WHEW! Got the CMOS battery (2/$5) and its now installed. Could not get into the BIOS to re-order those preference using the same keys as B4. Went to using the Delete Key and that worked. Thanks, YouTube! The sequential order is set up in the order you specified. Just FYI, I let windows boot up once with that sequence set up. It opened the same loop window. Not know if that's all good or bad. So what do you suggest now? Sure appreciate you sticking with me on this one.
This time, boot with the recovery DVD in the drive. Open the DVD drive, then power off, before booting. And watch for the prompt to "Hit any key to boot from the CD".
Dang! Upon pressing F2 quickly after powering on, the screen after some time just opens with a blinking cursor line at the top left and just stays there blinking away. Tried several times.
Whats up you think?
Why did you press F2 quickly after powering on? You aren't trying to get into the BIOS, you're trying to boot from the DVD.
Power down, then power up with the recovery DVD in the drive. Don't press any key till you see the message "Press any key to boot from the CD". Press any key immediately at that point, but not before.
Sorry, when you said "boot" I did not think you meant just "power up". I had just been in the bios menu so was thinking about that. Onwards and upwards now, Jim
The best and most complete boot is when you power down and then power up. Since we want to make sure that this goes right, that's why I suggested that you power down then up.
In other words, we want to start this process from square one. The only way to make sure you are restarting EVERYTHING is to power down then power up. When you do that, EVERYTHING starts at square one; nothing is still hanging around from the previous session.
Powered down and the up with dvd inserted. did not get any "Press any key to boot from the CD" msg. Just a small white blinking curser at the top right and once in a while clicking-click like somethings trying to engage then backs out. Just in case, at that point I double check the bios order. It was still in the perfect position like you directed. .....go figure, eh?
I believe F8 will give you a boot menu -- in other words, will let you pick the boot device. Try tapping the F8 key several times immediately after the Gateway splash screen disappears.
I'm not sure if this has been suggested, but you might have a bad hard drive. Do you have a spare hard drive to test this possibility? Since the computer is a bit old, it would be a good time to replace the hard drive anyway, because doing so will give you a bigger and faster drive, and it will reset the failure clock back to zero.
In fact, you could probably buy a small hard drive (+/- 500 GB) at Walmart, and try to do the factory restore to the new drive. If the computer acts the same way with a new drive as with the current drive, then you know it wasn't the hard drive, and Walmart will probably let you return the drive and get your money back. Office Depot is another store which will probably let you return the drive, no questions asked, if the drive wasn't the problem; and Office Depot will have a better selection of internal hard drives than Walmart.
...or, you may have a bad motherboard, in which case you might as well buy a new computer. Or take a chance on a refurb computer from a place like Walmart.com. The reason I suggest Walmart.com is because if the refurb is bad, you can bring it back to your local Walmart and get your money back. Just make sure that Walmart is listed as the vendor when you make your selection, because Walmart.com sells products from other vendors as well; and Walmart won't give you the money back if you bought it from another vendor.
ok will do. The F8 that is. FYI, when a sound problem with my Logitech headphones surfaced with the special program for that really hard to locate and I could not find then, I did a recovery from the gateway program already installed (not the dvd). Did not have any boot problems before that. Just opened and work. Each pc has been used for about the same approximant time since later 2013 and early 2014. Thus the hard drives to my way of thinking should be in pretty good shape due to the amount of usage.
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