Changing order of boot devices

It sounds like you've set up a supervisor password on the BIOS. You need to enter the Supervisor password to change the BIOS config.

There was no supervisor password set when I first encountered the problem. I set one up to see if this would make any difference, and I am now prompted to enter it when I enter the BIOS setup, but I am still not permitted to change the order of boot devices. I am able to change other things within the BIOS settings but not the order of boot devices. It's strange, I know.

Have you tried resetting the BIOS?

I presume by that you mean choosing to restore factory settings when I exit the BIOS setup. No, I didn't try that. Is it safe to do this? I don't have a floppy drive nor the facility to make a boot diskette on a CD.

What chapmasj is referring to, is just factory default settings, it will not change your BIOS Version but will reset boot order to the way it left the factory, you will need to reset your date and time and any other BIOS Setup options you want different.

Okay, I tried that but no success. Restored default configuration (twice) and it is still trying to boot from non-existent removable device rather than HD. Maybe that was the default factory setting (but I can't think why). Strangely, resetting the BIOS did not change the date or time on the machine. Still faced with the inability to change order of boot devices from within BIOS setup due to apparently being stuck in 'user' mode. Any ideas as how to get myself into 'supervisor' mode? There are no user or supervisor passwords set. Am running BIOS version A03. 

Sorry but I don't know how to make you a "Supervisor". :)

That Boot first from 'floppy' would be a standard setting, does not mean that it won't boot
on the next drive if there is not an 'A' Drive connected with a boot disk, just that it will be the first place it looks, and if you have an 'A' Drive connected, with a diskette "other than a 'boot' disk" it then will make you eject that diskette before continuing.

This order is set as default, as older versions of Windows were "recovered" by booting from 'floppy' cassettes and Antivirus repair also began with 'bootable floppys', even Dell Diagnostics began by booting to their 'floppy'.

Boot order settings in BIOS are just the order of where it will look, lot of people change it to HD first (or "only") in order to save time (the few seconds it takes to look at an empty "Diskette Drive" on each boot. It should still boot on the first "Available" boot device it finds, when set for 'floppy' first.

Thanks for the explanation. I guess that leaves me stumped as to why the OS isn't booting up in the standard way. Directly after the system information appears the screen goes blank and hangs with a flashing cursor in the top left corner. It seems like it looks for a removable device from which to boot and then gets stuck when it realises there isn't one, rather than doing what you said it should do which is to move on to the next device in the list. Thus, the only way to get the OS to load is to bring up the boot menu while the BIOS is still loading and skip that first device. Maybe a hardware problem.

I have the same problem with several Latitudes I am working on. Strangely I have also had this problem on some thinkpads. Changing the boot order did fix it on the thinkpad.
I am not sure but I think you need to use the Dell Open Manage solution to access the BIOS via supervisor mode. Or it may be that you can enter supervisor mode when your press fn-f1 while windows is running. Unfortunately I think you need to have the dell utility partition on your hd for that function to work.

2 Hours later I found the answer elsewhere on the forums. Flashing the BIOS with the boot floppy disk solves the problem. The newer version of the BIOS is A09. I think mine had version A07 on it. After the flash the PC boots normally and you can also edit the boot device sequence.