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XPS 8930, cannot enter BIOS, no splash screen
XPS 8930 connected to monitor via HDMI cable won't boot to the BIOS. The Dell splash screen never appears. F2 nor F12 work. It does boot fine to Windows 11. Boot is somewhat slower compared to a slightly newer laptop, but it does boot and run OK. I need to access the BIOS to add a SSD.
ctreenmn
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December 20th, 2021 20:00
Thanks again. I have looked earlier at the component list and it's nearly impossible to decipher it beyond the obvious. However a 3rd party utility, Belarc, indicates it has optane drives. Installing the Intel rst utility also seems to confirm that as well. This would also explain why it would not boot with the SSD removed.
Do you have any suggestions for free cloning software? I'm trying Windows backup, but am not sure if that will work on the restore end. The "free" options so far aren't really free.
Thanks
Chip
RoHe
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December 21st, 2021 10:00
So now you have to disable Optane using IRST before you clone the HDD.
Macrium Reflect (free) is an excellent app for cloning your HDD onto the new SSD. Pay attention to the instructions at the cloning link to increase the size of the C: partition, if the SSD is larger than the HDD you're cloning onto it.
ctreenmn
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December 21st, 2021 11:00
After disabling Optane, how are the boot files originally on optane, moved to c: so it will be bootable again? Is that part of the disabling process or the command line instructions you sent earlier?
I did download Macrium and it does appear to be functional.
Thanks
RoHe
10 Elder
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43.7K Posts
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December 21st, 2021 18:00
Follow the steps to "disable Optane cache" at the link I posted above. It will change things so Windows doesn't look for files on Optane. Confirm the Optane status is now "disabled" (or possibly "inactive") in IRST before going any further.
After Optane is disabled:
The commands I posted above are to change Windows and BIOS from RAID to AHCI, but you don't have to do that until after you clone the HDD onto the new SSD
Once you're sure everything is working after booting from the new SSD via the F12 menu, several times, use Disk Management to initialize the HDD. Then reboot normally. Now use those commands above to change Windows and BIOS from RAID to AHCI, as the final step in the entire process.