Headless, Getting Past "Start Windows Normally"

Running headless, every so often a PC will abend and, upon restart, get
hung on the character-based screen that notes the abend and asks if one
wants to start Windows normally.

So far, I have always had to hook up a monitor/keyboard, confirm the
situation, and hit Enter.

Seems like that prompt should have a timeout associated with it and
default to "Open Windows normally"..... in fact, I even think I have
seen it.

But I'm not seeing it now.

Can anybody elucidate?
--
Pete Cresswell

On 10/25/2016 01:49 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Running headless, every so often a PC will abend and, upon restart, get
hung on the character-based screen that notes the abend and asks if one
wants to start Windows normally.

So far, I have always had to hook up a monitor/keyboard, confirm the
situation, and hit Enter.

Seems like that prompt should have a timeout associated with it and
default to "Open Windows normally"..... in fact, I even think I have
seen it.

But I'm not seeing it now.

Can anybody elucidate?


Do you have a BIOS setting where you an tell it not to stop on
a keyboard error?

On 10/25/2016 5:34 PM, T wrote:
On 10/25/2016 01:49 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Running headless, every so often a PC will abend and, upon restart, get
hung on the character-based screen that notes the abend and asks if one
wants to start Windows normally.

So far, I have always had to hook up a monitor/keyboard, confirm the
situation, and hit Enter.

Seems like that prompt should have a timeout associated with it and
default to "Open Windows normally"..... in fact, I even think I have
seen it.

But I'm not seeing it now.

Can anybody elucidate?


Do you have a BIOS setting where you an tell it not to stop on
a keyboard error?
msconfig - possibly under the boot options.
No boot GUI or the timeout option?

On 10/25/2016 05:08 PM, GlowingBlueMist wrote:
On 10/25/2016 5:34 PM, T wrote:
On 10/25/2016 01:49 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Running headless, every so often a PC will abend and, upon restart, get
hung on the character-based screen that notes the abend and asks if one
wants to start Windows normally.

So far, I have always had to hook up a monitor/keyboard, confirm the
situation, and hit Enter.

Seems like that prompt should have a timeout associated with it and
default to "Open Windows normally"..... in fact, I even think I have
seen it.

But I'm not seeing it now.

Can anybody elucidate?


Do you have a BIOS setting where you an tell it not to stop on
a keyboard error?

msconfig - possibly under the boot options.
No boot GUI or the timeout option?

I see a lot of headless Windows servers out there.
For the time/money they waste hunting down a keyboard,
mouse and monitor or trying to configure Terminal
Services, they could have just bought a cheap monitor
and keyboard and just left them powered off.

Whenever I sell a server OF ANY OS, they always come with
a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. (Usually cheap ones.)

On Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:46:49 -0700, T wrote:

I see a lot of headless Windows servers out there.
For the time/money they waste hunting down a keyboard, mouse and monitor
or trying to configure Terminal Services, they could have just bought a
cheap monitor and keyboard and just left them powered off.

Or else invest in a KVM switch. Of course, the downside of that is that
the servers have to be within USB/PS2 cable distance of your desk, rather
than in the attic or a cupboard somewhere completely out of the way.

I had a cheap Belkin home KVM switch for years, but it died a year or two
back - the standard bulging capacitor failure; I keep meaning to try to
repair it, but the nearest Maplins is 75 miles away and last time I was in
town I forgot. To replace it, I bought 3 used Belkin Omniview Pros as a
job lot for £40 via eBay, and one of those has been working very well ever
since. At the time, I thought I'd keep the other two as spares, but now
that the current arrangement has stood the test of so much time, I suppose
I could put them back on eBay and sell them on.

--
Please reply to newsgroup

Per T:

Do you have a BIOS setting where you an tell it not to stop on
a keyboard error?

Been through the BIOS menus a couple of times and haven't found anything
yet.... doesn't mean it's not hiding somewhere....

Why? Maybe Windows looks at such a setting/situation and tailors the
"Restart" prompt accordingly?
--
Pete Cresswell

On 10/26/2016 09:53 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per T:

Do you have a BIOS setting where you an tell it not to stop on
a keyboard error?

Been through the BIOS menus a couple of times and haven't found anything
yet.... doesn't mean it's not hiding somewhere....

Why? Maybe Windows looks at such a setting/situation and tailors the
"Restart" prompt accordingly?



Mine (Supermicro X8SAX) is under

-- Advanced
-- Boot Feature
-- Wait for "F1" if error

It is the same screen where you set Num Locks on

T wrote:
On 10/26/2016 09:53 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per T:

Do you have a BIOS setting where you an tell it not to stop on
a keyboard error?

Been through the BIOS menus a couple of times and haven't found anything
yet.... doesn't mean it's not hiding somewhere....

Why? Maybe Windows looks at such a setting/situation and tailors the
"Restart" prompt accordingly?



Mine (Supermicro X8SAX) is under

-- Advanced
-- Boot Feature
-- Wait for "F1" if error

It is the same screen where you set Num Locks on

Halt On: No Error

in the BIOS, has nothing to do with behavior of
Windows at all. It's purely a BIOS function.

On one of my setups, the CPU fan speed was slightly
under 1800RPM when the machine was "cold". And the
stupid BIOS would flag the CPU fan as too slow and
wait for F1. By using Halt On: No Error, it
would fly right past the fan check and boot
into Windows.

While maybe you could write code to read some
info from the BIOS, I doubt they'd do that.

The flag for "halt on no error" is actually
in a standard location. At least, on an AMI BIOS.

http://bochs.sourceforge.net/techspe...-reference.txt

1 request F1 keypress on boot error

I think you can tell from the state of that page,
just how hard this would be to get right.

Paul