Can't boot from live CD; can't figure out how to enter BIOS
Posts: 440
Hi,
I hope this is the proper forum for this question (I am still something of a n00b). I have an ASUS A7V400-MX motherboard with ASUS A7V400-MX ACPI BIOS Revision 1009. It seems that the BIOS is set so that my machine won't boot from the CD drive if there is a live CD in the drive. So, as per Knoppix Hacks, I tried to enter the BIOS to change the apparent default. But ESC, TAB, F2, ALT don't seem to do it. There doesn't seem to be anything in the manual for the motherboard which isn't for Windows only. Even more alarming, from the manual it appears that to enter their BIOS, Windows users with this motherboard model must use some proprietary software on the disk which came with the motherboard.
It might be relevant to add that I previously had an Asrock motherboard which blew out. I had someone in the shop swap my RAM cards and AMD Sempron 2800+ CPU into the new motherboard and install that. It's been working fine except that I can't figure out how to edit the BIOS settings so that it will boot a live CD.
Any ideas/suggestions?
TIA, the hapless feheeszeno
I'm not a N00B, I'm a BOOB!
Posts: 440
Thanks, Andy, I just wasn't holding it down long enough. You are absolutely right, and I was just able to enter the BIOS and reset the boot order, and looks good so far!
feheeszeno
enter BIOS
Posts: 316
Try DEL key or F10 or F9. Chek out this link
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
It's all there. For questions about the BIOS, it helps if we know which BIOS. Watch the screen while booting. Look for "Award","Phoenix", etc.
Whee! Got into BIOS, am now running 3.4-2 live CD!
Posts: 440
Hurrah!
Yes, the key I needed to press is DEL, I just wasn't hitting it at the right time or holding it down long enough during the power on self test phase of bootup. Anyway, I did get into the BIOS just fine (the manual confused me; obviously it was talking about something else). I took the opportunity of checking what BIOS says is CPU and system temperature, CPU fan rate, etc., and checked that against what mbmon says (got that nifty utility from Debian arXiv). I've seen some say these can be inaccurate, but FWIW everything mbmon says agrees perfectly with the BIOS so I think it is accurate.
feheeszeno
Hi, Hold down the key
Posts: 36
Hi,
Hold down the "Del" key during the boot process.
Andy