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January 25th, 2016 06:00
How do I see BIOS/UEFI settings under Windows 10?
I have a Dell Precision M4700 running Windows 10. I am investigating two issues both of which require access to BIOS (or is it UEFI?) settings:
- The machine came with a 750 Gb hard drive which I have cloned to a 480 Gb Samsung SSD. I naively assumed the SSD is simply a plug-in replacement, and indeed it works, though the results (boot times for example) haven't blown me away. But from reading stuff on the web it is starting to look like I need to tell the BIOS that the I/O rate has gone up. Why oh why?
- I have been running an Oracle VirtualBox for ages, to run an Ubuntu guest. Suddenly, out of the blue, the VM won't start up, complaining that VT-x isn't enabled.
My attempts to investigate have been thwarted by Windows 10's maddening inability to let me get into the BIOS by pressing F10 during the boot. And though I have carefully followed the long list of steps needed to get into an equivalent position, at no stage does the promised "UEFI Firmware Settings" prompt appear. How do I do it?
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LSUFAN51
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January 25th, 2016 14:00
:emotion-2:
Please power on laptop, quickly tap the F2 key continuously. You should be in the BIOS. You can also go to Setting, Update And Recovery, Restart now, Advance Startup. After the PC restarts, click/tap on Troubleshoot.Click/tap on Advanced options and then UEFI Firmware Settings.Please click link below:
www.tenforums.com/.../5831-uefi-firmware-settings-boot-inside-windows-10-a.html
PTWallace
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January 26th, 2016 00:00
Thanks LSUFAN51. I had tried those procedures already without success. But there turned out to be one vital extra step. Before intercepting the boot with F2 would work, it was necessary to go to Control Panel / Power options / Choose what the power buttons do / Shutdown settings and uncheck "Turn on fast startup". How users are supposed to know this stuff is beyond me..
Having intercepted the boot, what seem to be old-school BIOS settings appeared, rather than any newfangled UEFI stuff. These revealed (a) that the virtualization stuff was all enabled (just as I expected), with no mention of VT-x anywhere, and (b) the SATA settings showed RAID On rather than AHCI or ATA or Disabled.
To get my VirtualBox Ubuntu host back to life involved another trip into the Unknown Region, in the form of going to Control Panel / Programs and Features / Turn Windows features on or off and unckecking the box "Hyper-V". What is causing this setting to change I do not know.
I have yet to pluck up the courage to set my SATA SDD into AHCI mode. I see that various registry entries that are needed seem already to be present, so maybe it will just work...
(Note added later: I set the SATA mode in the BIOS to AHCI and seem to have got away with it.)