Q: I just installed a video card and my speakers stopped working. I called up a friend that knows his stuff, we ran through some small procedures that didn't work and he told me the problem lies in BIOS. I have a Compaq Presario SR1403WM. I have Windows XP. If someone could tell me how to fix my speakers through BIOS that would be great.
A: Well, I can't actually tell you how to fix your speakers through your bios, but I can answer you original question on, "How do I access the BIOS?" As you boot your system, at the manufacturers splash logo, hit the key that was displayed to prompt on how to enter your bios. This key is the Delete key on my system, but it could be another one on yours, such as the F11, or even the Escape key. The trick is to look at your screen as you boot, and a message will appear that will say something like: To enter bios press Del To enter boot sequence press F11 As I said, your keys may be different than my keys. It all depends on your manufacturer and which Motherboard they used for your system. If you do not see this message displayed on the screen it would be odd, because they usually do unless and until somebody enters the bios and changes which of these messages are displayed during boot. Both, one or none are the options within the bios on each motherboard. It should be there, but will stay on screen for perhaps all of five seconds. So, watch closely in order to catch it before boot continues its merry way. You can always go to your manufacturers user forums and receive assistance with your speaker issue, or once you are in the bios perhaps your friend can walk you through as he did in the troubleshooting steps. You may simply need to disable the onboard video in order to get your add-on card working properly. Good luck and please have a nice day.