A couple of items to consider:
1) The CMOS reset jumper is in the reset position instead of the normal position
2) Try resetting the CMOS with the jumper
3) Remove the CMOS battery for a few hours to also reset the BIOS
4) BIOS is bad (warranty issue)
i'm building a computer for the first time and either i'm ******** or something is wrong. so far my system consists of: a Gigabyte 8IK1100 mobo, P4 2.8GHz (800MHz FSB, 512K) CPU, 2x256MB DDR PC-3200 Kingston memory, Gigabyte Radeon 9200SE (128MB) video card, WD HDD, and a generic CD drive. everything appears to be connected properly. so here's the problem... when i fire it up and the setup screen comes up i hit 'del' to enter the BIOS setup and then nothing happens. the "preparing to enter setup" message appears at the bottom but nothing happens after that. i've waited as long as 10 minutes a couple times and still nothing happens. if i don't hit 'del' to enter the BIOS setup it will show the IDE drives detection but go no further. by all appearances the system is freezing up, so to speak. what is going on here? this is driving me nuts.

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic