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    7801u won't enter bios setup

    Discussion in 'Gateway and eMachines' started by BostonBullit, Feb 11, 2009.

  1. BostonBullit

    BostonBullit Notebook Enthusiast

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    those that saw my previous thread know that my new 7801 is a little quirky so far, now I could use some advice on a new issue - thing won't let me into BIOS! when the post screen comes up (I turned off the bitmap thing and have regular old post info) I hit F2 and it says "Entering Setup...." then promptly goes on its way into Vista :mad: :mad:

    anyone seen behavior like this before?? it was working fine before I had to re-image from the restore partition to clear up the other issues... :confused:
     
  2. SemiGamer

    SemiGamer Notebook Deity

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    Try tapping F2 rapidly till it gets to BIOS screen instead of just once?
     
  3. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    Take the hard drive out if you have to.
     
  4. E-wrecked

    E-wrecked BANNED

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    Use F10 :)
     
  5. BostonBullit

    BostonBullit Notebook Enthusiast

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    tried the tapping and also holding it down, those didn't work.

    I think I tried F10 but will try again, been a rough couple days on the work/fam front and my brain isn't all with it.

    Popping the HDD was my next plan if no one could give me another idea so if F10 doesn't work I'll try that.

    machine is packed up for a trip to the office at the moment so it'll have to wait until I get there...

    thanks for the suggestions
     
  6. BostonBullit

    BostonBullit Notebook Enthusiast

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    no dice on the repeated tapping of F2 or the F10. F10 just brings up the boot menu and hitting F2 repeatedly just makes the computer boop at me then bring up the "run vista or do a memory test" menu. Hitting F2 is the right thing because when I do it says "Entering Setup", it's just that it then decides not to. have to try removing the hard drive next and see what it thinks of that.
     
  7. E-wrecked

    E-wrecked BANNED

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    If you get the boot menu, the last option there should say "Enter Setup" be there ya go :)
     
  8. BostonBullit

    BostonBullit Notebook Enthusiast

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    uggh, I looked at that like 20 times and never realized it's a SEPERATE ITEM on the menu. thanks man, that got me into BIOS. now for the $1200 question - would you keep a machine that is refusing to enter BIOS when you hit F2 or RMA it. the first gateway online chat guy seems to think it's a hardware malfunction that requires an exchange. the second gateway chat guy thinks I need to load a bios driver in vista, which doesn't make any sense because entering the BIOS is completely OS independent. NewEgg says 1-2 weeks and to send it directly to gateway cause they'll do it faster. what a PITA
     
  9. BostonBullit

    BostonBullit Notebook Enthusiast

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    on a semi-related note, this seems to have all started after I re-imaged the machine using the Gateway Recovery Partition....I was in and out of BIOS using F2 a bunch of times before I did that.
     
  10. SemiGamer

    SemiGamer Notebook Deity

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    What problem did you have that forced you to use the Recovery Partition?
     
  11. BostonBullit

    BostonBullit Notebook Enthusiast

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    back story

    a fellow at work, the same one who actually turned me on to this notebook deal, was telling me today that most likely the re-image foofed something in MBR that the gateway bios is looking for; which sorta jives with the second tech on chat that told me to "install the bios driver in vista". he gave me a link but I got sidetracked and the stupid chat window closed so now I have to go find the thing on their website and see if that fixes things
     
  12. SemiGamer

    SemiGamer Notebook Deity

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    Eh bro sounds like your system had serious problems to begin with. Might want to think about exchanging it if your not satisfied.
     
  13. BostonBullit

    BostonBullit Notebook Enthusiast

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    Answer found (I think)...and to prove the greatness of the forum here I'll point out that I found it in the BIOS sticky at the top of this forum. First post contains the below text:

    "Here's notes on the 2 new BIOSes being worked on.. And they're from Taiwan, please excuse the grammar.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ***** IMV-028 *************************************************************
    00080: Nomo Lu 2008/08/28 18:04:00
    1. Modify Annie oil secury code.
    1. Set HDD password on AHCI mode and reboot.
    2. Change IDE MODE
    3. Enter password and it will fail.
    2. When POSt, If User press F2, system can't enter setup menu on IDE mode. "

    currently running 9c.08.00 (pre-installed), guess I'll upgade and see if the issue is corrected.