Stuck at first screen "GATEWAY", can't load bios or do anything.

[JimmyDean]

I bought a Gateway 820GM last winter and have never cracked it open. It was running slugish and not opening SonicStage or iTunes but was opening folders and Mozilla. I couldn't restart so I just turned it off and when I turned it back on it shows the first screen which says "Gateway" and "<F2> to bios". It will not allow me to do anything. The only thing I have been doing different in the past few days is start using a Sony NW-HD1 walkman. I'm hoping my ram or motherboard is not corrupt. Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[Liquidlen]

Welcome to Techspot!
First if you cannot access the Bios , you may have a password to enter.Is there a request when you try or just nothing .
Next ,what exactly what were you doing or accessing? the applications that stop use a lot of memory and Temp files .
How are your Free space numbers on your HDD/s
You may just need to free up some Disk space by deleting Temp files ,Buffers and Temporary Internet files then do a Defrag.If you cannot get to Safe Mode , you might try pulling the Battery off the MB for 30 secounds then replace it, and/or Clear the Bios and enter Bios at reboot as you will have to re- do the settings,