BIOS acces gone in win7-startup - "Advanced windows" options instead

Hi!

I have a Gigabyte Laptop, with Windows 7 ultimate, and used to get a message "Press DEL to enter setup" just after my POST screen.
However, this is now gone, and i have been unable to enter my bios. The "windows starting" appears and everything else is as usual, it has been working fine, so i dont know for how long my bios have been gone.
Now, what i really want is ree-booting some USB options, since this is done in BIOS i discovered i no longer have acces during startup. I dont know if my faulty USB and the BIOS-gone-bye-bye is related...

I have edited msconfig, tried safe modes etc., disabled "Hibernate" (due to someone having my problem and seeing the message "resuming windows" instead of "starting windows", however i just dont get a message like that)

I have been adviced to clearing my CMOS but this requires acces to BIOS and BIOS is ... hiding!
WHAT I DO GET:
a black screen, white letters, a quit look at "Pheonix Trusted core... BIOS version .. system ID... 1 processer detected " ie the ususal stuff. But there is no line with "Press DEL to enter setup" it is gone!

System information tells me that my BIOS is Phoenix Technologies LTD.


Entering DEL a lot during startup (I dont think it is a fast startup, but i do not know) gives me a new black screen, white letters, and Windows Advanced options, such as running a memory scan.
This is new!!!!!!

A have spent hours searching forums: only 1 guy had my problem exactly, and this was unresolved. Someonelse had succes clearing the CMOS (i dont know how to do this with no BIOS), and someone turned his PC into smaller parts, removed the HD an booted from something else, but this is a laptop (Gigabyte) and I dont have "something else" to boot from, though mayby I can find my HD and take it out?


Can anyome guess what have happened, and how to fix this? I have had some events of "blue screen" due to RAM problems, but otherwise my laptop is only lightly used and has few other problems, though it is not new.

Hoping for help! Charlotte

It can be difficult to access the CMOS battery which requires risky disassembly on many laptops. Google shows how to do this for some models in a tutorial or video. At the least there should be something on how to remove the hard drive which might unblock access to BIOS. Look at the Manual on the PC"s SUpport Downloads webpage.

Can you access the one time BIOS Boot Menu key to see if it has a link to BIOS setup?

Hi, if there was problem with BIOS your laptop would not boot to windows. Most common buttons to get to the BIOS screen are: Delete, F2, F8, F10, F12 try them 1st as removing CMOS battery will reset your BIOS to factory default which might create other faults for you.

Hi :)
The bottom of my laptop reads "GIGABYTE model W566U" it also has a sticker with "Motorola ML3080"soooo...
one of them tells you something?
One also reads "Dual core 64bit support" - i haven't set this laptop up myself, but the harddisc and software etc is from a HD breakdown in 2011 (I think).
I only do the ordinary maintainence myself, and I have not noticed when the BIOS acces disappeared.

I do know now that the HD can be taken out! :) And there seems to be, beside the battery block, three possible "parts" of the bottom of my laptop, a small screwdriver will give me acces, but i will need to know the purpose before separating lappy into bits...!


I have tried hitting every known key and key-combination just at POST when startup, but as explained i get another screen NOT the BIOS. It says "Windows Boot Manager" white-on-black and I can choose between 2 systems, though to my knowledge there is only 1 !! .)
I think they are called "Windows 7" and "Windows 7 EX" and then below under "system tools" I can choose the memory scan.
I have tried disabeling this scan (just because maybe the problem acured after I had some blue-screen events and I ran a memory-check with windows memory tools... I think mayby some RAM is the problem since i sometimes get a blue screen during streaming of some sort, but not for browsing and not for a while though) but at this last problem-debug i did not notice that BIOS acces was gone.
I mean, there is a white-on-black screen that resembles, only the line "starting/resuming windows" is not there (dont know if it ever was there?) and the "Press DEL to enter setup" which was at the bottom is gone.

Is there some where in msconfig that I can "activate" the BIOS? I do edit msconfig regularly because all sorts of programs insest of being in the startup-rutine... Editing a delay (30sec) gives me 30 secs of the "Windows Boot manager" screen - but no BIOS!

This Question:
Can you access the one time BIOS Boot Menu key to see if it has a link to BIOS setup?

I simply dont understand, say sorry, what is it, and where do I find it? I have read the reference "one time BIOS" somewhere before, but if it is different from the ordinary BIOS, to which I have lost acces, i do not understand the distinction?
A little more help?? :)

Why do you have a WIn7 boot manager? Did you install a second copy? What happens when you choose the other listing? How does it read exactly?

What did you find when you searched for your model's disassembly videos or tutorials? What does your Manual offer when you download it from the Giga Support Downloads webpage?

Do not skip any step I give you or ask back questions to get them done, so we can proceed knowing what you've tried and the results.

Hi again

I have only 1 operating system as far as I know. In msconfig in BOOT I have the option :

Windows 7 (C:Windows) : Current OS ; Default OS.


I havent changed anything regarding the operation system, however, i have recently (and repeatedly - i tried fixing my problem with my oldest system restore... it did not help, but I got the joy of renewing my drivers for ethernet and touchpad, from first a CD and then Gigabyte homepage. However, during these reboots I did not see either BIOS screen og Windows Boot Manager screen.
Now, after messing around I get the weird boot-screen at every startup...)

The screen read verbatim (comments)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Windows Boot Manager

Choose an operating system to start, or press TAB to select a tool:
WINDOWS 7
WINDOWS 7 LOADER XE


To specify an advanced option for this choice (NB!! this is when the WINDOWS 7 is active) press F8.
Seconds until the highlighted choice will be stared automatically: 26

Tools:

Windows memory diagnostic

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have tried either choice, as far as I can see with no difference in result. If pressing F8 I get a lot og boot options, including the safe mode, "repair" "start normally" and those known from msconfig.

Doing the memoryscan just takes time, and then startup as usual...

The Gigabyte has informed med that W566U cannot work with Win7:

xxxx
The following products do not support Windows 7 operation system.

Not Support

W536M, W566N, W566U,W551N, ... etc

XXXX
Uuupss.... Maybe that will cause problems...?
However, I have had my laptop like this for years, and at some point the BIOS was accesable!


I cannot find the manual online, however, in a shoebox :) :) I have found my original Users Manual (Lets hear it for never clearing out the closet-sized 3D-littered office!) and though most is in squares and symbols, 1 part appears to be in english!! I will try the 3 re-booting options again and then separating the obvios parts and assembling everything again...

I guess, if you do not hear from me soon, lappy has gone to IT heaven! Darnit, wish I knew more about this stuff!!
PS - yes my spell checker has vanished, sorry for that, english is really not my first language and even if I *can* see a word looks wrong somehow I dont know why, all those vowel-combo-options....

Please run the Genuine Diagnostics tool (MGADiag.exe) at this link http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012. Click "Continue", click the "Copy" button then “Paste” the report into a reply message in this thread.

Yeah Succes!
I used the Manual to seperate the harddisc and to reinsert a small litle round thing with numbers on. At start-up I got a new (actually now that I saw it I remember it from berefore) blue logo-screen with "Press DEL for Utility Acces"
I caught my BIOS right away - and made the changes i wished.

At restart my laptop now shows the logo screen, you can enter BIOS or not - and all three of my USB ports now work... :) :)
Happy days!

Now, I also took out the battery, and the hard disc (and sort of dropped my CDROM on the floor) and I have eliminated all "hibernate" oppertunities including in battery settings, and in BIOS disabled the "start up from >something< source for faster start up". All this hoping that the computer actually boots alle the way up and down from a restart - now with the changes, I think this is happening.
So thanks a lot!! :) :)

However! The weird Windows Boot Mananger screen is still there, in msconfig i can only reduce the "boot time" to 3 seconds, making me wait untill itstarts up, think it was 0 before. Setting the C:Windows 7 (my one and only operating system!!) as default makes it not wait for someone to hit enter.
And can live with it, but it is weird!!

-Since I started out having no acces to BIOS, no pointing device, shady USB ports, with a portable HD that couldn't read in I guess this is a win (majority in the household wotes Ayihh).
But, if someone knows how to explicitly get rid of the wind-boot-stuff - and have some ideas for how it happened, then please chime in!

I will make a system restore point :) )