Finding the name of my BIOS

aquabat

My friend is having trouble formatting his laptop. We're getting the 'this version of XP is too old' shit, and so we're trying to edit the boot sequence. Pressing F8 doesnt bring up any options to edit the boot sequence, other than entering safe mode etc.

Im thinking if we can find out the name of the BIOS we can find out more information about it, but we cant seem to see it when it boots up.

TL;DR: Findy BIOS name in XP, help?

embrik

When you see a BIOS splash screen on boot(even if you don't see one), try hitting other keys. F1, F2, F9, F10,F12 are all common. Also try the delete key, insert key and lastly Ctrl+Alt+Enter (not common).

Just try any of those keys. If it starts booting XP, try again on power up until you get it.

focused7

Who is the manufacture of the laptop?

Fristle

http://www.gtopala.com/

System Information for Windows (SIW) -- this will tell you everything about the BIOS.

Example output (from a system here):

Property Value
BIOS Version IBM - 3066
Phoenix FirstBIOS(tm) Notebook Pro Version 2.0 for IBM ThinkPad
Ver 1.00PARTTBL
BIOS Date 06/18/04
BIOS Vendor IBM
Version 1RETCDWW (3.06f)
Release 06/18/2004
BIOS Size 1024 KB
Characteristics - supports AGP
- supports legacy USB
- supports ACPI
- supports INT 10 CGA/Mono video services
- supports INT 17 printer services
- supports INT 14 serial services
- supports INT 09 and 8042 keyboard services
- supports INT 05 print-screen
- supports INT 13 3.5-inch/720K floppy services
- supports Enhanced Disk Drive specification
- supports selectable boot
- supports booting from CD-ROM
- ESCD support is available
- allows BIOS shadowing
- upgradeable (Flash) BIOS
- supports APM
- supports Plug-and-Play
- supports PC Card (PCMCIA)
- supports PCI


DMI Version 2.33 @000F6D80