BIOS problems

[jimbo6sic6]

hi everyone im new to the forums. i had no idea there was a forum until linus told me about it so now i will bestow my problem onto you guys.

im kind of a noob with computers, im only 15 so i have time to learn but i got a monster pc a year ago and i was afraid to fiddle with any of the settings for fear of breaking the pc but i want to give it a go now, i was having problems with my old RAM were it caused my computer to bluescreen when playing games, i ran prime95 blend and my computer instantly bluescreened which is how i figured it was RAM. i had been planning to ugrade my ram anyway so i went ahead and bought 4 new sticks of ddr3 4gb. but when i run prime95 i still would get bluescreens but not as quickly, on 4 threads it can perform the checks without causing any bluescreens but i cant run it on the full 8 threads so my friend suggest i lock my FSB to a one to one ratio. This leads me onto my problem, i can't for the life of me access my BIOS

i believe my BIOS is American Megatrends Inc.anyway here is whats going on. When my computer boots up it gives me no option to press delete to enter BIOS it shows me an error message "no hard disk is detected!" but then everything loads fine. when i press delete a few times during the bootup it brings me onto a black screen for about a minute and then the computer restarts. when i was installing a basic watercooling system a while ago i didnt plug the fan connecter into the cpu fan socket and that brought me onto the BIOS settings to fix the error when i started up the computer but when i try to re-create this error by unplugging the fan from the cpu fan socket and press f1 to enter bios it brings me back to the same black screen. i have researched this problem but i cant find anyone else who has it, i know that in some cases it may be a faulty keyboard or the keyboard is not detected in time to press delete and enter the bios but i dont think this is my problem, i am using a razor lycosa keyboard if that is any help.

[Dave :)]

Have you tried pressing F9 or F12 during boot up? Start the PC, and start continuously pressing F9 or F12 through post, this should enter you into your BIOS.

Failing that, try and use DEL, start PC, and start pressing DEL throughout the boot up.

[jimbo6sic6]

Ok so i spamed f9 first and now my computer refuses to boot up it sits on a black screen for about 5 minutes before i hear the beeb and it starts booting up. Have i screwed up my pc?

[jimbo6sic6]

i have a felling that it might have something to do with the computer not detecting the hard drive for some reason at the start of the bootup but i could be wrong

[Dave :)]

Ok so i spamed f9 first and now my computer refuses to boot up it sits on a black screen for about 5 minutes before i hear the beeb and it starts booting up. Have i screwed up my pc?

It shouldn't have. Hmm, have you cleared your CMOS? Turn off your PC, open it up and take out the round battery on your motherboard. Leave it out for 30 seconds, then put it back in. Try again with repeatably pressing DEL during post, tell us if you get anything.

As for your HDD, what sata ports are you using? Is everything connected correctly?

[jimbo6sic6]

already tried removing the batterie and my motherboard also has a clear cmos button handy on it so i have did it twice but still i get a black screen and yea everything seems to be connected it has always said that message about no hard disk detected but it has never caused any problems i think

[Dave :)]

Sorry, i don't know what else it could be. :(

I may be a problem with your HDD, is there anyway you can install windows ( temporarily ) on a new drive and try to boot from that? Could also be a faulty SATA connector. Try connecting it to a different SATA port, see if that makes a difference.

[Craig]

I had a similar issue on a computer in work and I tried another sata port and cable and it worked.

Sorry where you able to get into bios ? does the slash screen give you a option for Boot Options (if you have a ubuntu live CD) you could always try to boot into that to see if it sees your hard drive.

But I think it may be the hard drive itself is dead or about to dead.