Need help bad.........

[spmiz]

Have a friend that called me that is running Win 98 on a laptop with Pheonix bios. While they were in Win 98 there system locked-up and when they tried to reboot they got a "Stuck Key 43" error message and were froze there. Then they did a CTL+ALT+DEL reboot and now they just get taking right into their bios set-up screen....... CAn anyone shed any light??????

Thanks

[jamesrpm]

They might find the f8 key is stuck.
So computers boot to the bios by pressing the f8 at boot up.

[ktkendall]

I would try a new keyboard and see what happens.

[GaryRouth]

Since that's a laptop - of course you'll want to try an external. Look for a PS/2, USB, or serial port that's free in the back.

The Ami/Phoenix bios code 43 I believe refers to a step where it checks interrupts (and since the keyboard uses an interrupt: the message pretty much means what it says). If the startup had continued further, they might have seen bios codes 80 and/or 81, which test & confirm problems with stuck keys.

To get out of the bios, they can usually press the ESC key. If they've made any changes by accident, they can look for a menu "Save Defaults and Exit".

They can try turning the laptop off, unplugging it, and turning it upside down while running their hands back and forth over the keys. We do this a lot at the lab: where it's always amazing how many staples, hairpins, cookie crumbs, even paper clips fall out. If anything spilled on the keyboard, they'll want to let it dry for a few hours at least.

Best of luck
. . . Gary