Phoenix Bios randomly appeared

I have several operating systems installed, the original being vista, which I have not booted up in at least 6 weeks. This morning when I turned my computer on, a weird never before seen(to me) screen appeared saying phoenix award bios and it proceeds to list my drives and their role along with my other hardware.

It then loads grub like normal. I have been to my bios before and it wasn't phoenix bios. This has happened every time I have booted since. What is going on and how did this get changed? Also why does it list my drives every time? I havent agreed to any updates on any os concerning my bios.

a sandwhich

Posted 2011-03-07T01:48:44.003

Reputation: 487

Answers

Likely, your BIOS is a Phoenix BIOS, and was just reconfigured to show the real text screen instead of the pretty default splash screen (sometimes called "graphical boot" or somesuch). Sysadmins tend to prefer the full details of the text screen.

If there is a malicious remote (not "evil maid") cause, then I'd be surprised, as there are too many different motherboards out there for the baddies to target just one. Are you important enough for someone to put their best hackers in the country on messing with you?

A Student at a University

Posted 2011-03-07T01:48:44.003

Reputation: 391

Hopefully not, It is just that this is strange and no updates were done recently. – a sandwhich – 2011-03-07T02:27:23.503

Maybe you pressed escape? – A Student at a University – 2011-05-12T11:53:20.347

No, I figured out that the bios got reset a little while ago as a result of some updates I accidentally agreed to. I went back and checked the update log and the bios was included. – a sandwhich – 2011-05-13T14:36:23.957

Check the system time of your machine. If it doesn't survive a reboot then your BOIS battery may need replacing. This could also cause the bios splash screen to be reset to the default (non graphic) setting.

Chris Nava

Posted 2011-03-07T01:48:44.003

Reputation: 7 009

This thing pops up after the normal bootup splashscreen. The original thing still happens, but this new thing comes inbetween it and grub – a sandwhich – 2011-03-07T04:42:37.000

1Some hard drives (circa 1998) used to add a bios patch when they were installed to allow older motherboards to access larger hard drives. If you have a built in or additional RAID controller it may do something similar. The Phoenix BOIS screen may list a hotkey that will enter an admin mode where you can disable the splash screen. – Chris Nava – 2011-03-07T04:47:08.150