mystery box

[Dunadan1821]

I dont know if this is the right place to post this but I couldn't think of a better one...

I just was givin an old desktop computer. I dont know anything about it. I booted it up for the first time and once the bios did its memory test it goes to a blank screen. The only thing on it is a skeleton key looking symbol. No keys work except when I press enter. When I do that it spaces one line down and shows the same symbol exept its slightly larger and has an X striken through it. It repeats this 2 symbol display, one then the other, 3 times and then shows a * and all the keys go dead. I have no idea what this means!...

 

[bobojuice]

DOS??

 

[Dunadan1821]

could be...i really dont know. it just talks about its compaque bios.

 

[derrmc]

Use your standard setup keys to enter bios, to see what you have. use a dos or 95 boot disk to see what you have

 

[Dunadan1821]

there is no way to enter it. how do i get a boot disk? would that help me? i tryed to have it boot a cd of a linux distro but annaconda would not load. the screen just did the same as i explained above.

 

[derrmc]

did you try f10,f1,f2,del,ctrl-alt-enter as it was first booting?

Go to bootdisk.com and get any boot disk you need

 

[Dunadan1821]

none of those keys worked. the only thing about a boot disk is i have no idea what os, or version of, it is running.

 

[derrmc]

I would try a win 95 boot disk and see what happens