Huemruz,
I've never seen what you're talking about. What do you mean by "Stand by" mode while it's booting? I assume you mean that the screen is "black", but that is normal during boot as it proceeds through the 'POST' screen. During the boot, do you ever see a small flashing cursor in the upper left corner while the screen is black?? The BIOS setup key should be pressed when the cursor is displayed.
Normal BIOS setup keys (F1, F2, F10 for Compaqs, or the Delete key) should be pressed, once per second, during the period immediately after boot and before the log in box loads. This should cause the BIOS selection screen to load.
Hope this helps and let us know...
Grif
My monitor stays in standby mode until it gets to the password screen for windows. I want to be able to see my bios. Any ideas how to fix this? I have a samsung syncmaster 900sl running xp on an asus p4s533 board and a raedeon 9000 pro graphics card
Thanks

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic