cant boot or enter the bios on this gateway system?

[PrayingMantus]

I cant get this gateway machine working. I am trying to fix it up for a friend. The machine developed major system file damage when this guy tried to uninstall windows by deleting it from within itself. After that incident we can’t get into the bios. When I Press F1 to enter bios it freezes with the following message at the bottom of the screen: “preparing to run system start up”. Does anyone know what is going on? Also if I don't press F1 it freezes at the gateway splash screen with a message down the bottom saying "Press TAB to see message details". When I press TAB nothing happens?
Thanks for your help…

 

[micker377]

What model Gateway? Do you have access to the manual? If not, go to the gateway website and download it (pdf). You have to press tab at a certain point. This will bypass the "splash" screen and allow you into the bios setup. Do you have the "restore" disks that came with the computer? Need more info on the system.

 

[edfair]

Sounds like a blown BIOS to me.

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

 

[PICKER50]

this could also be a ram issue

 

[maward]

I am a warranty tech and just fixed a computer from Gateway that was doing the same thing. There is a solution!! Get yourself a 98 bootdisk. Gateway configures floppy boot as the third device. When you get to a prompt, fdisk. Blow away the dos partition and extended partition. Reinstall.