reset bios in setup, now have constant noise in speakers

brothers computer...was installing directx 8 and computer locked up. ctrl/alt/del and went into setup. He suggested I reset the Bios to "default". Now there is a constant "WA WA WA WA" on speakers and no other sound. When I open volume control there are 4 green bars on wave balance. Board has MVP3. Can find no conflicts in control panel. This has happened before and he got rid of it by reloading windows...didn't work this time. Running windows 98. It also always goes to the screen on startup of selection for "safe mode, normal, dos, step confirmation". This may be unrelated....

 

The startup menu may be appearing because it is enabled. To check, go to start, run msconfig and click on "advanced". Uncheck "enable startup menu" if it is checked.

If it is not, then the problem could be the winbootng file discussed in this MS thread....

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q143283

About the sound problem I'm clueless, but you might try removing and reinstalling the sound card.

 

Thanks, that solved the problem of the window opening on startup. Now if I can get the sound working I'll be all set

 

The sound card may require an IRQ reserved for it in the BIOS; this is often IRQ5. If it's an installed card, sometimes changing the slot will set things right, but you don't want it next to the AGP slot.

Also be sure the VIA 4in1 driver set is installed for the motherboard.