Hitting F12 or "Enter" to start the PC

Biggins

I'm currently trying to fix a friends pc.
In order to start their pc they have to either press F12 after they press the switch on or press "enter" twice!

I'm told it wasn't always this way.
Have checked the BIOS setup and all the settings I can find related to the keyboard.
Has anyone ever come across this problem and if so, how do I fix it?

The Machine ia Sony Vaio - Running Xp.

spurious

What is the boot order in BIOS?
Are all the devices enabled?

Biggins

Cheers for replying

Harddrive is selected as the first boot up option.
Was the third so I moved it to the first to see if that would help. No joy!

All devices are enabled. The BIOS setup for the VIAO is pretty basic. Not much to change around.

snappieT

Its possible the motherboard battery has died. When the system boots up, it'll look for BIOS settings, not find them (since they're volatile and need a battery), and ask you to press F12 or Enter to confirm that this is OK and continue the boot.
Is the system clock messed up (this would be a good indicator)

Gadgetman496

Check the Boot.ini file too.

If it has an entry from an earlier install of the OS? the Viao thinks it has two OS's installed & gives the F12 option in order for you to choose which OS to boot into.

Even though you might have only one installation now, the startup line from an earlier install may need to be removed.


START
Right click My Computer
Properties
Advanced (TAB)
Click the "Settings" button under Startup & Recovery
Click the "Edit" button.


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Biggins

Thanks for both suggestions also. I will check out both in the morning and say if successful.

UPDATE:

The Boot.ini looks standard

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Clock seems fine. I am stumped!

Gadgetman496

Some systems (most newer Dell's) have an F key option built into the BIOS which gives the user the option at startup to choose which device to boot from (Alongside the boot order section in the BIOS itself). It's handy for example, if you had your system set to boot from the hard drive first in the BIOS & for whatever reason you needed the system to boot from the CD, you can choose at startup rather than having to go into the BIOS to change it.

Are you sure that there is no such option in the Viao BIOS?

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Gadgetman496

Just another thought,

Some of the Viao's have a function to enable Hibernation, I think the key strokes are FN + F12 (Function key plus the F12 key).

I wonder if it could be something that was enabled using the FN key?

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Biggins

I've been through the BIOS at least 12 times now studying everything, every setting (what few there is). There is nothing that relates to the pressing of the F12 button.

I've previously turned off the Hibernation feature and its still occuring.

I turn the pc on, it boots up for a few seconds (black screen all the time) then pauses with a black screen still. Its at this stage that I have to press "Enter" twice or hit the F12 key.
I have been through windows many, many times for any new/old settings, any other third party software that might be doing it, checked all startup apps (in regedit too) and can still find nothing.
I am still stumped!