BIOS Problems & OS Installation

[SHardy]

How would I have to go about "flashing" the BIOS on my laptop. It's one that was bought as old business stock. I now want to completely rebuild it. However, it has a password set for entry into the BIOS, and I now have no way of finding out the password (I have had this a loooong time now).

Any help would be appreciated.

Also, want to install Windows98. Have the CD. However the CD drive is an external one, connected via a PCMCIA (or whatever they're called) card. Presumably I would need DOS drivers for both the CD drive AND the PCMCIA slot? Is it possible to get DOS drivers for these? Any alternative methods for doing a completely new install? e.g. copying install files to c: drive, uninstalling current Windows, and installing from DOS. What would be the best approah?

Again, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
S

 

[MainePC]

I am assuming that you can currently boot the laptop to the Windows desktop. If not, disregard this reply.

Your Win98 CD has a folder called "win98". Copy that folder to your C drive. Boot to a floppy disk (the Windows 98 boot disk). In DOS, navigate to the C:\win98 folder and run the file called "setup". This will install 98 right from the drive without having to have the external CD drive connected.

Can't tell you about the BIOS password. Sometimes on desktop machines you can open up the case and change a jumper setting to clear the password, but not sure about old laptops.

Scott

 

[edfair]

If it is old, there is the possibility that it is not flashable. And even though it might not be flashable it should be fully usable.
Might help a little if you gave some info like manufacturer and model number or name.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[bobw]

SHardy,
If/when you are able to flash the BIOS -AND- if you have access to a usb cd drive, I have sucessfully used the procedure outlined on this web page to create a floppy disk that loads the DOS USB driver and then transfers the setup files from the 98 CD into a directory that it creates allowing you to install the OS.

http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/

Bobw

 

[SHardy]

Laptop in question is a Fujitsu Lifebook B110. It's just an old Pentium MMX 233Mhz. Did the job for what Iwanted when I got it. However, now I really want to get rid of all the little problems.

The BIOS is an issue, because the floppy drive is an external one, and the BIOS is not currently set to boot from floppy.

The next issue is:
The laptop already had Win98 installed. But they obviously didn't clear it down properly. It must've been used on a network previously, as it comes up with a login dialog, which I have always cancelled. However, certain parts of the system cannot be changed. I am assuming that these were locked down t oadmin logins only.

I had tried copying the setup files to C drive, booting to DOS and then running the setup. However, this must retrieve the Win98 settings first, as when finished appears to be no different.

I was going to try uninstalling windows first, tonight, then booting to DOS and running the install again. Is this likely to work? Can Windows easily be uninstalled in the first instance?

Thanks

 

[gus669]

Just my two cents but if you had a partition manager like say Partition magic, and provided you had enough space, you could create another partition and copy the Win98 folder to the newly created partition say an 800 meg partiton,and then install Win98 on that partition. Then you could copy your old data to the new partition and then format c: which would then blast those Admin. restrictions away. Or even just copy the Win98 folder to the new partition and format c: then install 98 to C:.

As far as reinstalling Win98 over your existing install that might work but I am not sure whether those existing restricitons would remain intact or be overwritten. I think they might be overwritten so its worth a shot.

 

[SHardy]

Managed to install OK. Could not uninstall prev Windows. Had to:
1) Copy installation from CD t ofolder on C drive.
2) Boot into DOS.
3) Delte as much of the Windows folder as I could.
4) Run the setup from the copied files.

This has installed exactly as required.

However, still not able to get into the BIOS. This isn't urgent now, but it would be good if I were able to sort this last little problem out. Any ideas?

 

[bobw]

how about holding a key down while you boot to get to the "F1/F2" dialog?

 

[westredd]

if you can access the cmos battery (sometimes , remove it for 30 mins and then put it back, this should set the bios back to default state (ie no passowrd)

 

[SHardy]

F1/F2 dialog?
Is this just the standardBIOS entry you're talking about?

I can F2 for the BIOS, but it is passworded, and I can't get any further.

Battery removal may be worth trying. Will have to see if it is possible. Thanks.

 

[wdgriggs]

To "reset" your bios (provided you don't have a removable battery or reset jumper): carefully pry the bios chip out of its socket and short ALL the pins on a piece of metal.

I've done it 100's of times (but I doubt any tech manual would suggest it.). You WILL LOOSE bios setup; but I assume it will auto detect your HD and you can always look at your watch for the correct time.

System will boot up with the Enter Bios question? displayed and the password gone.

Good luck.