Pressing F8 at startup does nothing -- issue with latest BIOS firmware? (Dell Studio 1537) [SOLVED]

Factory Restore using VISTA

If you altered the Master Boot Record (MBR) this will render the function useless. I am think this is what you did.

Cheers Davet50 for your reply.

I should point out that I had this laptop for just over three weeks only, and I hardly installed anything on it. In fact, I hardly used it the first week because the screen was defective; the second week the laptop was in for repair; the third week is when I slowly started looking at it.

At one point, I changed the boot order in the BIOS, I'll grant you that. But that shouldn't affect the MBR, see e.g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Boot_sequence_on_standard_PC_.28IBM-PC_compatible.29

So, I can only think of four possibilities:

1. the technician who replaced my LCD screen altered the MBR (why would he have needed to do that?)

2. one of the two applications I installed altered the MBR: either firefox (surely not!) or AVG antivirus

3. one of the Windows Vista updates altered the MBR

4. the F8 option was never there in the first place

The laptop manual does mention that Dell Factory Image Restore may not be available in certain countries (I bought my laptop from Dell Switzerland, but the order was processed by Dell Germany, and the laptop was delivered from somewhere in Poland), but I chatted with a tech support guy on Dell Chat, and he did not make any mention of this utility not being available. (He only said that if F8 doesn't work, the partition must be corrupted, which I believe I disproved by restoring the image as described in the original post -- only the F8 link seems to be missing.)

Any further thoughts?

By the way, according to forum member JackShack in the thread below,

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19254952.aspx,

restoring the image from the hard disk should restore the F8 option (and I believe that my slightly different, but simpler, approach is essentially the same).

Thanks for any further comments.

Well, well... It turns out that the F8 option was there all along, and that the problem was the timing with pressing the F8 key.

Quoting DELL-Larry R from the thread "F8 at boot will not work" (http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19176779.aspx):

Are you hitting F8 at the correct time?   F2 and F12 need to be pressed while the Dell splash screen is being displayed, just after powering on the computer.  To get to the Windows start up options, however, you need to press the F8 key after the Dell splash screen, but before you get the "Windows is starting" message.

Dell chaps, fix the instructions booklet!

Actually you can start pressing the F8 while the Splash screen is on. You just have to tap it a few time rather than a once and done..

Actually you can start pressing the F8 while the Splash screen is on. You just have to tap it a few time rather than a once and done..

True... As long as you keep tapping after the splash screen is gone, and before the "Windows is loading" bar appears. Or at least that's how it works on my Studio 1537.

The Studio Setup Guide instead says:

[...] 1. Turn on the computer. When the Dell logo appears, press several times to access the Vista Advanced Boot Options Window. [...]

Anyway, I'm happy the issue is resolved for me, and that's what counts. :emotion-4: I just thought I'd leave a follow-up post to let know that the issue is resolved.