Tech Support for Tech Support

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

(Explination: I worked as Tech Support at Mount Sinai Medical Center this summer, and this problem stumped even me.)My system: Stock Dell Dimension L433c (Intel processor) with Windows 98.My problem: The computer doesn't allow access to the BIOS setup utility. That, or it doesn't even have it. I want to run a Live CD to install a new OS, but it isn't set to boot from CD. I've got a MS-DOS boot disk floppy at my disposal, and not much else. Can anyone give me a hand?

[Fax Celestis]

Well, you could try halting the boot process...I think on Dell's it's F4 or F8 during boot...maybe del.Doing that would grant you access to the setup util, the one installed on the motherboard. Blindness Is A Blessing

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

Tried it.Not surprisingly, five minutes after I posted this I figured it out. Temporarily disconnecting the hard drive forces the computer to boot from the next device on the boot list, which (in this case) would be the CD-Rom drive. Thanks anyway, though.

[Fax Celestis]

Oh, jesus, going back to the tech support stone age, eh? Blindness Is A Blessing

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

It's like the Beach Commander of Section F always says: "Anything electrical or mechanical, always give it a good whack"

[Ari Rahikkala]

Back when I installed Gentoo on my own computer, I used a floppy disk with grub (and its netboot capability) and pulled everything from another computer with TFTP. I expect nothing less from you . Jag har glömt hur pjäserna stod!