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[The Scout]

After turning my computer off, it seems to go to the factory settings screen (Not the operating system) and then to a 'DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT DISK AND PRESS ENTER'. I've inserted windows Vista home edition, and windows XP, but nothing will work. Anyone know what the problem is?

[forsaken1111]

If the BIOS settings are reverting to default it likely means your BIOS battery is dead.

[The Scout]

That seems like that might be it. Do I have to buy a new one?

[forsaken1111]

That seems like that might be it. Do I have to buy a new one?

Yeah, look for a little watch battery on your motherboard and get another one of the same type (be carful to get the exact same type and insert it the same way!)

[The Scout]

I mean the operating system isn't booting, and it's starting from the BIOS page. Like a brand new computer with no operating system.

[G-Flex]

If the BIOS settings are reverting to default it likely means your BIOS battery is dead.

I don't know why you get the impression that this was happening.


There's a damn good chance your hard drive is toast. Go into BIOS settings, and make sure the (right) hard drive is selected as the first boot device. If it still won't boot, there's probably a serious problem with your hard drive.


If possible, try booting from any sort of bootable CD/DVD-based OS. There are plenty of Linux versions out there (knoppix, ubuntu) and also something Windows-based called the Ultimate Boot CD. If you can boot from one of those, you can verify that your computer is generally functional and see if you can access the faulty hard drive at all.

[The Scout]

All it lets me select is what to choose to boot first. Seems like my hard drive is toast. I guess I'm going to have to spend all my money trying to get the damn thing working instead of upgrding it. As some extra information, it was hovering around the 180F to 200F right before it started doing this.

[G-Flex]

That's extremely hot. Is the CPU overclocked? Are the fans running properly? Could you possibly use a can of compressed gas to blow out the fans? Or has it just been extremely hot in your area and you have a poorly-cooled laptop?


You still ought to burn a boot CD to see if you can get some data off the hard drive, at the very least, and identify what the problem is. If you're lucky, you won't have to spend anything, and the most likely case is that you just need a new hard drive.

[The Scout]

CPU is slowly overclocking itself. Might have been the cause.... I'll try to get a boot CD.

[G-Flex]

CPU is slowly overclocking itself.

Wait, what? How did you figure that out? I can't think of why or how that could happen.

[The Scout]

Been monitering it. Been slowly raising the clock spped.

[Dwarf]

Uh… that's not entirely normal. Chances are, something might be fucked up on your mainboard.

[G-Flex]

Been monitering it. Been slowly raising the clock spped.

Your CPU should not be doing that on its own (to my knowledge), unless it's just going out of various power-saver modes while being taxed.

[The Scout]

Well it is. Really pissing me off. Can't play games on this computer.

[G-Flex]

Out of curiosity, what model of CPU do you have?