Contridiction

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December 22nd, 2014 17:00

General boot-up questions

I have been doing a little snooping around in my BIOS section, just trying to get familiar with everything, and I have a few questions, just some things I'm curious about. Not that I am going to change anything, I just like to know trivia type things. So if someone could explain these to me in everyday language I would really appreciate it.

1. Load Legacy option ROM

2. Computrace

3. There has been a couple of times that just before or just after the Dell logo screen I will get a error(?) "PXE ROM over IPV4 (or 6).

Also I am starting to do some research and making some list as I will eventually (when I feel I understand good enough) install Linux beside Windows 8.1, or I've thought about installing the Linux to an external USB 3.0 HDD, then just plug in and  F12 as needed, so I can boot that way. If anyone has any experience with this, and/or can give me some advice to think about I would appreciate it.  

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    Posted December 22nd, 2014 17:00

    Hey WT.PM,

    1. Load Legacy option ROM

    Enabling this will disable things like AHCI & RAID, which I wouldn't recommend on newer systems with UEFI instead of BIOS. And I believe, from your description, your system has a UEFI

    2. Computrace

    This is a security feature of your system, if you subscribe to the service or you/your IT group supports it. Essentially this will locate your computer if it is lost or stolen the next time it connects to the internet. More info can be found on this Dell information page:
    http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/vsl-absolute 

    3. There has been a couple of times that just before or just after the Dell logo screen I will get a error(?) "PXE ROM over IPV4 (or 6).

    This is an odd one, I'm not sure right off hand what would cause this on such an inconsistent basis. But basically this error is telling you that it can't find a network device to boot to. Generally this is done in a corporate/enterprise environment, not a home environment. And it should only be prompting you to boot to the network if it's set before your hard drive as the primary boot device.

    Hope this helps clear things up a bit!
    ~Jim

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    Posted December 22nd, 2014 21:00

    Jim, Thank You so much I understood every word, and understood good enough to put it into practice when looking at something else is either a dependant, or depends on that item. Then with the PXE rom error, I did notice somehow network boot was moved to the top of the list. So I'll just drop it down and that should fix it. 

    Again  thank you for you very well worded explanation so even dummies like me can understand.