Re: boot process glitch due to missing 2nd disk

Stephen Harris <lists@xxxxxxxxxx> · Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:50:39 -0400

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 03:31:48PM -0400, m.roth@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> This is not a "Dell-specific BIOS hack". Dear child, ask your folks about
> PCs. I think it was only this decade that PCs would actually boot

This decade being the 2010s? :-)

> *without* a keyboard. EVERY PC EVER MADE before would not.

It's true that really old PCs couldn't boot without a keyboard which
lead to the joke
  "Keyboard missing.  Press F1 to continue"

However the change to the hardware to allow a keyboardless boot came in
a lot longer than a decade ago.  It might have been with the 386 based
hardware, but I really can't remember.  I know I had a PC built in the
90s which has a BIOS option to halt on all errors, or halt on all errors
except keyboard.

Here's a PDF from 1998 showing the option
  http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/luckytech/P6BX2.pdf

I'm sure sufficient googling would find even older examples.

Of course modern PCs may not even _have_ a keyboard port; USB only!

-- 

rgds
Stephen
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