Strange BIOS tabs in setup

[spkenny]

I have a Dell computer that my customer could not boot up. Upon further investigation, I found the hard drive was failing as to the obvious and constant spinning up and stopping it was obviously doing. The customer bought a new seagate SATA 500 gb hard drive to get vista back on and the machine back up and running. After connecting the hard drive, I noticed a few strange things happening. But it's been so spiratic I havent been able to pin down a specific one, so bear with me here. A few times it froze at the hp boot screen. Other times it would run past that and boot from the vista install disc and into the beginning of the installation, only to run into a blue screen error. Most confusing of all, and my getting to my point now, is when I finally went into F10 for the bios setup to check things out. Looking at the standard Pheonix Bios screen, I noticed the tabs above read as follows:First Tab Main, Second tab Advanced, Third tab @oweb, Fourth tab Boot and the fifth tab reads Epid. Now the Epid I know is supposed to be Exit, and I have no clue what the heck @oweb is, but something is really screwed with the bios. I'm just not sure where to go next as I have NEVER seen this before.

 

[Tmagic650]

"...the hard drive was failing as to the obvious and constant spinning up and stopping it was obviously doing"...

This sounds like a failing power supply. The power supply could be affecting the bios display too. Try pulling the CMOS battery, with the computer unplugged and replacing the battery back in the motherboard, then booting the computer back up

 

[Puiu]

Just checking cuz i'm curious: did you check the hdd on a different pc to see if it was working there? it might help us understand your problem better. also try what Tmagic650 said.

(i don't recommend this) as a last resort you could try updating the bios if there is an update available.

 

[seanc]

You started with a Dell and ended up with a HP.

Which is it?

It sounds like a failing power supply, perhaps faulty RAM.

 

[spkenny]

Sorry I've been out of town guys, thank you for the responses. Still trying to wrap my head around this, so let me start by responding. It is not a power supply issue, as I have already tried replacing the system with a new one, with the same results. I went ahead and took the bios battery out for a whole day, and have put it back in. Havent tried the computer again yet. A friend told me I also need to reset the bios by looking for and adjusting a 3 pin jumper setting near where the battery is. In answer to seanc's question, I accidentally said Dell at the beginning. It is in fact an HP computer. I'm looking at all the suggestions, but I cannot see how ram would effect the bios setup looking the way I had described.

 

[Tmagic650]

The bios was reset when you pulled out the CMOS battery as long as the computer was unplugged from the wall... The jumper is a faster way of resetting the bios that's all. So faulty RAM or a failing motherboard is left... Was the CPU properly installed along with its heat-sink and fan, using a very small amount of thermal paste?

 

[seanc]

What model of HP is it?
RAM could well be the issue, if you're using onboard graphics with faulty RAM, it can result in strange lines or characters.

The other reason could be bad capacitors.

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes, "bad capacitors" on the motherboard meaning that a new motherboard is needed

 

[Tedster]

replace the PSU. You can test it with a psu tester or multimeter, but it may not be worth your time. Just replace the friggn' PSU.

 

[Gh0sTly]

My bet is also on faulty ram.