For some reason, the BIOS update disabled my SATA port setting it to '0' instead of '1', and I think this is the basic problem here.  My SATA is set at AHCI, but when I rebooted and hit F2 and tried to reset it to the other setting, I got a warning that my system might not be able to reboot.  But I can't automatically reboot to begin with!  I already set up the hard drive as the primary in the boot order, so would I do irreparable harm to my desktop if I change the SATA port to not be AHCI?:emotion-42:

Updating the BIOS, in addition to the update, resets the BIOS to the default settings.  SATA 0 is the normal boot port for most Dells.  If you had a specialized configuration to begin with, this can cause trouble.  A computer that is capable of RAID, for example, would need to have the boot order list the RAID as the boot device rather than a particular SATA port.

Changing the SATA controller to something other than AHCI should not lead to permanent damage, but your computer may not be able to boot, either.  Windows setup installs the controller for the mass storage device at the time of installation.  If the controller was in AHCI mode, that is the driver that gets installed.  If you now change it to something like RAID Autodetect/ATA, the driver in Windows will be incompatible with the SATA configuration and will not allow the computer to boot.

You need to find out what the computer is attempting to boot before it sees the hard drive.  Does your System Setup offer the option to boot from either SATA 0 or SATA 1?  Perhaps the computer is trying to boot from the empty optical drive.  Another possibility is that the computer is trying to boot from a USB device; that seems unlikely given you have placed the hard drive in the first boot position, but I don't see anything obvious from your description of the symptoms.

So how do I fix it so I don't have to press any key to start up Windows when I turn on the desktop?

The BIOS upgrade apparently set the default system to Win32 instead of the factory installed Win64.  The BIOS update folder is named 'B765JC49' (not sure if that information will help at all).  I just want it to boot up to Win64 instead of Win32.

Try restarting the computer and tapping F8 just before Windows begins to load.  Select "Startup Repair".  The type of problem you are describing has to do with Windows having the wrong boot path in its BCD file.

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