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Does the Dell Inspiron have a built-in boot menu?
Every time I reboot I keep pressing F2 the entire time the Dell logo stays on screen to try to get to the System Setup menu, but it never works. The owner's manual says an F2 prompt will appear, but it never does, and even if it did, I wouldn't be able to press it in time due to my slow reflexes,, when tends to be one of the effects of Ataxic Cerebral Palsy
It wuz so easy to get to the boot menu on my old OptiPlex 755...just press F12 once as soon as the Dell logo comes up, the PC would beep, and the boot menu appears with options to boot to the HDD, optical drive, or USB device; or enter System Setup.
In addition to the problem mentioned above, the fact at there are only 3 rear USB ports, and an optical drive that ejects sideways (and yes, I realize I can lay the desktop on it's side, but I don't want to), I'm starting to regret this purchase, despite the fact that the HDD capacity is much larger. In fact, I'm thinking about restoring the factory installation, and then start using my OptiPlex again.
kirkd
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October 12th, 2014 19:00
Assuming you have Win 8.x. Win 8 does not shut down when you select Shut Down in the Charm Bar Power menu. It puts the computer into a hibernate mode, so when you restart, you are not getting a cold boot, necssary fo getting to the start-up functions, F2, F12, etc. THis type of shut-down results in FAST rerstarts. You need to do a Restart from the Power menuy, and then Win 8 will do a real shut down and then a Cold Boot, which will accept the Function key presses. There are other ways to get this to happen; search the Web. You can also get to the BIOS (UEFI) and other start-up functions by going to the Charm Bar, selectiong Change PC Settings, then Update and Recovery, then Recovery, then nAdvanced Start-up.
John Sellers
15 Posts
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October 12th, 2014 20:00
I did a complete shutdown by pressing the power button on the PC, and then a restart...didn't help.
Anyway, what power menu are you referring to? I use Win8.1 (which came pre-installed, BTW) in desktop mode w/ Classic Shell installed.
kirkd
5.2K Posts
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October 12th, 2014 23:00
The power icon in the Charm Menu or the Power Icon at the top right corner of the Start Screen.
John Sellers
15 Posts
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October 13th, 2014 16:00
Still didn't help.
I think I'm just gonna have to go back to using my Optiplex.