I tried changing the fan socket, resetting the CMOS and all the other bits of advice...but i still can't get into the bios.
Any advice?

Tried reflashing the BIOS?

If that doesn't work, I guess it sounds like time to RMA the board.

Tom

Quote:

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Originally Posted by b0redom

Tried reflashing the BIOS?

If that doesn't work, I guess it sounds like time to RMA the board.

Tom

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I tried re-flashing but no luck, i really don;t want to have to RMA the board..i need my PC to do uni work on. Any other ideas? is it worth putting the old hsf back on to check that it's just the new fan??

Highly unlikely its the fan if that were the case, chances are it would work for a few mins when the CPU was cold. Sounds like you were having problems before you put on the new cooler.

Did you get the mobo within the last 6 months? Assuming you did, and you paid on plastic, you can call up your credit card co and tell them it's busted, and they'll spring for a new one.

Alternativly you're stuck using it without the BIOS working. If you do continue to use it, I strongly suggest you back up everything very regularly, don't want to loose your thesis if you have a disk crash due to the mobo going postal!

Cheers...

Tom

Before i put on the new heatsink the BIOS was working fine, which is really weird! Yeah i paid by credit card, will it cost anything to get a new board from the credit card people? I bought the mobo last october...
cheers for the replies

Phone em up and ask. Tell em it was damaged or something.

Tom

Do you have any other usb devices (printer, scanner) pluged in? If so remove them and try again.