If he has an external hard drive his computer could be trying to load the OS off of it.You are both wrong about bios resetting you just need to unplug the power cable, I've done it several times (it usually fixes my comp when it wont start up right. He could try to unplug his monitor and plug it back in, it's possible that one of the copper connector things is not in the correct hole. Those are actual fixes. It really just depends what's wrong with his computer.