multimedia PC reformat

[Mainframeguy]

Hello - long time no post.

I am just wondering about reformatting for a friend of mine...

Thing is they have this freaky Acer that is a multimedia beast with FM radio and TV built in as well as PC.... They mainly just use it as a PC though.

Anyway - just curious if I reformat will the dial up facilities that are built in pre-boot to go direct to the media centres still operate or be lost? I think they seem to be BIOS driven and not anyway near the XP OS since they seem to come up without showing the POST screen.

But could I be wrong?

not sure fo make and model - but it's a P4 3.2GHz

 

[falconguard]

That should just be an add-in card that you should be able to see when you do re-install.

Even if it is not an add-in the reformat should not hurt it.

 

[Mainframeguy]

thanks falcon - as a follow up which I may make new thread elsewhere - I turned on BIOS option to detect MBR writing activity and it is happening every POST... is that part of this setup? I ask because there were a number of VIRII on the machine when I reached it (all gone now I hope!)

 

[LordOfLA]

you want to disable MBR protection in the bios. windows will trigger that like its gone out of fashion 🙂

 

[Mainframeguy]

you want to disable MBR protection in the bios. windows will trigger that like its gone out of fashion 🙂

done it - was a right pain - but wanted to know why? Didn't USED to do that and this is XP we are talking not Vista...

 

[LordOfLA]

XP always writes to the MBR when it boots. No idea why though.