Tech help
I press f2 to enter my computer's BIOS. I installed Ubuntu on a drive to see what it was like. Not interested in it, so I want to install XP again but at the bootup, I can't enter the BIOS anymore. It doesn't even give me the option to press F2 and just goes straight to GRUB.

Any ideas?
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:38, 19 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Get out more.

( girlinthehole, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:39, Reply)

I would
but I'm waiting for the courier to pick up a parcel. I need to go get some milk because I'm spitting feathers here.

and I need to go big-toilet.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:41, Reply)

Press F9
slam your face into the keyboard
go outside
( Lisette von Falcon, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:45, Reply)

but it's starting to rain

( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:46, Reply)

uh me guh
it's raining MEN
HALLELUJA
( Lisette von Falcon, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:47, Reply)

+h

( Lisette von Falcon, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:50, Reply)

raining men
would be most dangerous and messy
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:53, Reply)

dangerous and messy thrilling and sexy
( Lisette von Falcon, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 15:11, Reply)

A GRUB install shouldn't have killed your BIOS access
Try holding down F2 with it switched off then turn it on and keep holding it, hopefully that'll get you into the setup.
(bill, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:49, Reply)

tried that
the best I've managed so far is pressing Esc to enter some sort of boot menu that allows me to select the Linux equivalent of safe-mode.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:52, Reply)

Failing the above...
...it may need a PS/2 keyboard. Some BIOS doesn't like USB. Unless you're using a PS/2, in which case you may need a USB. Or something. Regardless, you need to hit it, and probably hold it, before GRUB grabs everything.
EDIT: And try holding 'Del' instead. Or F10.
ANOTHER EDIT: You can press 'Pause' on some loaders to pause the screen text. It may give you some clue.
(ThomsonsPier consumes, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:53, Reply)

wireless, yet PS/2
but it's always worked before, it goes "detecting IDE drives" whilst giving me the option to press Del to enter setup.

I don't know why I said it was F2, but either way f2 doesn't work either.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:56, Reply)

Try a wired keyboard.
If the OS hasn't successfully loaded and configured yet, it might not like the wireless keyboard. Plug a standard one in until you can make sure it's happy.
(ThomsonsPier consumes, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:58, Reply)

Surely
all this happens before the oS is even looked at.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 15:01, Reply)

You'd think so, wouldn't you?
I've had a keyboard not recognised just because I plugged it into a different USB socket. After the OS loaded and I rebooted, it worked fine.
(ThomsonsPier consumes, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 15:06, Reply)

Often a hardware change will force the machine to prompt to enter setup
If you've got enough memory in there pull a stick out temporarily and it should error on bootup and offer to enter setup.
(bill, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 15:35, Reply)

Have a wank,
then a nice cup of tea.
( Tourette's ( . )( . ) has a monkey hair in her fried egg, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 15:02, Reply)

Oh, that's your answer for *everything*

( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 15:49, Reply)

Presumably
you didn't go back into the bios ('cos you couldn't) to change the boot sequence back to HDD1-CD/DVD-Whateverelse - so you should be able to put the XP disc in the drive and have it boot from it.

Alternatively, stick with Ubuntu. You'll like it.
(dchurch bah, Sun 18 Oct 2009, 20:40, Reply)