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40767
September 22nd, 2014 01:00
Vostro 1450 always booting to Boot Manager with no timeout and lots of beeping
Problems discussed in this thread:
- Vostro 1450 always booting to Windows Boot Manager.
- No timeout in Windows Boot Manager.
- Lots of beeping in Windows Boot Manager
- "Do you want to change the colour scheme to improve performance" pop-up keeps appearing
- "Windows Help And Support" pop-up keeps appearing
- Some keys not working on keyboard
- Fn+F2 enable/disable wifi doing strange things
A friend's Vostro 1450 (which used to boot automatically into Windows 7) is now always going straight to Windows Boot Manager and there's lots of beeping. Here's what I see and hear:
- I turn on the laptop and the Dell logo screen with the F2 Setup and F12 Boot Options appears.
- Then the screen goes black and the underline cursor appears top left, jumps down a couple of lines, goes "beep...beep..." (I can't tell whether it's one or two beeps before...
- ...the Windows Boot Manager appears and the beeps become rapid "beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-etc". The beeps don't stop until I hit a key - I've only tried hitting spacebar (just stops the beeping), tab (select Windows Memory Diagnostics), and enter (boot Windows 7)
On the Windows Boot Manager there is only one boot option (Windows 7), and there is NO timeout/countdown message. I.e. this is what I see:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Windows Boot Manager
Choose an operating system to start, or press TAB to select a tool:
(Use the arrow keys to highlight your choice, then press ENTER. )
Windows 7 >
To specify an advanced option for this choice, press F8.
Tools:
Windows Memory Diagnostic
ENTER=Choose TAB=Menu ESC=Cancel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've tried setting the timeout to 5 seconds (and disabling it to automatically boot) using all three methods in this article http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2285-operating-system-start-change-display-list-time.html (i.e. using Start and Recovery, msconfig, and bcdedit) but none of them have any effect. There is still NO timeout in the Windows Boot Manager.
I've also reset the BIOS to default settings and that made no difference. F2 Setup gives me "Dell Inc. Aptio Setup Utility - American Megatrends Inc" with BIOS version A03, Product Name Dell Vostro 1450. I've looked up the BIOS beep codes ( http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm) and it may be that the first one/two beeps indicate a memory fault?
But I also tried running the Windows Memory Diagnostic from the Boot Manager - it told me that no problems were found.
(There are two other problems on this laptop which may or may not be related (causes/symptoms?): (1) The keyboard has a problem - 2, w, s, x and the arrow keys don't work. An external USB keyboard gets round that. (2) shortly after booting into Windows 7 there's a a windows alert dialogue "Do you want to change the colour scheme to improve performance", which keeps popping up, and performance is indeed poor, making the laptop almost unuseable)
(EDIT: There's a third problem that I remembered in the third post. (3) Occasionally the "Windows Help And Support" menu suddenly pops up for no reason)
TIA...
pete3691
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September 22nd, 2014 01:00
I found a similar 'no timeout/countdown' problem (without any beeps) on a dual-boot Windows 7/8 system mentioned here http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/13609-dual-boot-no-timeout-legacy-bootloader.html but no real hints there. Although I did run "bcdedit /enum all" and noticed the following two entries in the results:
...
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}
...
The "badmemory" bit caught my eye (although it's probably a red herring, and may not actually indicate bad memory?). But with one/two POST beeps possibly indicating a memory fault I decided to simply check that the memory module hadn't worked loose. Since the memory module on the 1450 is under the keyboard I read the manual, watched a few videos, and tried to remove the keyboard (after unplugging, removing the battery, disconnecting peripherals, and pressing the power button, as per the manual of course!).
I just couldn't remove the keyboard! So I gave up and my friend decided to take it to a repair shop (it's just out of warranty).
But just to check that I hadn't broken anything in my failed keyboard removal attempts we turned it on.
Yes, you've guessed - it booted straight into Windows 7 with no beeping, it seems to run normally, and we haven't seen that "Do you want to change the colour scheme to improve performance" windows alert dialogue yet. I rebooted a few times just to check and it seems fine so far. Going to play with it a bit tonight.
pete3691
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September 23rd, 2014 21:00
Main Problems Seem To Be Resolved - Now Just A Keyboard-Related Problem
(It appears that the jiggling that the computer received while I was attempting to remove the keyboard - or perhaps just the removal and reconnection of the battery? - got rid of the beeping and booting to Windows Boot Manager, so maybe it was a dodgy connection, or even just dirt inside? I don't really know)
After my failed attempts to remove the keyboard to check the memory and keyboard connections the main problem(s) no longer seem to occur. The laptop now boots straight into Windows 7 as it used to do, without any beeping. In addition the 2, w, s, x and arrow keys work, and the "Do you want to change the colour scheme to improve performance" pop-up no longer appears.
The remaining problem appears to be an intermittent connection related problem with the keyboard, with two symptoms that I've identified:
a) Occasionally the "Windows Help And Support" menu suddenly pops up for no reason. My guess is that the system thinks that the hotkey "WindowsKey+F1" has been pressed.
b) When I press Fn+F2 to enable/disable wifi I get the internal/external monitor selection pop-up (as if I've pressed Fn+F1) and the selected item changes as if the right arrow key was being pressed every 1/3rd of a second (if the right arrow key was stuck down it would change much faster than this - I tested on another identical system).
I've suggested two alternatives to my friend (three if you include getting the keyboard replaced - the laptop's out of warranty and a replacement keyboard is rather expensive). Either buy an external USB keyboard and use that (on the basis that simply tapping on the laptop keyboard may be enough to cause the glitches), or take it to a shop and get them to check/reconnect the keyboard.
Any other thoughts or suggestions?
pete3691
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September 23rd, 2014 21:00
When I got home I rebooted and did a bit of playing - everything seemed fine, even most of the keyboard.
- All the letter, number, punctuation, and arrow keys worked (I checked byI simply typing into notepad and using the arrow keys to move the cursor around).
But there was an odd problem with the orange function key for enabling/disabling wifi (Fn+F2). When I pressed it I got the internal/external monitor selection pop-up (which should be Fn+F1), and it was as if the right arrow key was being pressed every 1/3rd of a second (i.e. the selected option was cycling through all four options). Hitting ESC got me out of that. (I didn't check any other function keys, but see later)
I then spent the early evening running antivirus/antimalware (Trend Micro Housecall, Windows Defender, Malwarebytes, and Avast) and everything looks clean.
Then I let my friend play with it again for the rest of the evening. No real problems. But two things happened:
- 1) They were able to use Fn+F2 to turn the wifi on and off.
- 2) The "Windows Help And Support" menu suddenly popped up for no reason. My friend said that had happened before, and I recalled seeing it when I was first asked to look at the computer (I'll add that to the first post). My immediate thought was 'hotkeys', so I checked and 'WindowsKey+F1' would cause this.
So I'd guess that there's an intermittent connection problem with the keyboard?