Booting problem on HP dc7900 USFF

Well, the new cmos battery didn't do it. Setting the HDD boot order from the Boot options is the BIOS is still not sticking, every time I reboot and check it is still on the cdrom option. Whenever I restart the pc it is still showing that it wants to "boot from USB device".

 

Unfortunately the only other conclusion is the bios is "toast" and you can send the board back to have a new bios put on its not that expensive just odd they would both need this.
I wonder also if there isn't something wrong with the battery holder itself though too. I am not trying to be demeaning but after you set it to boot to say dvd drive you did hit F10 to save right?

 

Yes, i always use f10 to save and exit

 

This seems so odd we are missing something here.

 

Next would be to update bios? If so, problem is getting the update as I had initially tried the HP forums for help since I could not find it on hp's site.

 

Hey guys I found the update below, how does this work, will I need to reload my OS or lose any of my existing windows info if I run that update?

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/si...ac.admitted=1398699209767.876444892.199480143

 

Ok thanks, I'll back up just in case, get back to you.

 

Wait a minute, I have never tampered with a BIOS before, it says:

"This package contains utilities that can be used to restore or update the
system BIOS on the supported desktop models with a 786G1 BIOS.

Several methods for changing the BIOS version may be chosen. Included in this
package are the following methods:

- Use the DOS utility with a preboot execution environment (PXE) management
application to locally update or restore the system BIOS.
- Use HPQFlash to upgrade the BIOS directly in a Microsoft Windows
environment.
- Create a CD image to upgrade/restore system BIOS."

Any idea which option would be best for this?

 

I followed the intsructions and burned the iso binary file on cd and chose the Flash rom option in the bios, it showed as correctly installed but the problem still exists, does this mean it's something on the mobo? If so, why would this happen on both pc's which I got from completely different sources?

 

I know it does not sound logical nevertheless I would say both boards are bad. I can't see anything else to try.

 

I found this, will give it a shot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

 

I am trying to follow the instructions from the link above to use the /Fixboot option so I type that after typing bootrec.exe then ENTER and it is showing "not a recognizable command"? Should I be typing something else in addition to /FixBoot?

 

It's ok, i got it but I tried these 2 commands Bootrec.exe/FixBoot and Bootrec.exe/FixMbr and when I typed each of them it "immediately" showed "Operation successful" and none of them fixed the problem. Are those commands supposed to work instantly or should take a little to do it?

 

Hi Mike, straight off the top of my head, and using a little logic, I would expect them to take at least a short time for either to do its job if problems were there to be fixed. however, I can see it being quick if there are no faults, thus leaving us to say the problem must be somewhere else.
As Rich said earlier, coincidence, but both motherboards could be faulty.

 

Oh damn, I guess I will have to live with this the way it is, it's not really all that much of an issue to have to start the pc every morning by having to select the HDD in the boot option. Just that I personally always prefer that my machines work 100% problem free.

 

Mike maybe I missed something have you set the hard drive to be the first boot in order in the bios and is the bios set to let Windows or the OS manage hardware?
One thing you have to realize too is resetting the MBR is done every time you clean reinstall Windows so you already have a new MBR anyway.

 

I don't know how to begin to apologize to all of you guys here, this was all MY fault, after looking at your last post Rich, I decided to have a loooooong look at the BIOS Boot Order screen, most boot orders I have worked on in the past would normally show the f5 and f6 options to move the selection up and down but this BIOS works in a different way and specifically what I looked for this time was a way to "drag" the HDD option to the top of the list. Apparently I had misunderstood this drag option and how it works in this particular bios, what I was doing all this time was to select the HDD and hit f10 then exit saving changes which was why it wasn't sticking. So you guys still did help me crack this one, I am just so very sorry for my mistake!