66
votes
Accepted
I accidentally inserted RAM while PC was booting up! Worst case scenario?
I'd have just taken a deep breath… and booted it again to see if it worked. You kind of skipped the simplest test & ran for the full paranoia.
If something's fried you find out right away. If it's ...
- 43k
20
votes
I accidentally inserted RAM while PC was booting up! Worst case scenario?
You're fine. And lucky.
If something had gotten damaged, it would not get past the BIOS. If things would've broken, it would either be the RAM chip itself or the motherboard.
Both will cause error ...
- 57.5k
18
votes
Accepted
Dual Boot between Win 7 and Win 11
After a few hours of research, I found a solution! I'm going to describe what I did to help someone in the future.
In BIOS, I changed the boot option to 'UEFI (WITH CSM)
The "system reserved&...
- 271
18
votes
How do I back up a boot floppy from a Philips P3120?
I suspect that there is another partition in diskette (as boot partition)
There are no partitions on the floppy, but a floppy can contain a boot sector and a reserved area. You need to copy that, too....
- 16.2k
14
votes
Accepted
Can updating drivers cause Power surges
Did updating the driver cause his system to die spectacularly
No. That is entirely unlikely (99.5 plus %).
Some other event, some other power surge, coincidence, bad luck will have caused this.
...
- 41.7k
14
votes
Accepted
How to recover files from a dead SSD?
I understand that I might be in a situation that I need a professional
to try recovering data. But what I would like to know, for my
edification, is what exactly would a professional do?
The 'pro'
...
- 2,150
12
votes
Accepted
"It looks like Windows didn't load correctly" after power loss
To avoid Windows being notified of a power-loss condition, try this:
Run an elevated Command Prompt (CMD Run as administrator)
In the command window, enter the following command :
bcdedit /set {...
- 431k
9
votes
I accidentally inserted RAM while PC was booting up! Worst case scenario?
There isn't any guarantee that your RAM is fine at this point simply because it's booting.
Burn a CD or USB of memtest, boot your computer off of it and run it overnight. If there aren't any errors, ...
- 240
7
votes
Which version of Windows 10 is on my USB flash drive installer?
There is a Microsoft support article that addresses this issue:
Version and build number are reported incorrectly after you build a new Windows Image file
We are working to simplify this procedure ...
- 11.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Which version of Windows 10 is on my USB flash drive installer?
@w32h, very close - it's true for 20H2, 21H1, and 21H2:
Windows 10, versions 2004, 20H2, 21H1, and 21H2 share a common core operating system with an identical set of system files. Therefore, the new ...
- 743
7
votes
Can updating drivers cause Power surges
No, updating the driver did not cause the problem. The PSU just went bad. As you mentioned that it's a pre-built check the warranty. If it's still in warranty send the machine back to the seller and ...
- 175
7
votes
How do I back up a boot floppy from a Philips P3120?
Backups of bootable floppy disks should be done by imaging the entire disk (creating what is essentially an .iso file...minus the ISO9660 part) – RawWrite was a popular Windows tool in the past. If ...
- 401k
6
votes
Accepted
Kiosk embedded computer: hide as much as possible before the app starts in Windows
A simple workaround is to connect 2 monitors. The primary monitor, the one that displays the BIOS screen etc, should be hidden (or fake!) so that users cannot see it.
You can buy a "display ...
- 4,028
5
votes
Accepted
Pre-Boot BIOS Setup Power Setting/Warning
According to the manual, you can find the option under POST Behavior. It is called Adapter Warnings and should be at the very top in this menu.
On my Dell Precision 5560, the menu is called Pre-boot ...
- 57k
5
votes
Data recovery from a crashed hard disk
Booting from a pen drive is the way to go.
If I were doing it I would get a second disk that is the same size or larger then the failing disk, then use a USB pen drive to boot a Linux distro and use ...
- 66.5k
5
votes
Dual Boot between Win 7 and Win 11
Your Windows 7 version used BIOS+MBR and was a 32-bit version.
Windows 11 is 64-bit and is incompatible with MBR, so you converted the
disk to UEFI+GPT. This rendered the Windows 7 version unbootable.
...
- 431k
5
votes
Boot a legacy BIOS OS on a GPT mass memory?
It is actually possible to have MBR boot code on GPT-partitioned disks – the 0th sector remains reserved specifically to hold a "protective MBR" which can still hold BIOS boot code like ...
- 401k
5
votes
Accepted
How is the BIOS name of a bootable hard drive created (and can it be changed)?
“…with the firmware name of the hard drive in parentheses…”
Nope. That is not firmware name. That is the drive model number.
That name can be distilled to simply ST1000LX015 which basically means ...
- 51.6k
4
votes
How does the video BIOS fit in the boot process?
I had exactly the same misunderstanding while reading exactly the same Wikipedia page a time ago, so I wanted to answer this question even 2 years later.
Does that mean that the rest of the boot ...
4
votes
Accepted
Disallow changing boot option and bash-like command line in grub
Is there any way to block them from changing or having a command line in grub?
You can set and then encrypt a grub password:
Use grub password command in grub.conf
/boot/grub/grub.conf contains ...
- 149k
4
votes
How to start a computer that has been off for years
After 11 years and five of those unplugged, the CMOS battery (the coin cell on the motherboard - usually a CR2032) is most likely drained, meaning the BIOS settings are lost.
This is not a problem per ...
- 1,552
4
votes
Accepted
How does UEFI know which bootloader configuration to use
UEFI is system firmware and GRUB is a bootloader built to conform to the firmware.
GRUB with BIOS takes the form of boot code inside the MBR and before
the first partition. With UEFI, GRUB can take ...
- 431k
4
votes
How do I back up a boot floppy from a Philips P3120?
How to create a bootable floppy in old MS-DOS
Ref: https://kb.iu.edu/d/adav
From the DOS prompt of the actual DOS, or a compatible one:
c:\> format a: /s - would format the disk (=erase its ...
- 8,336
4
votes
Accepted
Windows 10 (1909) BSOD on boot, and can't login in Safe Mode - what options do I have?
You don't know the password. PIN does not work for you.
Restore from USB stick did not work and Windows won't run.
The only recourse now is to reinstall Windows fresh. You need to check your disk ...
- 41.7k
4
votes
Gigabyte Motherboard : black screen, inspite of single beep and responding keyboard
I looked into the manual on page 25 and there is an "Initial Display Output" setting in the BIOS. The default is "PCIe 1 Slot".
So you might think if a graphics card is not found ...
- 1,113
3
votes
Arch Linux boots differently from internal DVD drive than external USB?
"Reboot into firmware" uses UEFI runtime features, which are inaccessible when the system has been booted in legacy mode. (Specifically, it sets the 'OsIndications' EFI variable.)
Official ...
- 401k
3
votes
Accepted
Why is the boot partition missing for Windows XP installation?
XP will not run natively (that is, boot and run) on a new and modern system. It is too old in terms of technology.
Run it as a Virtual Machine instead. I do that and have a working XP machine here.
...
- 41.7k
3
votes
I accidentally inserted RAM while PC was booting up! Worst case scenario?
Stop worrying.
If you'd fried something, you'd know about it. The damage from plugging something in whilst the system is powered generally comes from a short when the wrong pins make contact, this isn'...
- 277
3
votes
How do I back up a boot floppy from a Philips P3120?
Finally I found a solution.
As I said the operating system is a custom DOS. The diskette doesn't boot but I copied the files via Windows file manager. The important file is an exe.
I booted a Windows ...
- 107
3
votes
System randomly gets stuck on Asus logo
Intermittent problems are a pain. Since it gets stuck at POST/BIOS/UEFI & because of the ME FW (intel Management Engine FirmWare) message I suspect its something low-level (aka likely not Windows) ...
- 5,404
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