accessing the BIOS

Hi,
I rescued a decommissioned Compaq Deskpro En from the junkheap. After powering the PC on, the first screen asks for the Power-on Password. F10 for BIOS and F12 for Setup is flashed for an instant, however the system does not respond when pressing F10 nor F12 for any duration of time. Can not access the BIOS. Can not get past the Power-on Password screen--does anyone have any suggestions? The PC is running Win 98. Placing a Win 2000 boot CD does not have any effect. Thanks.

Try a different type of keyboad connector incase its not picking up the keyboard ie instead of using ps2 try usb and vice versa

Depending on the current BIOS settings (which you cannot access of course!), USB keyboards may not be recognised during the POST, so I would take GTM's advice. Also you may want to try clearing the BIOS. This will get rid of any BIOS passwords and restore the BIOS to its default settings. You can do this either by using the "Clear CMOS" jumpers on your motherboard or by removing the battery for about 30 mins (with the power cable removed).

Thanks. I removed the battery and was able to enter the BIOS. Thanks.

Glad to hear it's OK now.