F8 function not working on reboot

luckylucky

I'm trying to start my XP PC in safe mode, but though I'm tapping F8 like a lunatic as soon as the pc reboots it's not working after several runs. I need to start in Safe mode in order to remove Win32/Gaelicum.A worm.

Anyone have any ideas why F8 isn't working?
thanks for any help.

Anti

Not all machines use f8 ya know. Try f9 f10 and f11 and f12. Or to be 100% safe check your motherboard manual.

youcancallmeal

Try F2 and the Delete button as well. In fact usually if it doesnt work for me I just do a keyboard mash and that does the trick. Failing that click on start then run and type msconfig. On the boot tab tick the safeboot option and next you reboot it should be in safemode

luckylucky

Cheers for the replies lads. I've finally managed to get in, F8 turned out to be the right key from my motherboard which is a p4c800 e-deluxe. I went into my computer's bios settings and just as hunch I disabled the quick boot option, then F8 finally worked . now hopefully this utility i got will stop this friggin worm

ressem

Windows safe mode should be F8 on all PCs. He's not taking about Bios / restore combinations.

Can you run Start/ Run/ Msconfig from windows. Then choose diagnostic startup from the general menu. This will have the same effect.

--edit: Oops too late --

Anti

ressem wrote:

Windows safe mode should be F8 on all PCs. He's not taking about Bios / restore combinations.

Can you run Start/ Run/ Msconfig from windows. Then choose diagnostic startup from the general menu. This will have the same effect.

--edit: Oops too late --

You are wrong, Most standard pc's use f8 for the windows options. But Quite alot of pc's especially branded pc's like PB,HP,SONY,TOSHIBA,COMPAQ use alternate keys.

Dorsanty

It's F8 all the way for the windows boot options. You don't seriously think MS would have different keys on different comps for the boot options do you. Would drive system administrators crazy.

It is the case that different BIOS do use different keys for menu / boot options / others. Look out for the quick little prompts on screen at boot time for 'Press X to enter blah menu'. Although some BIOS don't show anything because they'd rather have a big Logo on screen. But that can be disabled on the half decent ones.

One problem I've experienced with getting F8 to work is due to my wireless keyboard. Sometimes it can lock up at the BIOS level and so the system doesn't see me pressing the key. So have to pull the bluetooth dongle and press connect on both the dongle and the keyboard to get it working again.

A little tip, although it's not the best way. If you need to get into the windows boot options but can't get them to come up. Let windows begin to boot and then hit reset. When it comes up next time it'll complain that windows didn't start normally last time and offer you the options or safe mode etc.

ethernet

luckylucky wrote:

I'm trying to start my XP PC in safe mode, but though I'm tapping F8 like a lunatic as soon as the pc reboots it's not working after several runs. I need to start in Safe mode in order to remove Win32/Gaelicum.A worm.

Anyone have any ideas why F8 isn't working?
thanks for any help.

If you're using a Dell machine, that could be why. The BIOS on some machines stops the keyboard and mouse from working until the OS boots. It's a pain. Still hasn't been fixed and the latest BIOS is frying a lot of machines.

If you're using a USB keyboard, make sure you've enabled support for USB keyboards in the BIOS also.

Anti

Dorsanty wrote:

It's F8 all the way for the windows boot options. You don't seriously think MS would have different keys on different comps for the boot options do you. Would drive system administrators crazy.

It is the case that different BIOS do use different keys for menu / boot options / others. Look out for the quick little prompts on screen at boot time for 'Press X to enter blah menu'. Although some BIOS don't show anything because they'd rather have a big Logo on screen. But that can be disabled on the half decent ones.

One problem I've experienced with getting F8 to work is due to my wireless keyboard. Sometimes it can lock up at the BIOS level and so the system doesn't see me pressing the key. So have to pull the bluetooth dongle and press connect on both the dongle and the keyboard to get it working again.

A little tip, although it's not the best way. If you need to get into the windows boot options but can't get them to come up. Let windows begin to boot and then hit reset. When it comes up next time it'll complain that windows didn't start normally last time and offer you the options or safe mode etc.

Thats what i was trying to say. Not all pc's laptops use f8. Sometimes it different. And its nothing to do with microsoft, its the bios installed. I one had a gigabyte board that used alt+f10 to get into the boot options. The missu's dell is fn+f12.

Dorsanty

Anti wrote:

Thats what i was trying to say. Not all pc's laptops use f8. Sometimes it different. And its nothing to do with microsoft, its the bios installed. I one had a gigabyte board that used alt+f10 to get into the boot options. The missu's dell is fn+f12.

That's cool. People just getting confused on how to distinguish between the BIOS boot options and the windows boot options.