BIOS-I can't acces it through the F Keys

The battery is ok.  I even took a photo before I closed the cover.

I'll try your other idea later this evening.

Thanks.

I have to ask if your timing of pressing F2 to enter setup is correct as if you leave it too late after powering up, you miss the boat and will have to retry at the next restart.

Doublecheck the battery to make sure it's been installed with the proper polarity. 

Also, only boot up with the keyboard and mouse plugged in and nothing else, to see if that works.

I think I'm using the same timing I've always used.  And, I have tried it about 5 times.

Thanks.

Is your keyboard an usb one?

Reset the BIOS again and see if that helps.  With the PC powered off, remove the CMOS battery for about 10 minutes.

Yes, it is.  Although I may try an older PS 2 one in a bit.

Well I tried that to no avail. I have tried rebooting a number of times, varying the times when I hit the F2 key.  I have plugged and unplugged, etc.

Interestingly enough, with the machine totally powered down and the plug pulled, nothing happened of course.  I removed the battery, waited 10 minutes, replaced the battery, closed the case, righted it and put in the power plug and the machine immediately started to reboot!  I got a window that gave the BIOS  version as 'BIOS Plus version 1.10 A 07'. along with some of the following information:

• Invalid configuration information. Please run SETUP program
• Diskette drive 0 seek failure
• Performing automatic IDE configuration
• Strike F1 to continue, F2 to run SETUP utility

So I pressed F1, and did not get to continue.  I pressed F2 and nothing happened there either.  I pressed F8 and F12 and nothing happened.  I tried the DELETE and ESC keys--no help there either.  The only way out of that screen was for me to hit the power off button.  I then restarted the machine and got the same results.  As soon as the DELL logo showed up I hit F2--still nothing. 

The machine rebooted and the time was reset to 2004.  Other than that, I can't detect any changes except the loss of hyper-threading.  I have reset and resynchronized the time but it appears that I may be at the end of the road, but it sure would be great to be able to reset my machine to hyper-threading.

Thanks for everyone's help.  I'll continue to try your suggestions and will post any success I have.

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Ta Da!—almost, but not quite.

It appeared to have been as simple as plugging in a PS/2 keyboard and then hitting the F2 key.  Apparently there is a default setting that the BIOS resets to when the CMOS battery is replaced.  I thought that setting effectively locked out my USB keyboard since I found the USB Emulator and USB Controller options toggled to OFF; they were ON before I replaced the CMOS battery—and when my USB keyboard had given me access to the BIOS settings page.  

So, I toggled them back to ON, rebooted with the PS/2 keyboard and now have access to the BIOS settings.  However, when I tried to replace the PS/2 keyboard with the USB keyboard that I had been using before the CMOS change, and had given me access to the BIOS settings, it continues to longer be able to access the BIOS.

Otherwise, I believe this issue is almost closed.  I have access to the BIOS and probably should be happy since it also frees up a USB port, but I would really like to know how to make the USB keyboard a part of the system again.  What settings should I be using?

 Again, thanks for all f the helpful suggestions.

Who knew there was a difference in USB ports and that apparently all USB ports aren’t created equally? 

This is finally over and the problem is solved.  I moved the USB plug into several ports and finally after the third repositioning and rebooting, it works.  I now have access to the BIOS page with my USB keyboard in place.

 I want to thank the responders from PCHELPFORUM, DANIWEB, the DELL Community and Microsoft Answers for help with this problem. 

Best to all.

Glad to hear that worked.