VisorCentral.com - Bios Access for Dell

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Posted by Keefer Lucas on 12-01-2001 03:08 AM:

Bios Access for Dell

Can anyone clue me in on the keystroke to access the Bios on my new Dell Dimension? I have been close to ripping out my bloody hair on this one...can't find it in the documentation or in their "knowledge base". On most computers it is Ctrl, F1, or Esc on reboot. I've tried all those and still can't access the Bios.

Meanwhile I am past the 24 hour mark waiting on a reply from Dell. I am guessing my friends in the VisorCentral community can kick Dell's bullocks.

Posted by MarkEagle on 12-01-2001 03:15 AM:

Try Delete or perhaps F2

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Posted by dampeoples on 12-01-2001 03:25 AM:

Me too, man

For what it's worth, on my desktop (Compaq w/98). I played whack-a-mole on the keys to no avail, reboot and cold start. My laptop (IBM w/NT) responds to F1, go figure.

Posted by Keefer Lucas on 12-01-2001 03:42 AM:

Re: Me too, man

quote:
Originally posted by dampeoples
I played whack-a-mole on the keys to no avail, reboot and cold start.

Yeah, I did pretty much the same thing (including all the "F" keys). Felt like a freeking monkey trying to peck out the bible or something. Nothing is less fun than 15 reboots in a half hour period trying to figure out how in hell to access the Bios routine.

Posted by PlantATree on 12-02-2001 02:46 AM:

I have a Dell laptop which uses F2 to enter the bios. Try pushing it a bunch of times as soon as the computer starts rebooting. You may just be missing the short period to enter. Most of the desktops that I have used in the past used delete to enter. Try that one too.

Posted by Keefer Lucas on 12-02-2001 03:01 AM:

And the winner is...

For the record...once I finally got through to Dell....the magic key to enter the Bios on a brandy new Dimension is "Delete".

Thanks for all the educated guesses!

Posted by Toby on 12-03-2001 02:13 AM:

Re: And the winner is...

quote:
Originally posted by Keefer Lucas
For the record...once I finally got through to Dell....the magic key to enter the Bios on a brandy new Dimension is "Delete".

Thanks for all the educated guesses!

It should've shown up on the screen whenever you do a cold-boot. Just make sure that you turn the monitor on before you turn on the computer.

Posted by BEN on 12-03-2001 05:16 AM:

Some of the new computers boot up so fast that you can't see the boot screen where is says what key is used to enter the BIOS. Because most comptuer users never need to get into the BIOS, I think this is the way that this shoudl be.
Just as an aside. Some Compaq models do not allow the user to enter the BIOS. I worked on a boad one summer with MP3 computers, and this guy had a compaq, and it was finally determined that he needed a special boot disk to get into the BIOS. Stupid compaq's

BEN

Posted by GSR13 on 12-03-2001 06:03 AM:

Re: Re: And the winner is...

quote:
Originally posted by Toby
It should've shown up on the screen whenever you do a cold-boot. Just make sure that you turn the monitor on before you turn on the computer.

When you BOOT a newer DELL PC, you never see the prompt to enter the BIOS setup. Usually, the first thing you see is the DELL Logo screen pop up.

Not sure why they do this, but I do wish they told how to do it in the manual. (I have not personally checked the manual for this, I am going solely on Keefer's word that it is not included).

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Posted by imabug on 12-03-2001 02:53 PM:

Re: And the winner is...

quote:
Originally posted by Keefer Lucas
For the record...once I finally got through to Dell....the magic key to enter the Bios on a brandy new Dimension is "Delete".

Thanks for all the educated guesses!

It's F2 on my Dimension 8100.

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Posted by Keefer Lucas on 12-03-2001 03:40 PM:

Re: Re: And the winner is...

quote:
Originally posted by imabug

It's F2 on my Dimension 8100.

Then I should clarify....the boot key for a Dimension 2100 is "Delete".

Posted by Toby on 12-03-2001 03:48 PM:

Re: Re: Re: And the winner is...

quote:
Originally posted by GSR13
When you BOOT a newer DELL PC, you never see the prompt to enter the BIOS setup. Usually, the first thing you see is the DELL Logo screen pop up.

Newer than what? I've got a Dell PC that's only about a month or two old, and when that logo is visible, there' s a message in the upper right hand corner which says F2 = Setup. Granted, it's a Precision Workstation, but I'm sure that the Dimensions are similar (since I've worked on a lot of them).

quote:
Not sure why they do this,

Probably because they more than likely have 'Fast-Boot' enabled because people are always complaining about how long it takes to boot up.

quote:
but I do wish they told how to do it in the manual. (I have not personally checked the manual for this, I am going solely on Keefer's word that it is not included).

I don't know if I'd do that in this case. I'm sure that it's documented somewhere.

Posted by GSR13 on 12-03-2001 06:01 PM:

My DELL is less than a year old and at no point during BOOT does it tell how to enter the BIOS. Mine is a Dimension 4100.

My Dad just bought a DELL that is about three weeks old and his is the same way. His is a Dimension 8200.

I have multiple friends and families who have DELL's and I have set each of them up, none of them tell how to enter the BIOS.

I understand they probably have FastBOOT turned on, as none of them even show the MemoryCount.

It would be nice if they added this information in the Manual, as some people want access to the BIOS.

Why would you not include instructions in the manual? It needs to be somewhere. Alot of times if a person needs to access the BIOS, the machine is down, they certainly cannot go online and find the information. Not to mention the fact that I could not find the documentation on DELL's site anyway.

__________________
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Posted by Toby on 12-03-2001 06:33 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by GSR13
[...] I have multiple friends and families who have DELL's and I have set each of them up, none of them tell how to enter the BIOS.

My experiences differ, obviously, or I wouldn't have said so. I'm sure I've set up over 100 Dells at this point. Perhaps their 'Home user' defaults are different, though.

quote:
It would be nice if they added this information in the Manual, as some people want access to the BIOS.

Have you looked for it yet?

quote:
Why would you not include instructions in the manual? It needs to be somewhere. Alot of times if a person needs to access the BIOS, the machine is down, they certainly cannot go online and find the information.

I'm sure that they can call Dell's Tech Support number and find out in such a case.

quote:
Not to mention the fact that I could not find the documentation on DELL's site anyway.

Try this.

Posted by GSR13 on 12-03-2001 08:34 PM:

Thanks for the Link Toby. I had no luck at all finding that.

As for the manual, I personally have not looked. I am still going on Keefer's word that it is not there. I would think it would be there, just have not gotten around to checking.

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Posted by Toby on 12-03-2001 08:42 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by GSR13
Thanks for the Link Toby. I had no luck at all finding that.

It really wasn't that difficult.

quote:
As for the manual, I personally have not looked. I am still going on Keefer's word that it is not there. I would think it would be there, just have not gotten around to checking.

That was my whole point. I'm _positive_ that it's been documented in every Dell system I've ever purchased. Now, it's quite possible that Dell doesn't document it on consumer systems, but I can't see why they wouldn't. The best advice I can offer is that one should always RTFM.

Posted by Pathdoc on 12-03-2001 11:22 PM:

My 3 year old Dell Dimension system shows only the Dell logo when booting. The documentation, however, does include which key to hit (I am at work and do not remember which it is but I have done it enough when installing hardware). As people have mentioned, I suspect that they did this to prevent people who shouldn't be messing with the BIOS from knowing that they can!

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Posted by Keefer Lucas on 12-04-2001 01:47 AM:

My Word...its not just a show on NPR

Nice link Toby. I sure as hell couldn't find it during my search through the Dell Knowledge base using search terms like "Bios" and "Bios Access". On all our Dimension machines (three altogether) the Dell logo boot screen takes up the full screen...no small text like on my Gateway.

While your being so helpful Toby can you tell me why the internal ATAPI Zip drive on my my Dell won't work? I plugged the idle IDE conector cable that runs from my motherboard to my CD-ROM into the internal Zip 100 I scavanged from an old machine. Now the system recognizes the Zip drive but not the CD-ROM. Any thoughts? A Bios setting or a jumper? Its definately a motherboard level issue; it wouldn't even recognize my CD-ROM when I booted with a system disk in the A: drive.

Thanks.

Posted by GSR13 on 12-04-2001 03:28 AM:

Re: My Word...its not just a show on NPR

quote:
Originally posted by Keefer Lucas
Nice link Toby. I sure as hell couldn't find it during my search through the Dell Knowledge base using search terms like "Bios" and "Bios Access". On all our Dimension machines (three altogether) the Dell logo boot screen takes up the full screen...no small text like on my Gateway.

While your being so helpful Toby can you tell me why the internal ATAPI Zip drive on my my Dell won't work? I plugged the idle IDE conector cable that runs from my motherboard to my CD-ROM into the internal Zip 100 I scavanged from an old machine. Now the system recognizes the Zip drive but not the CD-ROM. Any thoughts? A Bios setting or a jumper? Its definately a motherboard level issue; it wouldn't even recognize my CD-ROM when I booted with a system disk in the A: drive.

Thanks.

You should have the cable going from the motherboard, to the CD-ROM and finally plugging into the ZIP drive.

The ZIP drive should be set to as the SLAVE device.

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In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Posted by Keefer Lucas on 12-04-2001 03:34 AM:

Many Tanks

Thanks GSR...I'll try that in the morning. It is set up bass akwards from that (as the CD is in the top bay and the Zip is beneath it. I can jigger the cable or reorient the drives I think.

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