My homebuilt, always-on HTPC has ground to a halt. It won't boot past the BIOS, which slowly - slowly - fills the screen like it's being downloaded by a very old dial-up modem. What's my "checklist" for zeroing in on the problem? [more inside]
posted by BobbyVan on Nov 15, 2011 - 11 answers

Is there a place I can take my laptop to get crisis bios recovery done to it in person, instead of sending it to the manufacturer and waiting forever? [more inside]
posted by chocolatemilkshakes on Sep 30, 2011 - 2 answers

Double whammy! Persistent "ghost" floppy drive, and slow, halting performance, all on my parents' PC. [more inside]
posted by curagea on Dec 27, 2008 - 8 answers

My friend's only Admin account on Windows has been ripped to shreds by a virus, an uninstaller program, or both; his CD drawer won't open or shut manually at all; and his BIOS settings, which are protected by a password we don't know, are to boot from a CD in the drive before anything else. Help me to not destroy his computer with an axe. [more inside]
posted by Acheman on Nov 14, 2008 - 20 answers

My PC was working fine until tonight. I rebooted to fix a BIOS setting (to enable the onboard Ethernet port) and since then it won't boot properly anymore. The PC POSTs fine, keyboard is initialized, I can enter the BIOS setup fine and make any changes I like, then save them. After that, the screen blanks and I'm left staring at a blinking cursor in the upper left corner. Nothing happens. How can I troubleshoot this and fix it? [more inside]
posted by dudeman on Aug 7, 2008 - 6 answers

Help me get past the BIOS password on a Dell Latitude. [more inside]
posted by EarBucket on Jul 6, 2007 - 12 answers

Help! My computer freezes almost instantly after power-on! [more inside]
posted by callmejay on Sep 29, 2006 - 6 answers

My SO's computer has seen better days; It won't turn on anymore. I think it's the motherboard/BIOS that's fried. [more inside]
posted by soplerfo on Apr 13, 2004 - 6 answers